Adding chunks or chips during cook.

30yearegger

Has anyone come up with any tricks for adding chips or chunks during a cook?

JohnInCarolina

You can do all sorts of things, but the utility is questionable on all but a few cases. Most meat stops absorbing the smoke once the temp gets above like 140 I think.

gdenby

If you are cooking low and slow, the Egg has such good air flow control that it is almost ompossible for the wood to burn. After an initial period when steam comes off, the wood then just breaks down into gasses that are mostly invisible. Assuming there were chips or chunks mixed thru the lump at the start, there will be "smoke" flavors during the entire cook.

gdenby

JohnInCarolina said:

You can do all sorts of things, but the utility is questionable on all but a few cases. Most meat stops absorbing the smoke once the temp gets above like 140 I think.

Not to disagree, but the thing that stops at 140 is smoke ring formation. As long as there is moisture from the surface to the interior of the meat, the smoke chemicals will continue to penetrate. Once the outside becomes dessicated, the smoke just sits on the surface, altho' some will drift off. The flavor accumulation is not so great as at the beginning, but it does continue.

JohnInCarolina

gdenby said:

JohnInCarolina said:

You can do all sorts of things, but the utility is questionable on all but a few cases. Most meat stops absorbing the smoke once the temp gets above like 140 I think.

Not to disagree, but the thing that stops at 140 is smoke ring formation. As long as there is moisture from the surface to the interior of the meat, the smoke chemicals will continue to penetrate. Once the outside becomes dessicated, the smoke just sits on the surface, altho' some will drift off. The flavor accumulation is not so great as at the beginning, but it does continue.

Thanks for clarifying that. I think you're right. So long as the concentration of smoke in the egg is above that of the meat, it will continue to take it up.

dlk7

As long as you put chunks throughout the lump, you should never have to add wood.

30yearegger

I put it in as I load the lump but sometimes it seems like I just don,t get the ring I'm looking for.

Acorn

+1 on mixing the wood chunks in with the lump. I use "chunks" not chips. 

SmokinOutBack

Through experience, I've learned that if you place the wood chunks in the correct places you'll never need to add any more, no matter what you're cooking. I wasn't used to that from smoking on kettles for years.

caliking

The trick is to not do it. I never understood why folks use chips or why they add them mid cook. Add as many chunks as your palate prefers at the start and you'll be good. And don't worry about soaking the chunks either. Soaking probably helps when cooking with gas.

plumbfir01

Depending on your setup, I use a woo and raised cooking grid (adj rig) and use small chips throughout the burn. The large chunks (usually apple) will be placed in different areas of the lump before lighting...

To place my chips during the cook, i take a paper towel roll and almost flatten it so it can hold a bunch of chips and feed it between the ceramic stone and the fire ring allowing it to slide right into the middle of the fire. I used to do the same thing with a platesetter and a regular grid, just had to rempve the meat grates and then do the "chip slide" down between the PS

plumbfir01

btw i only add cherry chips on certain cooks. I like the apple chunks but sometimes the firehouse guys want more/more/more smoke so i add the cherry early cook after first bit burns off.