Soaking wood chunks in WINE???

Botch

Am watching Steve Raichlen's new Barbeque University on PBS, and he's spit-roasting a turkey over charcoal.  The smoking wood he soaked in wine, which sounds like an expensive proposition and I'd doubt that burned wine gives any positive flavors.

However, I'm curious.  Has anyone here tried that?  I know this is mostly a "no-soak" crowd... 

 

(his turkey looked marvelous, by the way)   

:-bd

Acn

Don't think I'd soak the wood chips in wine, seems a waste of time and wine.

SGH

There are a few schools of thought on this. Allow me to share my findings if I may. If allowed to soak long enough to throughly saturate the wood through and through, then the soaking medium will impart a faint hint to the meat. Example- Jack Daniels Chips. But remember these chips are made from casks that have housed the famous elixir for years, not a few minutes or hours. They are totally saturated. A easier way to pick up the flavor of the liquid is to marinate the meat for a few hours in the liquid instead of soaking the wood in it for years. Just my thoughts my friend.

shtgunal3

I prefer to soak my liver.

Carolina Q

I would think it would be like beer canning a chicken with actual beer... pointless. If you want to taste the wine, put it in the food, not the wood.

My BIL gave me his copy of the BBQ Bible. Said it sucked, but I could have it if I wanted to give it a try. I tried 2 or 3 of Raichlen's ideas. That was 2 or 3 too many. BIL was right. I won't even watch Raichlen's show. Surely he must have a few good ideas, but I'm not trying any more to find out.

lousubcap

You may get the aromatic effect if you were to use cheap wine in a drip pan or occasionally pour it over the target meat...I wouldn't waste my $$ on the trial but if gifted a cheap wine then I might give it a go as described above.  YMMV-

bud812

I take the easy way out, I bought a wine barrel from a local winery & cut it up into smoking size chunks. Can't taste the wine but I got about 50 lbs of oak smoking wood thats purple on one side. You can smell the wine in the smoke so I guess it does put some flavore in the meat but I can't taste it.