Using Wood for Fuel

BigGreenBBQ · April 2013

Does anyone use hardwood chunks or small logs for fuel in the egg instead of using lump? I am not talking about adding some chunks of wood for smoke -- I mean using it as your only fuel source (no lump). If so how do you do it without it creating a ton of smoke? Any dangers in cooking this way? I cannot image it would make the egg too hot though I can see it burning the original gasket if the egg remains open.

Mickey · April 2013

First question would be why.... Also think the amount of ash buildup would be great.

BigGreenBBQ · April 2013

I dunno why -- cause I have a ton of wood I guess. I have heard of people using just wood like in a wood fired BBQ pit so I figured I could do the same on the egg. I imagine it would be for short cooks like steak or chicken. Maybe I could even snuff out the fire well enough after to create some lump!

caliking · April 2013

I think you could get it pretty darn hot with wood only. I broke my tandoor some time ago by filling it up with wood and letting it rip (just felt like burning something that day). It shouldn't produce that much ash.

But again I'm not sure why you would want to. It may be hard to regulate temps since choking off the air intake would likely lead to incomplete combustion of the wood. Not so great for bbq, but you could end up making charcoal.

Z_Eggineer · April 2013

I think the Naked Whiz has a write-up about this. You could do that, but not necessarily cheap (depending on where you get your wood). If too low, might make too much smoke. (I hear stick burners take a good amount of skill). Also, I know oak can provide HUGE heat spikes. In conclusion, you could do it, but there are other things you could do with it that might be more productive. (Gifts for fellow smokers, make charcoal, make more bbq)

gdenby · April 2013

If wood was used, it would have to burn down to mostly coals before the food went on. Otherwise, too many nasty volatiles in the smoke. And by that time, the Egg's ceramics would be hot enough that lo-n-slo would be out of the question.

I've read that some people who use offsets do pre-burn their wood, and only load in the coals. And once, I came across a design for a pit where there were 2 chambers, side by side. One chamber was just for burning the wood, the other had the cooking surface above where the burning coals were shoveled in from the other side.

MrCookingNurse · April 2013

Why fix something that ain't broke?? I see a lot more problems than good that would come out of this. Plus, an egg loaded with logs is far from an offset trailer smoker. Those things are a whole Different beast, very hard to control, and a lot more going on than wood on fire in a box.

svendangle · April 2013

I wouldnt suggest it. It would be very messy and a pain to maintain temp

Skiddymarker · April 2013

We've been through this before here, Stike had the best answer (which I can't find), but I think @gdenby captured it.

The egg is meant to be used with the dome closed and the air flow restricted to produce an optimum temp. If wood smoulders there is too many VOCs until it becomes charcoal.

The Naked Whiz · April 2013

Z_Engineer was right. I have tried this and it is definitely not a good idea. One of two things happens if you close the dome and try to use wood. Either the wood gets hot enough to ignite and you have tremendous heat, or if you close down the vents to restrict airflow and put the flames out, you get smoldering which produces mass quantities of smoke and creosote. After an hour or so, the top of my small cooker was creosoted (new word?) to the dome. I was luck to get it off without destroying the dome. If you want to cook with wood, you need to do what the big boys do at the real BBQ restaurnats do. Burn the wood down to coals in another vessel, and then you can keep adding coals to your Egg for the duration of the cook.

The Naked Whiz · April 2013

I suppose I should also point to this: Can I Burn Wood In A Ceramic Cooker?

Using Wood for Fuel

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