Help me use wood chunks!

Here is how I use wood.....I start with Mesquite lump and add a lot of wood and chips.....no pre-burn Click link....http://jvp.smugmug.com/Barbeque. "Starting Fire for the "EGG""

I throw all the chips or chunks in when I start.  Mix them up.  I've had some nasty smoke flavors when throwing fresh wood on the coals right before adding the meat.  A little bit of wood is fine, but having the established fire, including smoke wood, in my opinion, gives you better quality smoke flavor.   I could get scientific about it, but I'm just going to turn people off.

SunDeviledEgg said:

nolaegghead said:

I throw all the chips or chunks in when I start.  Mix them up.  I've had some nasty smoke flavors when throwing fresh wood on the coals right before adding the meat.  A little bit of wood is fine, but having the established fire, including smoke wood, in my opinion, gives you better quality smoke flavor.   I could get scientific about it, but I'm just going to turn people off.

I wouldn't mind hearing the science behind it, if you don't mind.

When I was in college getting my chemistry degree, we had one lab where we put wood in a test tube, heated it up under a flame and, in an oxygen free environment (which would simulate wood heated but not on fire) captured the VOCs - volatile organic carbon - that came from the wood.  Eventually, the wood would become like charcoal. 

We analyzed the test tube of liquid gook.  It smelled foul, like petroleum or coal.  It wasn't lovely smelling like a bottle of liquid smoke.  The decomposition of wood with heat is called pyrolysis. And the gook that smells bad can make food smell bad.  Bad smelling food makes bad tasting food.  This is related to getting "good" smoke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolysis

Another by-product, and one that smells like creosote, are PAHs. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycyclic_aromatic_hydrocarbon

These can be minimized by letting the fire establish.  I've ruined food by throwing in big chunks of tree on a hot fire, where that wood basically undergoes pyrolysis.  In small amounts, no problem, but by letting the fire establish, the vapor from the smoke wood is minimal, and is burned, largely, in the fire.  The good stuff makes the nice smoky flavor. 

The egg can exacerbate the amount of bad chemicals because it's a very closed environment, unlike the "stick burners" where there's a lot of bypass air to dilute the VOCs.

Anyway, I urge you to experiment, I have, and learn from your technique.

On my gasser or Weber, if you didn't see the smoke it was not smoking. Egg smoke is best like Cen Tex says, smelled but not seen. 

you got it!

Jeremiah said:

"The closed environment of the egg vs stick burners" is this why we can't burn only wood chunks as stick burners do?

Yep.  There's a lot more "bypass" air in a stick burner that dilutes the pyrolysis gasses.  I tried burning pure oak in my egg to cook pizza.  Figured I'd let it ash over and I cook pizza hot - 600-700F.  Still had an almost overwhelming smoke flavor, bordered on the unpleasant.  Pizza was still good, but it's the only explanation that makes sense, since the wood fired pizza oven burns pure wood, usually oak.

@bicktrav, The egg's limited air flow does not let the smoke wood flare (unless you open the dome) it is also why you can use chips, spread thru the lump and get good smoke flavour. 

nolaegghead said:

Jeremiah said:

"The closed environment of the egg vs stick burners" is this why we can't burn only wood chunks as stick burners do?

Yep.  There's a lot more "bypass" air in a stick burner that dilutes the pyrolysis gasses.  I tried burning pure oak in my egg to cook pizza.  Figured I'd let it ash over and I cook pizza hot - 600-700F.  Still had an almost overwhelming smoke flavor, bordered on the unpleasant.  Pizza was still good, but it's the only explanation that makes sense, since the wood fired pizza oven burns pure wood, usually oak.

Yes but in a pizza oven the wood is beside the pie and vents through the top