BBQ Wood Chunks

[HughiusMaximus]

Evening all,

Any recommendations for BBQ wood chunks to use in a ceramic cooker?

I used to get proq chunks in 4kg boxes as they don't have any bark, which I think leads to a more controlled burn.

They don't seem to do that any more though and now it's a more limited selection in 1kg bags.

Any recommendations please?

[ATG]

Excuse my ignorance, but is this for creating smoke?

[craig1912]

If you are talking about a Kamado I just use Weber chunks. They don’t have any bark.

[HughiusMaximus]

ATG said:

Excuse my ignorance, but is this for creating smoke?

Yup, cooking is mainly done using lumpwood charcoal but wood chunks (oak, hickory, apple etc) is added for flavour.

[HughiusMaximus]

craig1912 said:

If you are talking about a Kamado I just use Weber chunks. They don’t have any bark.

Interesting, when I bought weber chunks previously they had bark on it, maybe it's changed since.

[andybebop]

Although the illustration shows bark I have never found any on the chunks. Very evenly sized so good for repeatable results.
https://amzn.eu/d/0sQpOMx

[oddman]

I've used this chap. Big box of the three main woods available in the UK (oak cherry and apple) plus some exotics thrown in. Good value.

Haven't made an order recently as I always seem to know someone with a bit of wood to scrounge.

For kamado I would recommend using well seasoned pieces in big chunks. You can split these down with an axe to have a variety of lager (1-2" thickness) pieces and a variety of chippings. Let these soak in water for as long as possible.

Then distribute these around the charcoal when you are closing the kamado for heating up. If you use chips, these could be burnt away before you even put the meat in. A variety of sizes means there's something burning during the whole of the cooking time.

[ATG]

HughiusMaximus said:

ATG said:

Excuse my ignorance, but is this for creating smoke?

Yup, cooking is mainly done using lumpwood charcoal but wood chunks (oak, hickory, apple etc) is added for flavour.

Righto. I bought a load of hickory chips for that some time ago, but typically just raid the log pile for oak, cherry and birch. We don't tend to get much apple in our fire wood, given where we are. Quick wack with a hatchet into 1x1 pieces, and off we go.

[The Gauge]

I have a whole wood store of apple, from felling a neighbours Bramley apple tree for them earlier this year. I'm reserving lots of it for smoking on the bbq as it seems a shame to burn it on the log burner.

[UTH]

For some reason the variety pack that I bought isn't available, but I use these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exstream-Apple-Wood-Chunk...

[Sway]

Have a look on Facebook marketplace.

I found a local guy selling big net sacks of oak, apple, cherry and beech for peanuts in comparison to the 'brands', huge seasoned splits that I split further into 3"ish strips and then put in the ash drawer.

Lots of clean smoke, and much longer burn.

[HughiusMaximus]

Thanks for the suggestions all.

I'll dig around marketplace but certainly some solid options to fall back to if needed.

[The Gauge]

Is bark on the wood not a good things when smoking?

[Sway]

The Gauge said:

Is bark on the wood not a good things when smoking?

Tbh, in my experience it doesn't make much difference - but the bark won't provide the same flavour profile to the smoke, and will likely burn off quickly potentially giving a more acrid taste to the meat.

[HughiusMaximus]

Just my opinion, but in a kamado style cooker doing low and slow cooks I like my smoking wood to smolder, not fully catch light so it give a smaller steadier amount of smoke for a longer period (I dont believe in soaking the wood in water first as I think it makes fore a more acrid smoke).

I find the bark is more likely to catch fire which then burns the wood quickly.

Its more relevant for cookers where you have limited access to the firebowl, probably less important for others.

[Sway]

HughiusMaximus said:

Just my opinion, but in a kamado style cooker doing low and slow cooks I like my smoking wood to smolder, not fully catch light so it give a smaller steadier amount of smoke for a longer period (I dont believe in soaking the wood in water first as I think it makes fore a more acrid smoke).

I find the bark is more likely to catch fire which then burns the wood quickly.

Its more relevant for cookers where you have limited access to the firebowl, probably less important for others.

Agreed - that's why I don't put the wood in with my lump wood, but instead underneath in the ash tray of the Kamado Joe. Think that only works if you've got a charcoal basket though.

[HughiusMaximus]

Yeah wood in the ash drawer is a good hack, I find at times though unless you are running a hotter fire you dont generate enough embers in the ash drawer to impact a solid piece of wood.

I like to put around 4 smaller pieces of smoking wood beneath the charcoal, light the charcoal towards the front of the basket and then as time goes by it burns towards the other pieces of wood over the course of a few hours.

I'll put wood chips in the ash drawer to top up as needed.

[omniflow]

There's loads of youtube videos on all aspects of BBQ smoking, some very interesting, some diabolical and some just very boring. There's a series where they do side-by-side comparisons using 2 identical Kamados and 2 very similar pieces of meat. The three that were most interesting to me covered the soaking in water of the smoking wood, the positioning of the smoking wood in the basket and the length of time where smoke had an impact on the end result.

Conclusions (as I remember them) were:

Soaking makes pretty much no difference - soak a wood chunk in water for 24 hours and then saw it in half. The water has penetrated by about 2mm. On top of this, it made no difference to the end result.

Positioning of wood - putting wood in the bottom of the charcoal basket was found to be best, and then light the charcoal from the top.

Length of time - smoke only has an impact for the first 3 - 4 hours - after that the smoke ring doesn't get any deeper and the flavour doesn't improve.

However, the above are all the conclusions of people I don't know from Adam but the comparisons did look to have been done with some attempt at removing any bias. They make sense to me and whilst I used to soak my wood chunks, I don't bother any more.