POLL: Wood or no wood

[jasonevans84]

I don't use wood, every time I add some I always get a bitter taste no matter what type of wood... Has anyone else experienced this?

[EdF]

Guess it depends on what your cooker is and how you're handling the fire and the wood.

[Steve R.]

Me too, jasonevans84. And I was using cherry and wild plum.

[cgrover60]

The cool thing is the PBC creates a unique flavor profile all on it's own without added wood that is very good but different than charcoal in other cookers. Once you are used to this sure by all means kick it up with a bit of added wood. I cook with and without wood depending on my mood and have never been disappointed.

[flyv65]

This right here: the PBC doesn't taste like a briquette burner, and has a nice, smoke flavor. That being said, i bury an 8 to 10 oz hunk of good applewood in the center of the basket for almost every smoke, and never wind up disappointed. is it a huge difference? Not at all, much more subtle...but noticeable!

[Steve R.]

Now that I have a few PBC cooks under my belt, I will say without question, no wood. I had 3 racks of BBR and a chicken in there most recently and wanted to kick it up a notch with the smoke flavor by adding a cherry chunk and then later a wild plum. The heavy and bitter smoke that resulted was not at all what I expected. I burped smoke rings for a couple of days after eating what was otherwise still pretty darned good ribs and chicken. No more of that for me.

[adamjs83]

I've been using wood and have not had the experience of bitter smoke.

[JeffJ]

Yeah, you really shouldn't need much wood given that the meat drippings create grill smoke.

[PappyBBQ]

I use wood chunks and "start" them in the chimney with the charcoal. They are blazing when they go into the basket and provide very nice smoke to the start of the cook.