The headline pretty much speaks for itself. I am thinking about trying this sometime in the near future and am wondering if anyone else has done so. For those who answer "yes", any tips on technique would be greatly appreciated.
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Has Anyone Ever Cooked Solely With Wood Chunks in a Charcoal Cooker?
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I was wondering the same thing about the PBC, or the WSCGC, with and without the SnS, Jeff.
I found this on You Tube:
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My only comment is when I've tried to cook with wood chunks, since the majority you by in the bags is kiln dried, it burns much quicker and hotter than charcoal. You therefore have to baby sit the fire a lot more than you would with an equal amount of charcoal or lump. Think of it as a mini version of a stick burner, it has similar characteristics, at least when I've tried. Charcoal is a whole lot more forgiving and predictable.
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Not really. Think about it, you are creating a charcoal bed with the wood chunks which is really producing what? Charcoal. You then add fresh wood as you would in a conventional charcoal bed for wood smoke. See what I'm getting at? There really isn't a lot of advantage and you spend more time and money using all wood. Not knocking it just saying I stopped doing it.
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OK someone who is cooking with charcoal and wood chunks this week has to volunteer to do a side-by-side. I'm committed to the pellet pooper already this weekend...
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Hi, my name is Darrell. I'm an OTR truck driver for over 25 years. During my off time I love doing backyard cooks. I have a 48" Lang Deluxe smoker, Rec-Tec pellet smoker,1 Weber Genesis 330, 1 Weber Performer (blue), 2 Weber kettles (1 black and 1 Copper), 1 26" Weber kettle, a WSM, 8 Maverick Redi Chek thermometers, a PartyQ, 2 SnS, Grill Grates, Cast Iron grates, 1 ThermoPop (orange) and 2 ThermoPens (pink and orange) and planning on adding more cooking accessories. Now I have an Anova sous vide, the Dragon blower and 2 Chef alarms from Thermoworks.
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You could burn the chunks down to coals, but I think I would just buy a bag of lump charcoal and save myself some time and effort.
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I have, it's fun. Definitely more work than charcoal. And yes I think the taste is vastly different. When I did it I put probably 20 charcoal briquettes in a chimney and then I put several wood chunks on top of that to fill the chimney up half to two-thirds of the way then I lit the chimney with wood chunks on it in the standard fashion. Then I poured the wood chunks in the cooker, let them burn down even further while the kettle preheated, and then I put more wood chunks on and let them burn down and then started cooking. I did steaks & burgers and I've done other stuff with it before too, I wanna say chicken. I stopped doing that cuz it is more of a pain than just using charcoal. But it definitely can be done.
And Troutman brings up a good point, the bagged wood that you buy may or may not work well. Actually it should work, it'll just work differently. I used home cut apple chunks from one of the many trees in my yard.
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What if I put the food in the cooker before the wood was reduced to coals? What I'm thinking is maybe 3/4 of a compact chimney in the SnS and then cook indirect-reverse sear just like any other cook. I may have to try it Saturday and update this thread.
I am still hoping for others to chime in.
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I have cooked with hickory, apple, an mesquite chunks in my ol Sunbeam, my Kingsford, weber kettles, an WSMs.
I sawed th wood chunks from my log splits, so no kiln dried out storebought stuff, but several years seasoned.
It has provided a lot more flavour than charcoal alone, in my experiences...
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Ok, I can speak to this.
I've got a custom offset which for most of its life I have operated with just charcoal and wood chips and chunks. During a few really long smokes, I've run out of charcoal totally and started using JUST wood chunks - either fruit wood (apple) bought from the store, or oak from my wood pile. The wood chunks have the tendency to combust into open flames in the firebox, and increase the temperature of the fire dramatically more than adding charcoal.
I would think twice before loading up either my Weber kettle (SNS) or PBC with *just* wood alone, as it is going to be hard to control the fire once the wood bursts into flames, and you will find yourself closing all the vents to get the temperature and fire back under control. With the PBC, the flames from an all wood fire could become a big problem for burning your meat.
Just my 2 cents. To burn *JUST* wood in the offset, I have to make a much smaller fire than I would with charcoal, and feed the fire just a stick or two at a time. I think the same would be true in a kettle or PBC. It will require a ton of babysitting versus charcoal with just a few wood chunks mixed in.
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Interesting this thread came up. It’s one of my reasons for purchasing the M1 grill from M Grills in Texas which is due to arrive tomorrow afternoon! The M1 can be used for charcoal cooking and in addition has a firebox for woodburning/smoking. I really like the design and am looking forward to putting the cooker through the paces so to speak.
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