To me, the reason to put chunks under the charcoal, and even under the charcoal grate in some smokers like the Kamado Joe or the WSM, is to get cleaner smoke.
Its the same reasoning as to why gravity feeds produce clean smoke. The inventor of gravity feeds, is Walter " Stump " McDowell. He make Stumps GF smokers. He says the wood smoke has to " pass through super heated air " in the coal bed and that high heat cleans the impurities from the smoke.
About 4 years ago, I found a Masterbuilt 560 on sale at WalMart for $150. I was expecting white billowing dirty smoke, similar to what we see when firing up a charcoal chimney. And I got just the opposite. It produces clean thin blue. Stump is right.
I was so impressed, I sold the MB and bought an Assassin GF. I get set and forget ease with smoke very close to stickburner smoke.
I can't see any reason why putting wood chunks down below a coal bed, so the smoke has to rise up through the bed, would not produce cleaner smoke.
Well ding dang, here we are 6 years later and we’re still talkin bout wood chunks! And who am I to argue with a guy named Stump! If Stump tells me where to put anything made of wood I’m a listenin. Unless I am to lazy and do not want to git my hands dirty from handlin the charcoal, then I’m listenin to Pigpen, yessir!
Yeah, its a six year old post. But since this thread came into being, Masterbuilt has introduced gravity feed smokers to many many more people. Before, they were just not affordable options for most anybody except serious competition cooks.
And all ya gotta do is cook on a GF, and ya wonder how its generating that good thin blue clean smoke.
Stump made that comment in an episode of BBQ Pitmasters. Stump was a HVAC guy, so he understood air flow, and he's very well known serious comp cook in Georgia.
The only problem I see with putting wood chunks under the charcoal grate is when using the Minion Method. I've not messed with it enough on my WSM to see if that works.
Pit master Harry Soo put his wood chunks under his charcoal in his WSM. Today I'm going to smoke some ribs and a Boston butt on the Bronco. I think I'll try some under my charcoal to see what happens. As always, YMMV.
I’ve done wood chunks under the charcoal many times and it works well. It’s especially useful when using the vortex or the slow n sear. I found if I put the wood on top of the coals when using them, it flames up too much when trying to get a sear.
Large Big Green Egg, Weber Performer Deluxe, Weber Smokey Joe Silver, Fireboard Drive, 3 DigiQs, lots of Thermapens, and too much other stuff to mention.
I see a couple things, having to do with early smoke. When I start with fresh lump, there is a lot of gray smoke and water vapor. But if I start with lump from the last cook, I don’t get any of that! What I think is happening is that the charcoal has dried out and lost its impurities. Then when I relight it, it’s all clean.
But I don’t want to start 12+ hours of brisket with old charcoal. And I don’t want to burn up my wood chunks under the coals while new charcoal dries out, either. Because if you’re like me, you’re fretting that all that good smoke is burning up mixed in with all that bad smoke, before you’ve even put the meat on!
So I’ve been trying to get the wood chunks burning UNDERNEATH the charcoal basket, where it will get drawn up through the charcoal from below.
I have not been successful at this, yet. The problem I’ve run into is that once the kamado comes up to temp, the air flow gets reduced substantially, and the wood chunk fire goes out. I thought maybe that lit coals would drop down and keep the wood smoldering, but that didn’t happen. The wood fire died.
I have a couple ideas in mind. First, maybe get the wood really burning, all over, before putting it in. But I think maybe even better would be a bed of 4-6 lit charcoal briquettes, under the wood chunks. I’d start the briquettes like starting a snake, on the bottom with a starter cube. While that is igniting, I can start the basket of charcoal as normal. Then, when everything is getting close to 250° or so (that’s where I see the gray and white smoke vanish), I can add the wood chunks, on top of the charcoal briquettes, through the intake vent.
I think that will work. I’ll have the wood smoldering under the lit lump, supported by the briquettes, with the smoke filtering through the fire.
One thing I do is just put the wood chunks on top of the charcoal in the chimney starter. When I pour them in the PBC I move them on top. They are burning pretty well and after I do the 10-10-10 method they are well lit and smoking.
When I use the kettle with SNS I think I mix them in.
I really can’t tell the difference.
On my 18 WSM, I took the charcoal grate out of a Smokey Joe and put it in the bottom of the WSM. Then I covered it with wood chunks and then put the WSM charcoal grate in place.
To make sure the wood burned, when I dumped coals, I put a few lit coals along the side of the chunks. I only tried this twice, but both times the wood chunks were completely consumed.
On both GF's, I would put wood chunks in the ash bin. Lit pieces of coals would fall down on them and start them smoldering, but there's also enough air flow that they combust into flame. But I get no wood smoke at the start of the cook.
That is a great solution! You get the wood burning and being filtered through the charcoal.
I’m not sure I would be able to tell the difference but it answers the question!
jecucolo For many years, I smoked on a WSM and was content with what it produced. Only after I got a stickburner could I notice a real difference.
I can look at pics of my past cooks, look at the color of ribs, and tell whether they're WSM or offset.
And managing the fire on the offset taught me about smoldering wood. Its not something I wanted. I wanted the thin blue smoke from wood that had fully combusted into flame, which happens at about 600 to 700 *.
Along this vein, when I bought my first WSM in 2002, I had some Texas A&M fans on a college football email list tell me that the Minion Method would produce too much " creosote " and put an off flavor on the meats. That made sense, all it took was watching a chimney of new coals light, and see all the white smoke it produced. But I never got that off flavor and others did not get it either.
Recently, I ran across this year old interview of Jim Minion on Greg Rempe's podcast. He says the " smell " is not there due to the fire on top, he says it takes away 99% of that " smell " , he compares it to a catalytic converter," to a degree " .
Here, I've set this to start at that point in the interview, but if it doesn't work, its at 26:00 minutes. ( And btw, this entire interview is very interesting. The Minion Method had a huge impact on backyard barbecue and without it, the WSM might've been discontinued ) .
I love that this thread is starting up again. I learned a lot then, and I'm learning more now. I've also learned in the past six years that you should definitely preheat your splits or definitely don't preheat your splits.
Pit master Harry Soo put his wood chunks under his charcoal in his WSM. Today I'm going to smoke some ribs and a Boston butt on the Bronco. I think I'll try some under my charcoal to see what happens. As always, YMMV.
After seeing Harry Soo's video, I'll try the splits under the charcoal on my next cook. If he's doing that in competition, there must be a really good reason. I've been putting the wood on top of the coals for a very long time so this will be interesting...
After seeing Harry Soo's video, I'll try the splits under the charcoal on my next cook. If he's doing that in competition, there must be a really good reason. I've been putting the wood on top of the coals for a very long time so this will be interesting...
If Harry Soo said to rub snot on baby back ribs before you cook them, I would do it.
When I'm cooking on one of my barrels, I put wood chunks on top of the unlit charcoal and pour the lit coals from the chimney on top of the chunks (or some of the chunks. others I leave for ignition later as the cook progresses.)
Does this mean I'm doing both?
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