A question about cooking with wood

[cedarman]

my little smoker has a smaller "firebox" attached to the side. from my knowledge, the fire goes in there, and the meat goes in the bigger box.

I tried the firebox method once with a rack of ribs and the smoker did get hot (225degrees) but it wasn't very smokey. I said hell with it and ended up grilling the ribs, because there was no smoke.

am I missing something? when i grill over wood i always have smoke because of juices hitting the flame, but when I have the fire in the firebox, i never see smoke.

what gives?

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Thanks all!

I appreciate the advice guys-gonna give it a try real soon. Probably this weekend as they are calling for 80 degrees here Saturday-wow....:greenchainsaw:

 

[Jimfound]

Blue Ridge Mark has it right.

When short on time, sometimes I just saw up a bunch of disks off a log and then, like someone else mentioned, smack the discs with a hatchet to get smaller chunks. I toss the chunks on the already fully heated coals and let them catch completely before putting on the meat. Not complicated. I have had luck with oak, cherry, apple and hickory. Have a load of mullberry I am eager to try in a couple months. Posted another wood id thread on that here:

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=129762

 

[Frank Boyer]

Wood chunks the size of your fist work much better than chips. You want a thin clean smoke, not the old tire smudge pot. The food will taste like the smoke. You don't want to burp smoke for a couple of days.

The Weber Smoky mountain (WSM- they are 18" or 22" diameter and about 3' tall) is the best small cooker for the money. Many teams use wsm's for competition. Most comp teams use charcoal for heat and a couple of chunks of wood for flavor. BBQ is my other addiction. I've been involved with comp BBQ since 1993.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

Blackjack1234, I set the smoker over the fire about as soon as it is lit. I'd rather do that instead of trying to get things going through that little door on the front of the cooker. Unless the wood is especially green, it burns reliably at a constant rate with them standing up.

 

[Coldfront]

There seems to be some confusion on barbecue and smoke cooking, and grilling. True smoking is a low heat smoking of cured meat that takes a long time. Then there is smoke cooking I think is what most people do, great for chicken, ribs, etc. but you wouldn't want to smoke cook a good steak. Then there is grilling what most are talking about cooking over wood coals high heat, that is what you want for cooking a good steak and such. Barbeque is almost the same as smoke cooking but instead of using meat soaked in a brine, it is meat smothered in bbq sauce and cooked slow.