Official BBQ Thread

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

SMOKING 101:

Here im going to cover some of the basics of smoking, ie chips vs chunks and lump charcoal vs briquettes.

The first thing im going to cover is Chips vs Chunks. Chips are about the size of coins, chips are also common and easy to find. They burn quickly and you may find that you need to add them more than once during the cooking cycle. Chips are fine for short cooks, but for long cooks, chunks are better. Wood chunks vary in size from golf ball to fist size are fairly easy to find in hardware stores. Chunks burn slowly, and often a chunk or two about the size of an egg weighing 2 to 4 ounces is all that is necessary for a load of food. Because they are slow, steady sources of smoke, they are in many ways, the most desirable. When you use chunks, you can add one or two at the start of the cooking cycle and you don't need to keep opening the unit and mess with the equilibrium in the cooking chamber's atmosphere. Soaking your wood also is a myth. Some people like to soak there wood thinking that it makes a difference, i could go on and on about it; but to make it short the water really doesnt penetrate the wood and the wouldnt make boats out of wood if they did lol. So long story short, dont soak your wood ( thats what she said).

The next section will compare lump charcoal to briquettes. Hardwood lump charcoal is made from hardwood scrap from saw mills and from flooring, furniture, and building materials manufacturers. Branches, twigs, blocks, trim, and other scraps are carbonized. The result is lumps that are irregular in size, often looking like limbs and lumber. Often they are carbonized to different degrees because there are so many different size lumps. Lump leaves little ash since there are no binders as in briquets. The big disadvantage is that lump is harder to find, more expensive than briquets, burns out more quickly, varies in BTUs (heat output) per pound (and thus, per cook), varies in wood type from bag to bag, varies in flavor from bag to bag, and often bags of lump contain a lot of useless carbon dust from improper filtering in the factory and rough handling in the stores. On the other hand, the bags are lighter and easier to handle because the lumps are irregular shaped, so there is more air in the bag. Charcoal briquets begin as sawdust and chips from mixed woods from timber mills. Briquets typically produce more ash than hardwood lump since they contain more non-combustible materials. Some cooks complain about these additives, but there's a lot to be said for a fuel source that is rock solid consistent from bag to bag. Heres a good rule of thumb that i came up with: There are about 16 Kingsford briquets in a quart, and 64 in a gallon. A Weber chimney holds about 5 quarts, or about 80 briquets.

My best advice? Briqs give me consistency as well as better temp and flavor control and I'm all about control when I cook. Eliminate this variable. Pick one consistent brand of briquet, learn it, and stick with it for a year until you have all the other variables under control. The quality of the raw food, seasoning, sauce, cooking temp, and serving temp far outweigh the impact of charcoal on outcome.

Excellent write-up DPR, very informative. I've always soaked my chips/chunks in water, but I'll give it a try without. Do you ever smoke any fish?

[DawgPoundRock]

Excellent write-up DPR, very informative. I've always soaked my chips/chunks in water, but I'll give it a try without. Do you ever smoke any fish?

Thank you very much. Why yes I do, not as much other meats but I did salmon the other day and it was delicious

[DawgPoundRock]

Its gameday weekend, what are you guys grilling/smoking this weekend?

[DawgPoundRock]

Its been awhile since i posted last, ive been super busy but here are some beef short ribs i did today

[Political Hack]

those look tasty. nice char and you can see the meat pulling back on the bone too. I've been contemplating a new grill. Need something I can slow cook on.

[State82]

Somehow I missed this thread a few weeks back. Man, this thread is smokin'!!! I know, I know, had to do it. However, great job DPR. Gonna have to try out the recipes. They all look great.

[DawgPoundRock]

those look tasty. nice char and you can see the meat pulling back on the bone too. I've been contemplating a new grill. Need something I can slow cook on.

Thanks man. Well it all depends on your budget really, you cant go wrong with a weber kettle and a smokenator. You really can make competition type food on them.

[DawgPoundRock]

Somehow I missed this thread a few weeks back. Man, this thread is smokin'!!! I know, I know, had to do it. However, great job DPR. Gonna have to try out the recipes. They all look great.

Haha, thanks man. Im glad you like it man, imma be posting more recipes soon.

[DawgPoundRock]

My Competition Ribs