Lump Charcoal and smoking wood?

D

ddog27

Guest
Just a question. If you are using a hardwood lump charcoal do you need to add wood chunks as well to get the smoked flavor in your meat? Or does the hardwood lump take care of that on its own?
 
I saw where you asked this same question on another forum......

I still use chunks to flavor my meat....it gives me choices IE: apple, cherry, peach etc.....

I don't use lump as my main source of heat, but as a supplement if my temps are running low.
 
I use Mesquite lump with the occassional chuck of hickory.
 
I use mostly Royal Oak as my lump, and it doesn't impart too much smoke flavor as far as I find. I like to add chunks of apple, cherry, oak and pecan.
 
I use lump as a starter, wood for the main burn, and lump again to bring temps back up if they drop. I think you need at least some wood to get that sweet blue we all look for.
 
agreed... lump is a heat source, not flavor source. I use it to augment the wood when coal bed starts getting low.
 
When adding lump to the firebox does it have to be lit or can you just put it in as is?

Sorry for the new guy question.

Last time I used lump I also used wood chunks to give more flavor, but if I do not have to start it each time and just throw some in when the fire dies a little this would be much better.
 
Lump I just put in without starting. Brikettes i start in a chimney before adding. As for the wood chunks, I preheat before adding to the fire.
 
Same here, and don't worry about "new guy questions"! Ask, learn, and pass it on!
 
Thanks guys,

When you say pre-heat the wood chunk, are you talking about sitting it on the top of the firebox to heat up, our to burn it for a little while before adding it to the box.

I have noticed that if I toss in some chunks of wood and leave the firebox open for a little while to start it on fire it seems to give a sweeter smelling smoke, but it might just be the beer talking.
 
Yeah, pre-heating is just that: getting it almost hot enough to burn. Of course a FEW of us have discovered our pre-heating wood is flaming away. And then some of us have had our WIVES tell us about it. <chuckle>

I don't know about the sweeter smoke thing. I generally keep that firebox lid down tight as much as possible to avoid temp spikes. But that might be the beer talking too! ;)
 
Lump is really just preburned wood. It has all the impurities burned out already so its fine to jsut toss onto a few embers and let it ignite on its own.

preheating causes the wood to ignite immediatly, eliminating the smoldering. I think what you smell from a clean ignition is the lack of nasty smoke, not just sweeter smoke. When i add new wood, i always leave the door open a crack till it ignites.
 
The only time I don't have to add wood is when I use my Burn Barrel to pre-burn my logs and feed my Fire Box with what falls thru the grates. It produces the cleanest blue smoke by far. It can be labor intensive, so I usually only go thru that hassle when I throw my big bashes (Like the one coming up for Memorial Weekend!). The difference is noticable in the end product.
 
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