Soaking wood chips

[Redlantern]

Anybody here try soaking woodchips in anything other than water? Just wondering if trying some apple juice, orange juice, beer,coffee, etc. would make any difference in the flavor of the smoke.

[thirdeye]

I don't soak my chips, splits or chunks. I've always felt that doing it an hour before cooking defeats the purpose as the water has to evaporate before you get any smoke production.

Now, I do buy good quality flavor wood that is in the 15% to 20% moisture content and usually only purchase it if it's in cardboard boxes or a burlap bag. The manufacturers have to dry wood more in order to package it in plastic bags, because of a mold problem.

Even though I don't soak wood, I do hydrate my chunks.... meaning once a week I will spray 3 or 4 chunks of wood with water, and they will be the first ones I reach for when I barbecue throughout the week.

[reinhard1]

thanks third eye, that answers some my questions as well. every aspect of the grill and smoker is important to get it right. good luck.

[Surface Tension]

I don't soak my chips either and it has never make any sense to me to soak chips.

Before wet chips can smoke they have to dry and when they dry they are going to flame.

The object when smoking is not to let the chips flame. Flame creates soot and unintended heat.

Shut off the air supply and instead of flame you get smoke and after all that is what your doing, smoking.

Put dry chips in a container with a loose lid.

A tin can works great there. Just be sure to burn off any coating before you use it.

Or buy a smoke box.

[McGurk]

I also don't see a need to soak, as I use chunks. In the process of soaking, only the very outer edge of the wood actually gets any of the moisture, so the heart of the wood stays dry. Chips = more surface area, and they can take on more moisture but as stated, you want light, clean, and flavorful smoke; and you don't get that from wet wood. Also like 3rdI said, you lose "smokey time" if your chunks are wet. I will take his advice on wetting my chunks between uses. I buy the bagged chunks and have had OK success with it, but I am still in diapers compared to 3rdI's experience!

[reinhard1]

all this information is a great help. i have used dry "sawdust" textured wood in the commercial smoker i operated during my time in the meat world. as i stated before, all that was is pushing some buttons and the smoker took care of every process. it's a different world here at home and i am real thankfull for everyones very helpfull advice. even a meat guy with years of experience doesn't know it all and i want to know as much as i can with what i call the art of smoking. good luck.

[RebelSS]

Gotta agree with everyone...I used to soak my chips, too, but then realized I just had to wait for them to dry out on the grill before they started to smoke. Duh! Kinda like wetting down a bath towel and then letting it dry before you use it to soak up more water...

I've had 3 or 4 smoker boxes I made out of stainless, but now I just use a long sheet of heavy duty foil that's the length of the grill burners. Fold over into tent and pinch top seams together, poke holes in the top and I'm good to go. I do occasionally spray the smoking chips/foil with water and liquid smoke mixed together...that really gives off a smoky head of steam.

[McGurk]

Quote:

I do occasionally spray the smoking chips/foil with water and liquid smoke mixed together...that really gives off a smoky head of steam.

Do you find that gives your smoke a real smokey flavor? I sometimes put garlic powder on my garlic cloves, too. It really garlic's up that garlic!

J/K

[RebelSS]

Do you find that gives your smoke a real smokey flavor? I sometimes put garlic powder on my garlic cloves, too. It really garlic's up that garlic!

J/K