I was surprised to read on the Virtual Weber Bullet site (see
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/woods.html ) that it says that the
charcoal itself doesn't add much to the taste of the meat that you cook in
your WSM. Is that true? In other words, if you cooked a brisket or pork butt
in a WSM using regular Kingsford charcoal or even lump charcoal, without
adding wood, would it have ANY smokey taste to it? Or is a smoker's heating
source (charcoal, propane or electric) irrelevant to the taste of the food,
as long as good smoking wood is added, and as long as the proper, steady
cooking temperature is maintained in the smoker?

--
NOTE: Please delete the word "REMOVE" from my e-mail address when replying.
This is a spam guard.

Dave K. wrote:
I was surprised to read on the Virtual Weber Bullet site (see
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/woods.html ) that it says that the
charcoal itself doesn't add much to the taste of the meat that you
cook in your WSM. Is that true? In other words, if you cooked a
brisket or pork butt in a WSM using regular Kingsford charcoal or
even lump charcoal, without adding wood, would it have ANY smokey
taste to it? Or is a smoker's heating source (charcoal, propane or
electric) irrelevant to the taste of the food, as long as good
smoking wood is added, and as long as the proper, steady cooking
temperature is maintained in the smoker?

That doesn't make any sense. I normally use lump only as the pre-burnt wood
that it is makes plenty of good smoke to cook with. Don't need to add wood
to wood.

Kingsford, that's a different story, can't even abide the smell of it any
more. It used to signify "bbq" to me, now it just smells like diesel fuel.

I suspect the writer was trying to make a different point, probably
something about the importance of temp control and went overboard on his
examples.


D
--

Dave K. wrote:
I was surprised to read on the Virtual Weber Bullet site (see
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/woods.html ) that it says that the
charcoal itself doesn't add much to the taste of the meat that you cook in
your WSM. Is that true? In other words, if you cooked a brisket or pork butt
in a WSM using regular Kingsford charcoal or even lump charcoal, without
adding wood, would it have ANY smokey taste to it? Or is a smoker's heating
source (charcoal, propane or electric) irrelevant to the taste of the food,
as long as good smoking wood is added, and as long as the proper, steady
cooking temperature is maintained in the smoker?

The original text is quoted:

"charcoal by itself doesn't impart much flavor to barbecued meats"

So you *do* get some flavor from charcoal alone, just not much.

Try it yourself. Using the same meat/preparation, do a cook over
Kingsford. Then do a cook over mesquite lump. Then do a cook over oak
lump. You will taste and smell a definite difference. And hopefully
you'll learn never to cook over Kingsford again.

--
Aloha,

Nathan Lau
San Jose, CA

#include std.disclaimer

Nathan Lau wrote:
The original text is quoted:

"charcoal by itself doesn't impart much flavor to barbecued meats"

So you *do* get some flavor from charcoal alone, just not much.

Try it yourself. Using the same meat/preparation, do a cook over
Kingsford. Then do a cook over mesquite lump. Then do a cook over oak
lump. You will taste and smell a definite difference. And hopefully
you'll learn never to cook over Kingsford again.


Except the quote only says "charcoal", not lump charcoal versus charcoal
briquets, since both are, *technically*, charcoal. I'm guessing the
quote comes from a paragraph about adding wood for getting a smokey flavor.

Dave K. wrote:
I was surprised to read on the Virtual Weber Bullet site (see
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/woods.html ) that it says that the
charcoal itself doesn't add much to the taste of the meat that you
cook in your WSM. Is that true? In other words, if you cooked a
brisket or pork butt in a WSM using regular Kingsford charcoal or
even lump charcoal, without adding wood, would it have ANY smokey
taste to it? Or is a smoker's heating source (charcoal, propane or
electric) irrelevant to the taste of the food, as long as good
smoking wood is added, and as long as the proper, steady cooking
temperature is maintained in the smoker?

The only think Kingsford adds to your meat is the nasty chemicals they put
in it to hold it all together. I don't want that in my meat; doubt you do
either. Bottom line - forget using briquettes of any kind.

I made a stand to use my WSM over a gas deep fryer unit. I have a pot I
toss a few chucks of wood into that sits over the top of the flame so I get
both heat and smoke at the same time for long cookin periods through the
night.

Other times, I use lump as my heat source. Bein wood, it can add some taste
to the meat but not a lot. That's what the wood chunks is for.
--
-frohe
Life is too short to be in a hurry

"Duwop" wrote in message
...
Dave K. wrote:
I was surprised to read on the Virtual Weber Bullet site (see
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/woods.html ) that it says that the
charcoal itself doesn't add much to the taste of the meat that you
cook in your WSM. Is that true?

That doesn't make any sense. I normally use lump only as the pre-burnt
wood
that it is makes plenty of good smoke to cook with. Don't need to add wood
to wood.

Makes a lot of sense. True charcoal should be pure carbon. Since it is not
pure, some flavor will be imparted but it is really very little. Reality
though, is that little flavor comes from the charcoal, but much comes from
the dripping fat that is burned on the hot coals. That is why meat cooked
on a gas grill can have a very close flavor from the hot metal shield or the
lava rocks.

If you want a lot of smoke flavor, wood chips or chunks must be added.
Ed

http://pages.cthome.net/edhome

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
"Duwop" wrote in message
...
Dave K. wrote:
I was surprised to read on the Virtual Weber Bullet site (see
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/woods.html ) that it says that the
charcoal itself doesn't add much to the taste of the meat that you
cook in your WSM. Is that true?

That doesn't make any sense. I normally use lump only as the
pre-burnt wood that it is makes plenty of good smoke to cook with.
Don't need to add wood to wood.

Snip hypothetical stuff

Reality though, is that little flavor comes from the
charcoal, but much comes from the dripping fat that is burned on the
hot coals. That is why meat cooked on a gas grill can have a very
close flavor from the hot metal shield or the lava rocks.

If you want a lot of smoke flavor, wood chips or chunks must be added.
Ed

I bet this is cooker specific to an extent, maybe even more dependant on
what type of lump you use. For instance, offsets have no burning dripping
fat, but still get good BBQ flavors. If you use lump based on furniture
scrap, I understand why you might have come to this conclusion. I suspect a
Royal Oak user, or people who use lump similar to Royal Oak probably think
differently. It's hard to remember how different all our cooking set ups
can be when making these generalizations, huh? Thanks for the reminder Ed.


Nathan or Eddie, you using wood chunks with Lazzari in your WSM?

--

"Dave K." wrote:
I was surprised to read on the Virtual Weber Bullet site (see
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/woods.html ) that it says that the
charcoal itself doesn't add much to the taste of the meat that you cook in
your WSM. Is that true? In other words, if you cooked a brisket or pork
butt
in a WSM using regular Kingsford charcoal or even lump charcoal, without
adding wood, would it have ANY smokey taste to it? Or is a smoker's
heating
source (charcoal, propane or electric) irrelevant to the taste of the
food,
as long as good smoking wood is added, and as long as the proper, steady
cooking temperature is maintained in the smoker?

I own a WSM and I've read virtualweberbullet for years.
I may be generalizing, but I'd reckon to say most of the people there
use Kingsford as their primary fuel, with chucks added for smoke/flavour.
I think that's how they come to the conclusion that you mentioned.

I'm 100% convinced that the WSM folks that claim 12 hour smokes without
re-fueling HAVE to be using Kingsford/chunks. I've done it myself.
I've never even come close to 12 hours with non-Kingsford charcoal & chunks.

I've done ribs with straight Kingsford, no chunks, and you can definitely
taste
the difference. Not that straight Kingsford tasted bad, but there was
definitely
less of a smoke-ring than when I use Kingford/chucks.

My bottom line: If it is a long smoke, especially an overnighter, like
brisket or butt,
I use Kingsford/chunks, otherwise I use lump.

"JL" wrote:


I'm 100% convinced that the WSM folks that claim 12 hour smokes without
re-fueling HAVE to be using Kingsford/chunks. I've done it myself.

You would be wrong.
I've been using the WSM for a couple of years now, and I've never used
Kingsford in it. I won't allow that crap in my WSM.
I've done overnight cooks with lump and wood chunks, using the Minion method,
and I've had 16-20 hour cooks without refueling, depending on weather
conditions.
I usually cook W/O a pan- learning a bit about fire control / maintenance works
wonders here.
Jim

On 15-Mar-2004, "Duwop" wrote:
snip
I suspect a
Royal Oak user, or people who use lump similar to Royal Oak probably think
differently. It's hard to remember how different all our cooking set ups
can be when making these generalizations, huh? Thanks for the reminder Ed.
snip

I usually use oak or orange over Royal Oak lump and get nice smoke ring
and flavor. Sometimes I omit the wood and still get a ring, but near zero
smoke flavor. ( I get my Royal Oak direct from the factory in Ocala, FL,
$13/40Lbs. Offset NB Silver smoker.

--
M&M ("The problem is that no matter what you do, there's
Sombody that won' t like it much") Tom Clancy

"M&M" wrote in message ...
On 15-Mar-2004, "Duwop" wrote:
snip
I suspect a
Royal Oak user, or people who use lump similar to Royal Oak probably think
differently. It's hard to remember how different all our cooking set ups
can be when making these generalizations, huh? Thanks for the reminder Ed.
snip

I usually use oak or orange over Royal Oak lump and get nice smoke ring
and flavor. Sometimes I omit the wood and still get a ring, but near zero
smoke flavor. ( I get my Royal Oak direct from the factory in Ocala, FL,
$13/40Lbs. Offset NB Silver smoker.

Well damn, there must be something extra smoky about the lump I use.

"Dave K." wrote in message
...
I was surprised to read on the Virtual Weber Bullet site (see
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/woods.html ) that it says that the
charcoal itself doesn't add much to the taste of the meat that you cook in
your WSM. Is that true? In other words, if you cooked a brisket or pork butt
in a WSM using regular Kingsford charcoal or even lump charcoal, without
adding wood, would it have ANY smokey taste to it? Or is a smoker's heating
source (charcoal, propane or electric) irrelevant to the taste of the food,
as long as good smoking wood is added, and as long as the proper, steady
cooking temperature is maintained in the smoker?

--
NOTE: Please delete the word "REMOVE" from my e-mail address when replying.
This is a spam guard.



Realize that the guy never uses lump. Therefore I don't think he can make this
judgment. Plus if one uses just Kingsford and tastes no flavor, then they need a
taste bud transplant. Tastes like fuel oil to me.

Different lump will burn differently. The charcoal that's truly burned to pure
carbon will have little perceptible flavor. However, I sometimes use some
commercial mesquite lump where some pieces are not burned down completely and
get a decent amount of smoke flavor.

In other words, it depends.

_________
ht_redneck

"JL" wrote

I've done ribs with straight Kingsford, no chunks, and you can definitely
taste
the difference. Not that straight Kingsford tasted bad, =============



Horse shit! It tastes like you cooked on deisel. If you can't tell any
more difference than that, maybe you should take up pastries.

TFM®

On 16-Mar-2004, "Tyler Hopper" wrote:
snip
Different lump will burn differently. The charcoal that's truly burned to
pure
carbon will have little perceptible flavor. However, I sometimes use some
commercial mesquite lump where some pieces are not burned down completely
and
get a decent amount of smoke flavor.

FWIW, the I have yet to find any unburned material in the Royal Oak
lump that I use. I do get the same small pieces and dust from mishandling
that everybody else does. But not a large amount, probably because there's
no middle man for me.
--
M&M ("The problem is that no matter what you do, there's
Sombody that won' t like it much") Tom Clancy

On 16-Mar-2004, Steve Wertz wrote:
snip
(in which case you've got 12.5
minutes of cooking time left).

-sw

ROTFLMAO***
--
M&M ("The problem is that no matter what you do, there's
Sombody that won' t like it much") Tom Clancy