Hello I have a cheap cylinder water smoker I bought
at the local outlet. You know the type with a water tray
and two grills. Well I've have good luck with it for
sometime and have found that taking the legs off it and
just digging a small hole to put the charcoal in and setting
the smoker right over the hole works even better.
However I recently had this unfortunate happenstance.
I've always read that soaking those store bought hickory
chips works good so I decided to try them and soaked them
very wet and put them onto the hot coals. However my pork
roast came out black instead the nice reddish brown I usually
get and the meat tasted charred although the coals were the
same as I always have done. Does anyone have this happen
or am I doing something wrong.

"D" NoMail@NoSpam wrote in message

chips works good so I decided to try them and soaked them
very wet and put them onto the hot coals. However my pork
roast came out black instead the nice reddish brown I usually
get and the meat tasted charred although the coals were the
same as I always have done. Does anyone have this happen
or am I doing something wrong.



You soaked the chips and instead of burning and giving off a nice smoke
flavor, they smoldered and gave off a nasty smudge.
Ed

http://pages.cthome.net/edhome

D wrote:

I've always read that soaking those store bought hickory
chips works good so I decided to try them and soaked them
very wet and put them onto the hot coals. However my pork
roast came out black instead the nice reddish brown I usually
get and the meat tasted charred although the coals were the
same as I always have done. Does anyone have this happen
or am I doing something wrong.

You created a creosote rub :-) Never soak wood for low temp barbecuing. I
wouldn't even do it for grillin' temps.
Dave

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 20:21:33 -0700, "Dave Bugg"
deebuggatcharterdotnet wrote:

D wrote:

I've always read that soaking those store bought hickory
chips works good so I decided to try them and soaked them
very wet and put them onto the hot coals. However my pork
roast came out black instead the nice reddish brown I usually
get and the meat tasted charred although the coals were the
same as I always have done. Does anyone have this happen
or am I doing something wrong.

You created a creosote rub :-) Never soak wood for low temp barbecuing. I
wouldn't even do it for grillin' temps.
Dave

I've tried both methods and can agree that soaking chunks or chips
usually leads to a bitter taste. I'm just curious as to why the wood
companies always suggest soaking the wood?

In article ,
Henry D. wrote:
On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 20:21:33 -0700, "Dave Bugg"
deebuggatcharterdotnet wrote:

D wrote:

I've always read that soaking those store bought hickory
chips works good so I decided to try them and soaked them
very wet and put them onto the hot coals. However my pork
roast came out black instead the nice reddish brown I usually
get and the meat tasted charred although the coals were the
same as I always have done. Does anyone have this happen
or am I doing something wrong.

You created a creosote rub :-) Never soak wood for low temp barbecuing. I
wouldn't even do it for grillin' temps.
Dave

I've tried both methods and can agree that soaking chunks or chips
usually leads to a bitter taste. I'm just curious as to why the wood
companies always suggest soaking the wood?

Because it creates more smoke, and otherwise the chips would burn
up quickly.


Chuck Demas

--
Eat Healthy | _ _ | Nothing would be done at all,
Stay Fit | @ @ | If a man waited to do it so well,
Die Anyway | v | That no one could find fault with it.
| \___/ | http://world.std.com/~cpd

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 04:39:07 +0000 (UTC),
(Charles Demas) wrote:

Henry D. wrote:

I've tried both methods and can agree that soaking chunks or chips
usually leads to a bitter taste. I'm just curious as to why the wood
companies always suggest soaking the wood?

Because it creates more smoke, and otherwise the chips would burn
up quickly.

It's not dry smoke - It's smoke mixed with water vapor which
settles on the meat and creates tar after it dehydrates. You can
also get the same effect with water instead of sand in a water pan
if you overdo your chunk-usage without proper top ventilation in a
bullet smoker.

Soaking chips or chunks is only for open-top grilling, not for
BBQ'ing. The soaking recommendations work for most grilling
applications but *not* for proper smoking. Don't soak your wood,
and buy chunks, not chips.

-sw

On 17-Apr-2004, "D" NoMail@NoSpam wrote:

Hello I have a cheap cylinder water smoker I bought
at the local outlet. You know the type with a water tray
and two grills. Well I've have good luck with it for
sometime and have found that taking the legs off it and
just digging a small hole to put the charcoal in and setting
the smoker right over the hole works even better.
However I recently had this unfortunate happenstance.
I've always read that soaking those store bought hickory
chips works good so I decided to try them and soaked them
very wet and put them onto the hot coals. However my pork
roast came out black instead the nice reddish brown I usually
get and the meat tasted charred although the coals were the
same as I always have done. Does anyone have this happen
or am I doing something wrong.

For one thing, digging a hole and putting your charcoal in that
absolutely precludes any possibility of airflow through the fire.
Consequently, you're going to produce the densest and most
undesirable smoke imaginable. Soaking chips sux. They can't
make any smoke until the water is gone. Wood don't decompose
until it reaches about 400° F. Water will keep it at 212° until
the water is gone. Putting soaked raw chips directly on the
coals will (susposedly) delay the burning of all the chips, thus
prolonging the smoke produced. There's too many variables
involved. The heat of the fire, the amount of chips, etc. Most
here agree that wrapping dry chips in foil or using fairly large
chunks directly on the coals is the way to go. Personally, I
use a log in the firebox of my NBS on top of Royal Oak lump.
No way would I do that without some airflow through the fire.
--
M&M ("When You're Over The Hill You Pick Up Speed")

"Charles Demas" wrote in message
Because it creates more smoke, and otherwise the chips would burn
up quickly.


Chuck Demas

Yeah, try to convince people the best smoke is invisible. They want to see
huge billowing clouds of it, no matter how bitter.
Ed

http://pages.cthome.net/edhome

Thanks to all replies, it appears that I misunderstood
the popular advertising.
In answer to the air flow I leave a small dug out at
one side of the hole. It works very well, the coals stay
red at the bottom the whole time and I only have to
re stoke once or twice at the most during the 6 to 7 hr
process to keep my temp at 212.
Many years ago my bother and I would do a small pig
in the ground by digging a much larger hole and deeper
( a lot of work) and then after burning down many large
oak and citrus logs we would set a large steel grill on
concrete blocks and set the pig on the grill wrapped with
banana leaves. Then we put a wet sheet of plywood over
the hole with two breathing holes one at each end.
The plywood never charred or caught fire and the pig
would taste great after 8 hours or so. It was a lot of work
though and you had to burn many logs to build up enough
coals to last the entire process because re stoking was a
big hassle.

In article , Steve Wertz
wrote:

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 04:39:07 +0000 (UTC),
(Charles Demas) wrote:

Henry D. wrote:

I've tried both methods and can agree that soaking chunks or chips
usually leads to a bitter taste. I'm just curious as to why the wood
companies always suggest soaking the wood?

Because it creates more smoke, and otherwise the chips would burn
up quickly.

It's not dry smoke - It's smoke mixed with water vapor which
settles on the meat and creates tar after it dehydrates. You can
also get the same effect with water instead of sand in a water pan
if you overdo your chunk-usage without proper top ventilation in a
bullet smoker.

Soaking chips or chunks is only for open-top grilling, not for
BBQ'ing. The soaking recommendations work for most grilling
applications but *not* for proper smoking. Don't soak your wood,
and buy chunks, not chips.

Soaked wood dries out in the heat then flames up, catches fire, makes
nasty smoke, raises your grill temp an obscene amount and then you need
to add more.
Chunks wrapped in foil don't flame up - they just sit there smoking
nicely until they turn into free pieces of lump.
Riddle me this, Ye Soakers: Why is the water from soaked wood a nice
brown color? Do you think that brown stuff might add flavor to your
food if it was combusted?
Seriously-seriously-the day I stopped soaking the damn smoking wood my
Q improved hugely. Soaking is The Big Lie-don't buy it.

monroe(soak your feet not your wood)

Steve Wertz wrote in message ...
On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 04:39:07 +0000 (UTC),
(Charles Demas) wrote:

Henry D. wrote:

I've tried both methods and can agree that soaking chunks or chips
usually leads to a bitter taste. I'm just curious as to why the wood
companies always suggest soaking the wood?

Because it creates more smoke, and otherwise the chips would burn
up quickly.

It's not dry smoke - It's smoke mixed with water vapor which
settles on the meat and creates tar after it dehydrates. You can
also get the same effect with water instead of sand in a water pan
if you overdo your chunk-usage without proper top ventilation in a
bullet smoker.

Soaking chips or chunks is only for open-top grilling, not for
BBQ'ing. The soaking recommendations work for most grilling
applications but *not* for proper smoking. Don't soak your wood,
and buy chunks, not chips.

There's no need to soak for open top grilling either.
Soaking is a waste of time. But pick up any book on
grilling or BBQ, and it will tell you that must soak.

-- Yip

"Monroe, of course..." wrote controversially.
Riddle me this, Ye Soakers: Why is the water from soaked wood a nice
brown color? Do you think that brown stuff might add flavor to your
food if it was combusted?
Seriously-seriously-the day I stopped soaking the damn smoking wood my
Q improved hugely. Soaking is The Big Lie-don't buy it.

monroe(soak your feet not your wood)

Sure, everybody knows that if you merely soak your wood chunks, you get
lousy results.

I've learned to BOIL my wood chunks. Hell, sometimes I even pressure-cook
them for 30 minutes or so ;-).

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 23:21:26 GMT, "JakBQuik"
wrote:

Sure, everybody knows that if you merely soak your wood chunks, you get
lousy results.

I've learned to BOIL my wood chunks. Hell, sometimes I even pressure-cook
them for 30 minutes or so ;-).

You boil them in liquid smoke and drench with KC Masterpiece.

-sw