I supply a local restaurant with kiln dried Oak,Cherry, Maple & Ash slabs
for their smoker. They have a small unit there that they put the slabs in
for a little while to get them burning well, to very black,before putting
them into the smoker. He tells me that burns off the 'undesirable' smoke..

Is that right ?

Gene wrote:
> I supply a local restaurant with kiln dried Oak,Cherry, Maple & Ash
> slabs for their smoker. They have a small unit there that they put
> the slabs in for a little while to get them burning well, to very
> black,before putting them into the smoker. He tells me that burns off
> the 'undesirable' smoke..
> Is that right ?

Well, with kiln-dried wood, I doubt if that's necessary. It might be a
carry-over function from a time when he used logs and greener chunks 'O wood
where a pre-burn will deplete excess moisture and volatiles that can create
bitter particulates. Or it could be that he "heard" somwhere that you need
to preburn all wood. With kiln-dried wood, I wouldn't take the time to do a
pre-burn.

--
Dave
Dave's Pit-Smoked Bar-B-Que
http://davebbq.com/

"Gene" > wrote in message
ink.net...
>I supply a local restaurant with kiln dried Oak,Cherry, Maple & Ash slabs
>for their smoker. They have a small unit there that they put the slabs in
>for a little while to get them burning well, to very black,before putting
>them into the smoker. He tells me that burns off the 'undesirable' smoke..
>
> Is that right ?


Traditional barbecue in the south was made by pre-burning wood to coals. It
got rid of a lot of undesirable odors that green wood can have. Since your
wood is kiln dried, it is probably not at all required, but it does give him
better fire control in the smoker as opposed to adding wood and having to
get it burning. Sort of the same idea as using charcoal.

Way back, the smoker flavor was incidental to the method of cooking. Today,
many of us try to add the smoker flavor as an enhancement.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

"Gene" > wrote in message
ink.net...
>I supply a local restaurant with kiln dried Oak,Cherry, Maple & Ash slabs
>for their smoker.

As another point, read the post about soak or not to soak posted by
"sxoidmal" and you will see a god reason to pre-burn.