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USING WOOD CHUNKS FOR SMOKING AND COOKING
Wood Chunks can be used for smoking meats, poultry, fish, and vegetables. If you have a smoker grill, you can use wood chunks alone in the smoker box to provide plenty of smoke for your food. The wood fire, once started, can be easily maintained by adding wood chunks as needed. Wood chunks make it easy to maintain a steady long-term smoke source or a short term smoking for items such as burgers or steak.
Smoking wood chunks can also be used to add flavor when you are cooking with charcoal. Once your charcoal is nearly ready for cooking, add several chunks of hickory, oak, apple, or another wood you prefer, directly onto the charcoal. Before adding wood chunks to your charcoal, pre-soak them in water for at least ten minutes.
My favorite method of using wood chunks is the direct cooking method or direct wood grilling method. I begin by starting a hickory wood chunks fire in my grill (apple wood chunks, oak wood chunks or maple work well too). I use a regular small firestarter which I place at the bottom of a pile of wood chunks. The wood chunk fire will burn like a small campfire (I find this adds a festive atmosphere) for up to one and a half hours before the coals are ready to be cooked on. Wood burns hotter and faster than charcoal, so the timing does take some practice. I knock down the pile of burning wood chunks to level the hot coals out evenly about 15 to 20 minutes prior to cooking time. The best burgers I have ever had were cooked like this.
USING WOOD CHIPS FOR SMOKING
BBQ wood chips are typically used for enhancing the flavor of your grilled food with short bursts of smoke. BBQ chips are typically soaked in water prior to adding to the grill. You may also soak these smoking chips in beer or wine. Wood chips can be added to your charcoal just prior to cooking and continually added as necessary throughout the cooking process. Smoker wood chips can also be used in gas grills by encasing them in tinfoil with holes (again soaked prior to this) or by purchasing a stainless steel smoker box designed for such purposes. Esentially the heat from the propane will cause these wood chips to start smoking and they will not flame or leave ash in the grill because they are enclosed. When cooking like this you must cook with the top closed as much as possible to keep the smoke in with the food.
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