Grilling-Roasting-Smoking with wood. Just recently I was asked about using wood to cook with and we discussed the challenges it presents. For example a stack of the same type of wood - lets use red oak - will have various densities, levels of seasoning, moisture content, and more. These are all variables that most of us backyard cooks dont have enough experience to really deal with - the guys/gals who cook every day with it learn how to manage the fire and understand whats going on. WE backyard grillers generally use charcoal - in fact we most often use briquettes because they are uniform and consistent. But back to the conversation starter... All wood - seasoned or not - has a bunch of compounds that flavor the meat/food you are cooking/smoking and in some cooking those compounds add the flavor folks prefer. Technically hardwood charcoal is whats left after a controlled burning off of those compounds so all you have left is carbon to burn. When charcoal is burning at the optimum mix of oxygen in the air it burns so efficiently there is only radiant and convection heat produced with virtually no other compounds released - ergo virtually no flavor. Of course thats pretty difficult to achieve...so we always get some flavor from charcoal and more from wood because of the amount of stuff remaining in the wood. You really ask a great question because the answer is its really kinda personal choice as to the flavors you enjoy in the final product. Some bark maybe will produce undesirable flavors (at least for some folks, maybe not everyone) while other bark hardly a trace. Most of the experts I talk to about the subject prefer to manage the variables and removing loose bark from wood reduces the variables...or so it would seem. Share your experience with both wood and charcoal and please tell us what type of cooker you are using as well as the wood you like --- and if you use charcoal, please share the brand, style, etc. Thanks!
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 21:17:28 +0000
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