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Grilling with Wood
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Posted by grillingator (My Page) on Wed, Sep 4, 02 at 17:39
| Over the Labor Day Weekend, I was looking for a new way to cook a Tri-Tips roast. In the BBQ Bible by Steven Raichlen, which is a very good book by the way, he has a section on using wood to cook as the primary heat source, instead of charcoal.
I decided to cook the roast indirectly using hickory wood chunks surrounding a drippan. I figure from the size of the meat, 3 pound, about 1.5 to 2 hours would be needed to get it to an internal heat of 160 degrees.
I started the wood chunks in a chimney, got them heated up, and put them in my Webber kettle. Put the meat on the grill, opened all the vents, top and bottom, full, and set back drinking beer, while watching the UK-UL football game.
After an hour, I opened the lid to check on things, and found that the wood was gone, burnt away. I finished the roast on my gas grill, as my wife and kids were pretty tired of waiting.
I went back and reread the BBQ Bible regarding cooking with wood. I couldn't find any reasons why it didn't work. So I have a few questions that I hope someone can answer;
Has anybody cooked with wood chunks the way I tried?
Should I have soaked the chunks first, similar to the way I do for smoking?
Did I not use enough? Since they burned fast, maybe I needed more chunks than I thought.
I was hoping to get a "smoke" flavor in the meat, without the time it would take in my smoker. Was my approach incorrect, and should I stick to charcoal or a smoker in the future?
Thanks in advance.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Grilling with Wood
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| I always soak my wood chips/blocks in water. At least half an hour, and if I think about it the nite before, over nite. Here's another suggestion, which I do for long term smoking such as a turkey, roast. Soak the chips/block in water. Before adding to fire, wrap in aluminum foil, poking holes only around the top, then set directly onto the coals. |
interest
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| This might be of interest |
Here is a link that might be useful: grilling wood
RE: Grilling with Wood
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| I think you went about it fine, you just need to start with a good bed of coals or wood first that has embered. Also, I think you might want to control your air vents a little differently. The top vent open all of the way is good, but you want to close the bottom at least half way, if not more. You will want to keep the internal temp of the grill no more than 300. 225-250 is preferred. By playing with the air vents you should be able to control this easy enough. Once you get the unit "up to temp", then place your cut of meat on the grate. You will want to slow cook it until the internal temp is about 150-160. Then remove the cut of meat from the grate, wrap loosely in heavy foil to create an air pocket inside, but not touching the meat. This will keep the moisture in. Then return it to the grill and cook until 180-200 inside. Let stand for 20 minutes or so, then serve. I have done briskets like this on my gas grill by cooking indirectly and they come out awesome! To achieve a good end result, you simply can't cook large pieces like this quickly, in my experience. A good rule of thumb is about an hour to an hour-an-a-half per pound to get good results. Good luck next time and I hope this helps. |
RE: Grilling with Wood
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| Well, there's wood and then there's wood charcoal. Straight wood burns very fast, wood charcoal is slower, and charcoal is slowest. Nothing wrong with straight wood, you just needed a lot more in this case. Soaked wood is good for smoking but not for cooking. I agree with bsbbq about building a coal bed first when using wood, although this is not as much a consideration if you use wood charcoal since it's already half way there, so to speak. Wood and wood charcoal work great when your cooking time is only a half hour or so, but for anything longer your best bet is still charcoal with soaked wood chunks for smoke, IMO. B |
RE: Grilling with Wood
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| 2 questions - what's a tri-tips roast? - How tender was your roast? But agree - straight wood makes a hot quick fire - not much of a fan of smoked roasts - but I've never had much luck "grilling" roasts. |
RE: Grilling with Wood
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| As was said, you want the wood to burn down to embers. Flaming wood may impart a bitter taste to the wood (as well as cook it too fast). I've seen some bbq purists say that soaking wood to make it smoke is not true smoking, that you really want to use wood that has turned to glowing embers. But for those of us who don't have access to the right kind of wood in the right sizes, or find it too expensive, or want to use a gas grill but get some smoke flavor as well, wet chunks of hickory or other aromatic wood seems to work well enough. |
RE: Grilling with Wood
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| I've seen the "bbq purists" claim the same thing. Lots of "purists" in lots of different disciplins claim to know the ONLY way to do something... BBQing, not just grilling, but long, slow cooking of meats, has been practiced by many many cultures all over the world. Next time you encounter a "purist," ask which discipline he/she follows. You'll usually get a confused look... Then you follow up with "Well, I'm a purist of the Arawak discipline, and MY discipline says that this is the only way to do it. So shove off!" :-D |
RE: Grilling with Wood
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| I haven't read the BBQ Bible but my earliest rememberance of BBQ was always wood. This was way before charcoal became popular. Anyhow, the wood, usually oak, was burned until you could knock the coals off and then used a shovel to move them to the pit. It wasn't a quick process since you had to start the fire several hours earlier and let the wood burn down to coals. I have been using charcoal for the last 40 years but I just had a pit built out of cinder-block so I can cook like with real coals again. Cooking time is the same as charcoal but for some reason, it always taste better to me when it's cooked over the wood coals. |
RE: Grilling with Wood
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| bsbbq wrote: "Then return it to the grill and cook until 180-200 inside." Wow, I thought he wanted to cook with wood, not turn his meat into charcoal. |
RE: Grilling with Wood
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| Next year I should have some seasoned homegrown nectarine and cherry wood to BBQ with. I've got a small offset fire box smoker. Usually I start a msequite charcoal fire to light the real wood, let it die down to embers. Krs's post reminds me it's a good idea to reduce to add only additional embers from a companion fire, as neeed, rather than add fresh wood, which flames up, puts out too much bitter smoke, and sends the temperature in the smoker haywire. |
RE: Grilling with Wood
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| How dare you think out of the box. Don't you know this forum is for questions about your $1000 stainless steel grill??? |
RE: Grilling with Wood
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| Oooh, sarcasm. How clever. |
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