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The cooler weather is here and the weather is spectacular for outdoor cooking! Now, is the time to maximize your grill and savor the flavor.


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Continued from Page 3

Let's clear away some smoke

Five Reasons why wood coals are superior to flaming wood for cooking:

     1. Green woods are 20-40% water. This must be boiled off before the wood can burn. This means that British Thermal Units (BTUs) a measure of heat are used to boil water (971 BTUs per lb. of water) rather than to cook.

     2. Dry wood still has 8-20% moisture and contains many compounds which must be cooked out absorbing BTUs before the temperature can rise.

     3. As long as there are moisture and volatiles to boil out, the temperature cannot rise above the boiling point of the substances. Therefore, in order to reach broiling temperatures 700o all the moisture and volatiles must be driven out. At that point the wood becomes embers/coals.

     4. Successful broiling steaks, burgers, chops requires very high radiant heat. Flames of burning wood do not generate radiant heat at temperatures as high as that of live embers.

     5. In the hours' long cooking periods, as when roasting and barbecuing, the smoke flavor in the coals, alone, is more than ample. Visible smoke is too much smoke. Anytime that you see a full plume of smoke coming out of a barbecue cooker, you know that the cook in making a serious error. A faint wisp of white smoke is the signal of a competent cook.

Useful Common Wood Species

Lundy Wilder wrote us a while back ......

Here's one quick BBQ story, when we lived in Costa Rica way out in the boonies we told our CR neighbors that if they would kill and clean our loud rooster, we'd cook it like Memphis BBQ and split it with them. They did and I gathered various dry wood from trees I could not identify around our place. I slow cooked and smoked that bird a long time and when we ate it OUR MOUTHS WENT NUMB!! Mystery wood-who knows what it was.

Almost any hardwood makes very good embers for cooking. Normally, the denser the wood, the more lignin, and, therefore, more BTUs per cubic volume. Resinous woods such as pine, fir, juniper, cedar and yew are not normally used, with one exception. A few Scots use small amounts of green cedar boughs as a part of their final stage of cold smoking salmon.

Most commonly used woods, in alphabetical order:  Apple/pear, ash, beech, birch, cherry, hickory/pecan, maple, oak.

Regional and miscellaneous woods:  Mesquite, alder, citrus, any edible fruit, nut or berry, persimmon, sassafras, gum, pimiento, grape leaves and vines, hackberry, elm, chestnut, bay.

Questionable: Parts are poisonous, cause physical reaction or produce bad taste:  China berry/mahogany, Osage orange, teak, tung, madrone, buckeye.

Definitely don't: Even the smoke can be poisonous!  Poison oak, poison sumac, oleander, pine and other resinous woods.

Flavor quotient for common woods suitable for broiling, roasting and barbecuing.

Ignore any presumptuous suitability chart for woods I have see some dillies. Use common sense instead. Wood flavors, like other seasonings, should enhance the natural flavor, not overwhelm.

Hickory, and to a lesser degree, its cousin pecan, are powerful flavoring woods. A little goes a long way. The wood makes great coals for broiling. When barbecuing or roasting, I use about 20% hickory and 80% oak/apple/etc. Excellent for cold and hot smoking.

Mesquite has a potent flavor that some like and many dislike. I am of the latter group. The wood makes excellent hot coals for broiling and, used in this manner, does not overpower the meat flavor and become offensive. I do not recommend it for long term cooking roasting and barbecuing. Certainly not for cold or hot smoking.

Continued on Page 5

Hammock
Smoky's 5th basic position for really great barbecue'n.
 

'According to Smoky' is © by C. Clark Hale
who is solely responsible for its content. Comments
should be addresses to cchale@bellsouth.net

The Barbecue Store

Bulk Wood Chips
Here's a great money saving idea.  Wood chips and chunks never go bad. So why not order them in money saving bulk boxes?  Simply keep them in a dry area and use as needed!

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Bad Weather? Too hot or cold? Know what your bbq pit is doing with these Wireless Thermometers
Bad Weather?  Too hot or cold? Know what your bbq pit is doing with these Wireless Thermometers


There's not a better BBQ glove. Stylish Suade, lined and double protected from the elements.

There's not a better BBQ glove. Stylish Suade, lined and double protected from the elements.
FlameX Leather Gloves

Get all of Smoky Hale's wisdom and become the best cook around. Learn to do it right!

Get all of Smoky Hale's wisdom and become the best cook around. Learn to do it right!


When cold, romance or just having to burn something, our designer firepits will do it all. Get free shipping on SoJoe FirePits today
When cold, romance or just having to burn something, our designer firepits will do it all.  Get free shipping on SoJoe FirePits today

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Visit The Barbecue Store Today!

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