Smoky will be offering his talents, techniques and secrets discovered over the last 150 years, or so. He will be to the point, pull no punches and if you suffer through the process, you will become a much better outdoor cook, turning out masterpiece meals for friends and family alike.

In this column, Smoky takes to the woods in search of the different types of woods available to the outdoor cook for preparing some great tasting wood smoke-cooked entrees. Hope this helps you folks! . . . . . take notes!

So, with no further adieu, we turn the mike to Smoky. You're on Smoky . . . . .

Thanks PC,

Burning questions regarding the characteristics of particular woods have, traditionally, been confined to wood workers and their clientele and those folk who heat with wood. Except for Macbeth's fate resting upon whether or not Great Birnam wood came up Dunsinane hill, particular woods have never seemed like a life or death situation. But, lately, with all the smoke blowing going on, the fad for cooking over exotic woods and the extravagant claims of smoke blowers has reached outrageous proportions.

Since early time, even primitive man with primitive palate learned that food tasted better cooked over coals than in flames and smoke. As long as wood was the primary cooking fuel, this knowledge was proudly passed from generation to generation. But as we moved indoors with gas and electricity becoming the favored fuels, there occurred what is known in scientific circles as a discontinuity. There was a missing link in the chain of knowledge. For more than a generation, this precious information was lost to most of the population. It was kept alive by only a small cadre of Keepers of the Coals.

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

'According to Smoky' is © by C. Clark Hale
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