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 . . . . .

OUTDOOR COOKING WITH SMOKY HALE

By: Smoky Hale

Interest in the characteristics of particular woods has, 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 Birnham wood came up the "high Dunsinane hill" (Act IV, Scene I), 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.

As more and more people are learning, meat cooked in the smoke stream of burning wood gets marred with all the cresols and phenols and other noxious volatiles which make good wood preservatives but don't taste very good - even to an unskilled palate. Since early time, even primitive man with primitive palate learned that food tastes better cooked over coals than over flames and smoke.

Besides unbounded enthusiasm spurred by abject ignorance, what has permitted this travesty to good taste to even start has been the growth of the horizontal cooker with an offset firebox. When meat was cooked directly over the coals/fire, the results of flames and wood smoke were immediately apparent to even the dullest tongue. Even users of the tin can water smokers quickly deduce that it is very easy to turn an otherwise fine piece of meat into a mummified creosote fossil.

In the sidewinder cookers, the heated air, however baffled and directed, still flows in strata according to the temperature. This means that the hotter air flows up to the top of the cooking chamber and out the stack without necessarily coming in contact with the meat on the grate. Although some cookers are designed so that the heated must exit below the meat, the flow is up and over, rather than under, around and through, so that the meat does not normally come into intimate contact with grossly excessive smoke. Rather, as the smoke cools, some of it is deposited on the sides of the cooker and builds up layers of creosote. This shiny black, acrid layer is an indication of an inexperienced cook. Sometimes, however, even this serendipitous air flow can not prevent way too much smoke being deposited on the meat.

Regardless of the species of wood, too much smoke is offensive. It is truly amazing that those whose palates do not rebel at creosote contaminated meat are the same ones who claim that they can discern the flavor of grape leaves, wine barrel French oak, Mackintosh apple or June berry. Fact is that, except for a few wood species, such as hickory and mesquite, less that 5% of the palates in the world can tell what kind of wood was used to cook.

Almost any hardwood makes very good coals for cooking. Normally, the denser the wood, the more lignin, and, therefore, more BTUs per cubic volume.

Most common, in alphabetical order:
Apple/Pear, ash, beech, birch, butternut/walnut, cherry, hickory/pecan, maple, oak.

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

Questionable:
China berry/mahogany, Osage orange, teak, tung, madrone, buckeye

Definitely don't.
Poison Oak, Poison Sumac, Oleander, pine and other resinous woods.

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

Mesquite has a potent flavor that some like and many dislike. I am of the latter group. The wood makes excellent coals for broiling and, used in this manner, does not overpower the meat flavor and become offensive.

Oak is the wood most commonly used for outdoor cooking. It imparts excellent flavor without becoming too strong with normal cooking techniques. Oak is outstanding for broiling or barbecuing. I prefer white over red, but use them interchangeably.

Fruit woods - apple, pear, quince, cherry, etc and maple, beech, birch and ash are mild flavored excellent choices for barbecuing and make excellent coals for broiling.

Alder, mulberry, citrus, willow are mild flavored woods that are excellent for fish, poultry and seafood. They are softer woods and therefore do not make as potent embers as the harder woods.

Sassafras, bay and pimiento produce identifiable flavors which some might find intrusive. Use sparingly until you are familiar with the taste.

If you live in a deforested area without easy access to wood, using an insipid charcoal and want to spruce up (just kidding - spruce is a no-no) the flavor for broiling, try the following. Bring the coal bed up to proper temp. - 5-700 degrees - and add a mere handful of green wood chips or small limbs, or wood chunks soaked for a couple of hours or sawdust soaked likewise. Wait until the smoke is intense and the temperature has returned to the proper level. Plop on the meat and close the lid - with good draft top and bottom. In a couple of minutes, turn the steak/burger and close the lid again. You should have plenty of smoke flavor. Beware that the meat will cook quicker with the lid closed. Don't over cook.

For roasting and barbecuing under the same circumstances, the cheapest route is to go in with a few friends and buy a cord (4'x4'x8') of dry hardwood. Then you can burn down some wood for the coals while it is heating up the grill. You wont need to add any smoke flavor.

Lacking that opportunity, when the grill is ready to start cooking, toss in a double handful of wood, as above, throw on the meat and close the lid. Do that once again in about 30 minutes. That is probably all the smoke flavor that you need, but if you have become hooked on cresote, you can do it one more time. Beyond that, the meat has sealed and will absorb no more smoke flavor. Smoke will, however, continue to pile up on the outside with bitter results.

It is my studied opinion that if the would-be cook spent at least half as much time learning technique as he did chasing exotic fuel, he would be a 10 times better cook. For those mathematically inclined that formula is [1/2a + 1/2b=110 ]

And that ain't just blowing smoke.

Smoky Has A New Book The Great American Barbecue & Grilling Manual 416 pages of great information and wonderful recipes. @ The Barbecue Store

Good gobblin'

© 1998 by Smoky Hale
Smoky
C. Clark Hale
8168 Hwy 98 E.
McComb, MS 39648

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