Our coals showing their hot glow and ready for direct wood ember cooking!

THE GLOW OF WOOD EMBER COOKING!

So what exactly is wood ember cooking and why is it suddenly gaining attention as a method of cooking? Well, first, it’s most certainly not a new cooking concept. Cooking over a fire and hot coals have been around for thousands of years. Recently, some Chefs and well-known restaurants have taken to returning to this method of cooking because they know where great flavor can come from and they know how to manage the heat from hot wood embers.

An ember is a glowing, hot coal made of greatly heated wood, coal or other carbon-based material that remain after a fire. The heat radiated from hot embers can be as hot as the fire which created them. You can see this first hand, by placing new wood pieces on hot embers and watching a full fire develop. An ember is usually formed when a fire has only partially burnt a piece of fuel and there is still usable chemical energy in that piece of fuel. It continues to stay hot and does not lose its thermal energy quickly because combustion is still happening at a low level. The small yellow, orange, and red lights are often seen among the embers are actually combustions. There just is not enough combustion happening at one time to create a flame. Once the embers are completely ‘burned through’, they are not carbon as is commonly believed (carbon burns, and is not normally left behind), but rather various other oxidized minerals like calcium and phosphorus. At that point, they are commonly called ashes. But why cook on the embers versus over a live fire? Because embers radiate a more constant form of heat, as opposed to an open fire which is constantly changing along with the heat it radiates (think water trapped within the wood and you’ll understand why there is heat fluctuation).

Ember cooking techniques include placing thickly skinned food items directly into the embers (i.e. garlic, onion, peppers, eggplant, steaks, etc.), placing a cast iron skillet into the embers that can hold any food items from vegetables, meats, poultry, fish – really anything. The results produced from this method are super moist, super flavorful, and the aromas are exceptional.

Sweet Peppers over direct wood ember cooking

Dr. Smoke- You don’t need a flashy grill, a simple fireplace with enough room, just like Asado, you can do direct wood ember cooking

Cross section of a harvested hardwood tree showing the heartwood of the tree

IS HEARTWOOD REALLY THE ‘HEART’ OF THE TREE?

By now you’ve come to recognize SmokinLicious® as the Company that produces it’s cooking wood products from only heartwood. Yet, there are still many questions out there as to what that means for the individual using our products. Is heartwood where all the life forces of the tree thrive?

The short answer is, no, but there are benefits to using woods derived from this part of the tree for cooking. Let’s explore!

Mini molecular-biology course: wood is an organic material that is porous and fibrous. It contains hundreds of organic compounds but there are three primary compounds responsible for the cell construction in trees: Cellulose which is a glucose that is tasteless and odorless but comprises 40-50% of the cell. It is crystalline so it provides for the strength of the cell wall. Hemicellulose is also a glucose and carbohydrate but unlike cellulose, it has little strength and makes up 15-25% of the tree’s cell structure. Lignin is the cell compound that is responsible for the structural materials in the support tissues of wood and bark and makes up 15-30% of wood cells. Lignin is what fills the cell wall spaces between the cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin components and is crucial for conducting water. Lignin yields more energy than cellulose when burned. Most importantly, lignin is what gives wood-fired cooked foods their flavor and aroma.

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Discussion of the 8 common wood cooking mistakes to avoid.

COMMON WOOD COOKING MISTAKES Click To Tweet

We are approaching that exciting time of the year when just about all of North America can start to enjoy cooking outdoors again! Make it the best outdoor cooking season yet by learning the steps to using wood for cooking and grilling successfully, avoiding the common wood cooking mistakes that can sink those outdoor meals.

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Price is NOT everything-THE TOP THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN PURCHASING COOKING WOOD

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN PURCHASING COOKING WOOD

We have your top things to consider when purchasing cooking wood! We are getting closer to peak season in North America for outdoor cooking. What a perfect time to start thinking about what you want to get out of your outdoor cooking time this year so you’ll be able to source the supplies you’ll need and feel confident in your decisions. This includes the wood used for cooking.

There are many companies who offer woods for cooking in the United States. We thought we’d assist you in determining the perfect fit for your needs based on what you’re looking for in the cooking wood as well as a match for your equipment.

Today, we are going to compare 7 popular cooking wood companies who may use the terms cooking woods, grilling woods, wood, and BBQ, or BBQ products. The comparison will include 9 key areas: Established date of the business, where the wood is harvested or sourced from, wood types offered, how the wood is sold, shipping costs, treatment process the wood is exposed to, packaging of the product, if bark is present, and primary claim made by the Company. Following this listing, I will highlight any information that you may want to question further.

Our goal is to arm the purchaser with needed information to ensure that they are getting the perfect wood for the cooking technique(s) they plan to do. Remember, there are different variables needed in a wood for different methods of wood-fired cooking which you can read about further in our blog Taste is Aroma.

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WHAT WOOD TO USE FOR SMOKING Click To Tweet

I see the question asked so many times and in so many ways. What is the best wood to use for smoking? What is the best wood to use for smoking (fill in the blank with your favorite food)?

I’m going to shake things up a bit by stating there is no rule book saying a specific wood must be used with a specific food. There are, however, some basic things you should know to reduce the risks of toxicity, damage to your equipment, and overall ruining your barbecue. Use the wrong hardwood and you can bitter any food you expose to that wood’s smoke.

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In the Wood Bark or Not debate, this Diagram shows the two key elements of the tree that can effect your Barbecue results. Smokinlicious® only harvests wood from the heartwood of the forest grown tree and recommends that cooking with wood bark not be done.

If you rely on an outside source say a firewood supplier, you may want to rethink cooking with wood bark. Click To Tweet

COOKING WITH WOOD BARK – TO BARK OR NOT?

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Smokinlicious® Custom Process for Sized Cooking Wood Chips

OUR WEIRD NAMES FOR SIZED COOKING WOOD CHIPS

The conversation always ends the same when we inquire about the size chip product needed. “It’s the size of a penny”, or sometimes they say a nickel, dime or quarter. That is the only reference we are provided with to produce a wood chip product quote! With all due respect, coin currency is not the same from country to country including the penny which is now obsolete in Canada!

A great deal of commercial brand equipment, especially industrial smokehouses, are manufactured in Europe and Canada. These countries use the metric system, a concept that is all but lost on most American companies since it is not a commonly used practice.

This is not the case for SmokinLicious® which currently tracks 9 sizes in our manufacturing process so we can assure consistent product manufacture. And yes, we reference the metric system in our sizing!

Taking a page from the “Dummies” guide book concept, we found that most companies producing a wood chip product screen for two common sizes. In fact, they often sell the two sizes by reference to packaging bag color. We at SmokinLicious® screen for 9 different screened sizes! Why? Because for food manufacturing companies to be cost effective while gaining optimal level of flavour infusion to their food product(s); correct wood product selection matters!

Incorrect Size Chip

If you comprehend that an incorrect size chip product in your commercial equipment will compromise the overall flavour profile due to variability in combustion of the product. Then you would be ready to maximize not only the budget for the smokehouse operation but likely preserve more capital that would have gone to equipment breakdown expenses caused by inappropriate sized wood product clogging smoke regulators.

We know what the various equipment manufacturers recommend; well, to be honest, we know what they think is best for their equipment. But let’s face it – their goal is to produce a state of the art, mass volume producing, time efficient smoke house with the hope that it will be efficient with the wood product material selected by the user. They do not commonly source the wood product material to go with the equipment once sold and they certainly don’t know the intricacies of hardwood. That’s where SmokinLicious® will step in. Our Team has the expertise to make the perfect size match that will produce ideal combustion rate which in turn results in ideal flavour infusion, color infusion, and function of the smoke house. Plus, we dial in the suitable moisture level to generate that perfect combustion rate that produces consistent results every time the smoke house operates.

Join Us for Sized Cooking Wood Chips

Once you join us, you’ll come to appreciate our “weird” names like Grande Sapore® (our larger screen chip sizing), Minuto® (covering 4 mid-screen sizes) and Piccolo (are smallest screen production that includes 3 micro sizes). We’re confident that you will come to understand and appreciate that our “weird” names provide assurance that we know what we’re talking about, we know what will work with your specific equipment, and that each order will have consistent particle sizing. No “two color” bag option that contains whatever scrap wood happened to be available that day for processing.

We don’t complicate things. By offering more options in wood chip/sawdust product, we can give our customers the flavour outcome they never imagined and cost efficiency they only dreamed about. Let’s find out what your favorite “weird name” will be and make you a member of our “club”!

Dr. Smoke- we have any chip size to fit your needs!

How to set a Stok™ Grill: Our Video Response

We received the following inquiry from a Stok™ Grill user and Smokinlicious® blog follower:

“I want to smoke ribs on my STOK™ drum charcoal grill but am worried about getting a consistent temp and my ratio of wood chips to lump charcoal“?

Listen And Watch PART ONE:

Thank you, Mr. Brown, for your question submitted @smokinlicious on Instagram. Follow us on our blog, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, as we explore the culinary delights of wood-fired cooking and all the superb flavors! Wood – it’s not just for traditional barbecue – it has SO many great uses: ember cooking, baking, roasting, searing, cold smoking, etc.

Keep your questions coming!

Bon Bar B Q

Dr. Smoke and the Culinary Smoke Team

Thank you, to our follower who had a question on how to set a Kettle Grill

Savory Smoky-Grilled Potato (es)

listen to our blog regarding wood chips for smoking

SMOKY-GRILLED POTATO: OUR #1 CROP GETS A NEW FLAVOR TAKE-As the #1 crop in the world, available all year, potatoes are a favorite for a variety of reasons. Get the nutritional benefit of this abundant vegetable by adding flavor in a different way – cooking it over charcoal and hardwood!

Ingredients for Your Smoky-Grilled Potato Dish:

• New red and white potatoes
• 3 tablespoons of oil (grape-seed, walnut, almond, vegetable, or canola)
• Coarse salt
• Fresh pepper
• Heat-safe pan
• Kettle grill
• Charcoal
• SmokinLicious® Sugar Maple wood chunks & Wild Cherry Grande Sapore® wood chips

Simple Preparation For a Simple Vegetable

I’m using small red and white potatoes. You’ll need a knife and cutting board, as I like to cut these small potatoes in half to allow for maximum wood fire flavoring. I’m going to use a vegetable grill pan but you can use any heat safe pan whether foil, glass, heat-safe ceramic, or cast iron. Cut each potato in half, and place in the grill pan.

Seasoning and Oil Bring Out the Best

Just 3 simple ingredients are needed before the pan is placed on the grill. Drizzle three tablespoons of oil over the halved potatoes, then add coarse salt and fresh pepper. The oil can be grapeseed, walnut, almond, vegetable, or canola, anything you have and prefer. Mix well to ensure each potato is coated, then let rest to allow the seasonings to penetrate before adding to the hot grill.

Charcoal Grill Set Up

Time to get the grill ready. I’ll be using a combination of charcoal and wood – charcoal as the fuel for heat and wood chunks and chips for flavor. Keeping my intake vents open on the kettle grill, I start a chimney full of charcoal. Just one chimney will be needed for the actual cooking. I lay a small line of unlit coals down both the right and left side of the charcoal grate to keep my temperature stable through the cook. I pour the hot coals in the middle then add two Sugar Maple wood chunks and a handful of Wild Cherry Grande Sapore® wood chips on top of the hot coals. On goes the food grate and then my vegetable pan of halved seasoned potatoes.

The depth of Flavor Through Smoke

Once the wood is set up and the food grate is on, the pan of potatoes is added. Put the grill cover on and adjust the lid outtake vent to 1/3 open position. Now, adjust the lower intake vent to the ½ open position. Let the potatoes cook for about 25 minutes prior to stirring. You’ll see the golden hue from the maple and cherry smoke vapor. Be sure to rotate the potatoes on the bottom to the top so that there is even color and flavor to each piece. The total cook time will be close to an hour but each grill and charcoal will perform differently so be sure to watch closely after the first 35 minutes. Remove when the potatoes can be pierced easily with a toothpick or knife tip.

Smoky-Grilled Potato- Full Flavor With All the Nutrition Intact

With all the nutritional value still intake, these golden, smoky potatoes are ready to eat as is or you can include them in your favorite potato recipes. I’ll be giving a smoky edge to my interpretation of a potato curry in our next recipe feature. Take advantage of this popular comfort vegetable and the ease of using a charcoal/wood grill for cooking and give your meals a memorable flavor enhancement.

The Culinary Crew wants you to know…

… that potatoes are one of the easiest veggies to grill or smoke! A minimum amount of effort will yield maximum deliciousness. Go ahead and experiment with a variety of your favorite spices or ingredients when grilling or smoking your spuds. Cilantro, curry, garlic or onion powder and even a touch of cayenne pepper can add a taste zip to these great and hardy tubers. There are many varieties of potatoes and they all do well on a grill or in a smoker but, just remember- the fresher the better!

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our feature so start the conversation with a comment!

More Related reading on smoky-grilled potato and other grilling ideas

Related Reading

-HOW TO USE CHARCOAL WITH WOOD IN COOKING

-HOW TO TURN YOUR CHARCOAL GRILL INTO A SMOKER

SMOKED CHEESY POTATOES- WHAT A WONDERFUL TWIST

SmokinLicious® Products in this blog:

Wood Chunks- Double & Single Filet

Wood Chips- Grande Sapore®

Dr. Smoke try this smoky-grilled potato technique!

ember cooked vegetables can be done in a cask iron plan, fire box and even in a Hibachi! Try this unique cooking method to add a flare and unique tastes to your outdoor grilling and cooking!

TOP 10 EMBER COOKED VEGETABLES

listen to our blog regarding wood chips for smoking

I want to be perfectly clear – this is not cooking over hot flame or direct flame. This is cooking after the wood and/or charcoal has burned down in to very hot coals; when the coals develop a white-gray ash coating. THIS is the time for coal or hot ember cooked vegetables.

The Rules of Hot Ember and Ash Cooking

The essence of using all that the wood can give for cooking. That it was ember or coal cooking is. I want to be sure there is no misunderstanding on what is needed to do this type of cooking safely and effectively.

Rule #1: If going with all wood for the coals, only use hardwood and clean hardwood at that. You’re going to lay foods into this material so I believe it should be clean and mold free with moisture level 15-20%. If higher, it will simply take longer to get to the coal stage.

Rule #2: Again, if using all hardwood, try to limit the bark or go bark-free if possible to reduce the potential for mold spores that can be released into the air.

Rule #3: Have everything ready before you start. You’ll need an ash-coal hoe, fire gloves, and small coal shovel at the ready. I would also have tongs for those times when you don’t bury your foods completely in the coals but rather lay them which requires turning of the vegetables.

Rule #4: Equipment wise, you can use a charcoal grill that has fire brick added for insulation, a clean fireplace (I prefer an outdoor unit), a clean fire pit, or an open pit built in a safe area with brick or gravel as the base to protect the fire from spreading.

Ember Cooked Vegetables- Hot Embers Birthed in One Hour

On average, it will take about an hour to move a small fire from flame to hot ember. Depending on whether you elect to use charcoal or wood will determine the amount of time the fire needs to burn down – an all charcoal fire will be 30-45 minutes; all hardwood fire about 45-60 minutes. Remember, charcoal produces heat and little smoke, whereas hardwood, produces heat, smoke and specific aromatics and flavorings in that smoke. At the hot ember-coal level, both have equal carbonization and act similar for this method of cooking.

Using approximately 8 lbs. of charcoal or 10 lbs. of hardwood, or any combination of the two, light a fire in the equipment of your choice. Let the fire completely burn down until only hot coals remain. Rake the coals to produce a thick even bed. Then select your favorite vegetables from the ones listed below, and you’re on your way! Always keep a small fire going for additional hot coals if doing large amounts of vegetables.

Ember Cooked Vegetables- They Love Hot Coals

Here are the top 10 vegetables to hot ember cook for fantastic flavor:

Asparagus Broccoli Cauliflower Eggplant

Garlic Leeks Gourds (squash, pumpkin)

Onion Peppers Potato

If you want minimal monitoring to the actual cooking process, then place the selected vegetables into the bed of coals and then shovel hot coals and ash over the top so that the entire vegetable surface is covered in embers. Leave untouched until tenderized, which will be 45-60 minutes depending on the vegetable selected. Otherwise, you can set vegetables within the coal bed and turn them during the cooking process to ensure even char.

The Culinary Team wants you to know …

… that cooking food with wood, whether it be directly on embers or more of the traditional way- above the heat source on grates, needn’t be an all meat, all protein cooking episode. As our blog explains many vegetables can and should be the “main event” for your wood-fired cooking events. Dense or thick-skinned fruits are great too! So, be it veggies or fruits, ember cooked or grilled conventionally, your taste buds will be treated to rich, unparalleled flavors. Give ‘em a try!

Leave a comment or suggestion as we’d love to hear from you so we can bring the information you’re looking for. And don’t forget, follow us and subscribe so you don’t miss a thing!­­

For related reading:

More Related reading on “What Wood for Smoking” and other great smoking and grilling tips and techniques

-THAT EMBER GLOW!

-EMBER FIRED ASPARAGUS ON THE HIBACHI

-EMBER COOKED SWEET PEPPERS

-EMBER COOKING/ROASTING GARLIC IN AN IRON SKILLET

SmokinLicious products in this blog:

Wood Chips- Grande Sapore®

Dr Smoke- “Try ember cooking; it is a great way to entertain your guests and enhance your grilling skills.”

Our double filet box of pristine, NO BARK, hardwood wood chunk for smoking ready for the next customer!

WHAT’S IN THE SMOKINLICIOUS® WOOD CHUNK FOR SMOKING BOX? Click To Tweet

These two questions have been quite common for the 12+ years we’ve been in business. What does a cubic foot box of wood weigh? How many pieces do you estimate are in a cubic foot box of wood?

Due to the regulations imposed by The National Conference on Weights and Measures -Uniform Regulation for the Method of Sale of Commodities, we cannot specify weight on a wood product, even though we are a cooking wood. Instead, when asked about weight, we only provide an estimate clearly stating that wood is not sold by weight due to the variation in moisture level and density of the wood selected.

I can, however, tell you the details that a recent first-time customer posted to an online forum that had me elated!

The Specifics You’ve Asked About Wood Chunk for Smoking

This customer took a lot of time and effort to get to the details about our wood; the packaging and the weight not just of the carton, but of specific select pieces. This customer purchased the Serious Smoker Double Filet Wood Chunk which is our cubic foot carton product with the smallest chunk sizing. We offer an option to select up to 3 wood choices for this carton size, with this customer selecting our 3 most popular hardwoods: Hickory, Sugar Maple, and Wild Cherry.

First, let’s look at this customer’s overall purchase.

Wood Chunk for Smoking- It’s In The Numbers

The packaged hardwood weighed in a 32.5 lbs. A total of 139 pieces of wood were packaged. Of that total, 48 pieces were Wild Cherry, 44 pieces Sugar Maple, and 47 pieces Hickory.

Individual Weights

This customer owns equipment that references specific weight of wood needed to smoke optimally. In this case, just 2-4 ounces of wood is ideal.

Although weights for each of the 139 pieces of wood were not obtained, sufficient sampling was done. Here is what was reported:

• the lowest weight of a Wild Cherry chunk (remember, these are all double filet) was 1.5 ounces and the highest was 4.1 ounces
• lowest weight of a Sugar Maple chunk was 2 ounces and the highest at 5.7 ounces
• lowest weight of a Hickory chunk was 2.8 ounces and the highest at 6.4 ounces

For this equipment user, there was an estimate that 139 pieces of hardwood would provide for some 100 smoking events!

What I loved the most about this report is that it correlates specifically to the density of these 3 hardwoods. Hickory has the highest density of the 3 kinds of wood selected and this is reflected by the weight of the individual pieces sampled. Sugar Maple would be next in density followed by the Wild Cherry, all proven with the reported weights.

What Did You Learn?

Unquestionably, there is a lot of wood chunk pieces in a cubic foot carton! Which means you want to ensure you can use that much wood in a reasonable amount of time to maximize the freshness factor and peak level for function as a smoking wood. Individual pieces will vary in weight even if the dimensions of the pieces are relatively the same. That is the nature of a water-rich material – the water weight influences the overall piece weight.

We are indebted to this customer for taking the time to inform us all of his findings since, by law, SmokinLicious® can’t offer this detail.

We hope you liked this post. We’d love to hear from you so subscribe, comment and follow us on all social media platforms. Keep those suggestions coming for the future information you crave.

More Related reading on “What Wood for Smoking” and other great smoking and grilling tips and techniques

Additional reading:

–HOW MUCH WOOD TO ADD WHEN SMOKING

–BOOST UP THE FLAVOR OF YOUR SMOKER BOX!

–THE ART OF CUSTOMIZING YOUR COOKING EXPERIENCE

Our Products Discussed in this Blog:

Wood Chunks- Double Filet

Dr. Smoke- “Thank you to this great customer for analyzing our box- wood chunk for smoking.”

Great beech wood for smoking results are provided from many beech species

Not the most popular of hardwoods in the North American region and certainly it doesn’t have the following in the European market. However, this is still an interesting hardwood to use for wood-fired cooking techniques.

Going Beech! That means your entering the wood family that includes white oak as a relative. Part of the Fagaceae family, the variety we manufacture is Fagus grandifolia Ehrh. Unlike its cousin, Beech doesn’t produce a heavy, pungent flavouring but rather a more balanced, medium toned profile. The common names for the varieties found in the Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania regions are American Beech and Red Beech.

Less temperament than Oak, Beech is considered a rather bland wood to look at. When it is exposed to steam/heat, it takes on a golden hue and that is commonly what the coloring to various meats, poultry, and fish will also show. Keep in mind, like all of our cooking woods, the descriptors used are truly in the palate of the taster. There are no rules that say one wood must be used with a specific food. Experimentation is what the art of fire cooking is all about. And, the region that the wood is harvested from also factors into the flavoring it will provide when foods are exposed to it. The same wood in a western state will not produce the same flavoring as the wood from an eastern state. Everything interacts with the tree: soil pH, growth location, sun exposure, precipitation exposure, etc.

Heat Level: High – 21.8 MBTU

Fuel Efficiency: Excellent

Ease of Lighting: Poor

Ideal Uses: Baking/Grilling/Roasting/Braising/Pit Roasting/Hot Smoking/Cold Smoking

So, take a go at Beech, even if it takes a bit to get it lite. The aroma is pleasant, the burn time is extensive, and the infusion appealing.

The Culinary Team wants you to know …

… although Beech is common in many areas of the world and often used to smoke foods and brew beer in the European tradition, our harvest region of the Eastern Appalachian Mountains has a distinctive balance of soil Ph levels and climate conditions which give our Beech hardwood cooking products a ‘one of a kind’ smoky flavor profile that can be used for a wide variety of foods!

Smokinlicious® products used in this Blog:

Wood Chunks- Double Filet

Wood Chips- Grande Sapore®

More Related reading on cooking and smoking woods like beech wood for smoking:

-BEECH IS CERTAINLY “GRAND” IN EUROPEAN SMOKER WOODS

-WHAT WOOD TO USE FOR SMOKING: A PRIMER

-THE PRECIOUS FOREST

Dr. Smoke- Dr. Smoke- “Often a favorite of many chefs, beech wood for smoking offers a touch of European mellow flavor!”

[Fruitwood trees are often sprayed with pesticide to maximize the fruit yield. Spraying of chemical on the bark may not be too good for using in barbecue?]

ARE FRUITWOOD TREES LIKE THE APPLE “SNOW WHITE” BIT INTO?

There is a fierce debate out there about the use of fruitwood trees, specifically apple and cherry varieties, for cooking purposes. As a Company, we frequently get the same question – “Why don’t I see Applewood as an option to purchase?” Here’s the short answer: We do not, and will not, produce our products from orchard-based woods. Our reason is simple – we do not believe in smoking foods over woods that have been or have the potential to be sprayed or growth enhanced with chemicals.

Trees

Let’s review a fact about trees. All trees produce prussic acid, better known as hydrogen cyanide. We feel that humans can use woods produced in nature when they have been left alone, unburdened by the human hand in trying to manage what sometimes is the normal cyclical pattern of nature. In the areas in which we purchase the heartwood for our cooking wood production facility, the varieties of cherry (Prunus pensylvanica L.f.) we commonly deal with are:

• Northern Pin Cherry, Fire Cherry,
• Wild Red Cherry, and Pigeon Cherry.

Of course, predominately, we bring in Wild Red Cherry. There are many different cherry tree varieties available throughout North America. The main difference in these woods is that our forest trees, the type we manufacture, tend to be on the sweet-tart side versus the sour-bitter. For the most part, hydrogen cyanide is found mainly in the leaves and seeds of the cherry tree. Black Cherry bark is also commonly used in herbal cough remedies.

Opinion:

The dominant opinion is that when used in small quantities, the hydrogen cyanide is a moot issue. Now let’s talk about the smoking application of wood. Cyanogenic compounds WOULD remain a factor in our production of cooking wood. This is because we do not allow our woods to deplete their moisture content to a level that other wood product manufacturers may (what is commonly referred to as “seasoning of the wood”).

For ideal smoking of foods, wood needs to have a moisture level preferably at ~20%. This results in the wood smoldering rather than burning at a rapid rate. The resulting smoke from the plant material provides for that wonderful flavor. Because smoking is done at low temperatures for longer periods of time, the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH’s) found in wood molecules are not stimulated as they normally would be when cooking, say, a steak over a hot flame. Thus, the health risk associated with PAH’s and smoked foods is not considered an issue. The same can be said for ember cooking – using the heat of the residual coals to cook foods.

OUR CONCERN:

Our main concerns regarding woods used for wood-fired cooking methods is to always ensure a bark-free product. Bark does not hold moisture but rather is designed to rid the tree of wastes by absorbing them and locking them into this area. In fact, this is the reason why bark-on woods burn so much faster than bark-free wood pieces. This portion of the tree is responsible for temperature flare-ups, tainted smells, ‘spotty’ appearance of the food’s skin, creosote, an increase in the production of ash. Additionally, once the temperature is increased during wood-fired cooking, heterocyclic amines, or HCAs, are created due to the reaction of the amino acids and creatine with the higher cooking temperature.

In a nutshell, a person is at greater risk of cyanide exposure in treated wood products for home construction than they are when consuming BBQ or other wood-fired foods. Knowing the source of the wood being used in the cooking application is vital to ensure that the necessary steps have been taken to prevent tree disease and pest infestation spread, as well as to ensure that the wood has not been exposed to any chemical/toxin treatments.

It is our hope, that one day soon, inspection of the wood products used by restaurants, caterers, BBQ competitors, and grocery stores who promote smoked and natural-wood fired foods, will occur as normally as food inspections. After all, I think we all can agree that WHAT you cook the food over is just as important as what food you are cooking!

More Related reading on “What Wood for Smoking” and other great smoking and grilling tips and techniques

For related reading:

TO BARK OR NOT

TASTE IS AROMA!

WOOD FIRED CLAMS MAKE THIS THE PERFECT BITE

Purchase products:

Wood Chunks- Double & Single Filet
Wood Chips- Grande Sapore®

Dr. Smoke- “Enjoy the fruit of the tree because that is what they’re there for. Just be careful when using fruitwood trees from orchard based woods to cook your food.”

Smoker Box for gas grill Available at Retail Locations

BOOST UP THE FLAVOR OF YOUR SMOKER BOX! Click To Tweet

BOOST UP THE FLAVOR OF YOUR SMOKER BOX!- People are always in search of that great flavor to food that only comes from hardwood. In fact, it is common for discussions around outdoor cooking to use the terms grilling and barbecuing interchangeably as if they mean exactly the same thing. Let’s be clear – cooking with just LP/Gas is grilling. Barbecue is outdoor cooking over hot coals or wood, whether in lump charcoal form or straight hardwood pieces.

Barbecue vs. Grilling

In an effort for grilling equipment manufacturers to compete with charcoal grills and smokers, many began integrating a wood chip drawer in their units to imply that “barbecue” was possible on a gas grill. If you ever tried these, you likely were disappointed in finding that the intensity of flavor just didn’t compare to charcoal equipment. Then the smoker box was developed with a wide variety of design options from rectangular in shape, V-shaped at the base to fit between grill grates, and venting hole configurations that made claim to more intense smoke penetration. Here’s the thing – no one ever discussed what should go in the smoker box. The assumption was to always use wood chips but I am going to take you on a flavor journey using that box that will open your eyes to understanding cooking with hardwood.

One of the key complaints I hear is that when using wood chips in a smoking box or drawer, the chips don’t seem to give off enough smoke and have a very short burn life. In fact, refilling the box or drawer is often needed to finish a simple food item like chicken pieces or ½ slabs of pork ribs. Wood chunks or uniformed sized pieces of hardwood lend to a much longer burn/smolder rate and give off great flavor infusion.

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Charcoal that is produce properly is a fuel and provides heat! Wood adds flavor!

WHY CHARCOAL IS NOT AN INGREDIENT

There are so many methods of getting a message out rapidly given the speed of technology and the many platforms for posting opinions and marketing strategies today. In doing research for a publication, I came across a statement made by a charcoal company that made me a bit … confused.

An Ingredient Not A Fuel

This company claimed that their product was an ingredient, not a fuel!

Not a fuel? That statement is in direct conflict to what charcoal manufacture was designed for – heat.

I realize that when used with 100% accuracy, charcoal will produce no smoke and a consistent heat. We all know that the 100% accuracy is the kicker – pretty much no one is proficient at producing full ignition of the charcoal with stable air intake to maintain the high heat level the product was designed for. What usually occurs is that we start out with full ignition but given the need for longer cooks, we add charcoal and thus, start to fluctuate the oxygen feed. Only during those fluctuations does the production of smoke occur with charcoal.

Non-Carbonized Wood IS Flavor

Charcoal production is the act of carbonizing wood which means all the volatiles of the wood is burned off until what is left is pure carbon or at least a high percentage of carbon. There is no refuting that it burns cleaner, hotter, and more evenly than wood only.

Here are where differences occur though when it comes to types of charcoal.

Lump charcoal is made from various scrap wood sources like furniture manufacture, a wood packaging manufacturer, the flooring manufacturer, and building material scraps. Due to the high level of variation in these pieces, most often there is not 100% carbonization of the lump charcoal production. That’s why you can get some smoke and flavor from that product; when combustion of a non-charred piece occurs, you’ll stimulate organic compounds that produce flavor. Keep in mind, because scrap wood is used you can get other debris in the purchased bag as often this is scooped up from a site and transferred to a production facility, with the scoop gathering anything that may be in the area.

Traditional charcoal manufacture also known as briquets is also made from scrap wood, sawdust and wood chip product. It is known that some manufacturers include a percentage of softwood but for the most part, the product is derived from hardwood. Briquets do have binders added and there are some types that have accelerants added to make them extremely quick to lite. Personally, I can detect those additives and feel they do change the overall flavor when cooking foods over them but you can make that determination for yourself.

Controlled flavor only comes from wood and the best and safest flavors, from hardwood. Charcoal is a fuel, it is for heat, and the only flavor it produces is when meat/poultry drippings fall directly on the hot coals and vaporize, stimulating flavors. Never are flavors stimulated from the briquet or charcoal.

So, Who Is The Ingredient?

If the definition of an ingredient is a substance that contributes or makes up a mixture, then truly hardwood, regardless if it cooking wood form is in chips, chunks, logs, dust or charwood, is an ingredient in wood-fired cooking recipes as it gives off its distinct organic flavor compounds that make up the cell structures. Heat is NOT an ingredient and that is what charcoal is: HEAT! A claim to be an ingredient just holds no truth.

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Other related reading:

related reading on our blog for smoking with wood.

HOW TO TURN YOUR CHARCOAL GRILL INTO A SMOKER

HOW TO USE CHARCOAL WITH WOOD IN COOKING

HOW MUCH WOOD TO ADD WHEN SMOKING

Products discussed in this Blog:

Wood Chips- Grande Sapore®

Wood Chunks- Single & Double Filet

Charwood

Dr. Smoke Charcoal needs to be supplemented by Smokinlicious wood products!