SMOKE SMOKING & WOOD

When I hear the term smoke, or to smoke food, one must use wood it is an important part of smoking, barbecuing and grilling, it adds that smoke element that cannot be duplicated, there are imitation liquid smoke that can be added to sauces but why not have the real thing, besides meat cooks great over a combination of charcoal and wood. We must incorporate the element of heat as there is no smoke without flame, and there is no cooking of meats without heat, this can be accomplished by purchasing mesquite charcoal which has the wood element for smoking and charcoal for heat, however additional wood can be used for more better smoke flavor.
It is a general rule that meats can only absorb smoke flavor for the first four to five hours of cooking, so if for instance you are smoking a turkey for 6 hours add wood only up to the fourth or fifth hour of cooking time.
How much wood to use? If the chunks are the size of your fist I use a couple three to four per hour depending upon the size of your BBQ grill, the larger or the more meat the more it can handle. if they are small chips a handful every half hour.
Wet or Dry Wood? If the wood is chunks or chips some Grillers prefer to soak their wood in water for a few hours before cooking, there are also Barbecuer's that will use fruit juices to add an extra flavor like pineapple, apple juice, etc. Both wet or dry produce about the same amount of smoke, the dry is more instant and are good for suppressing fat flame-up's when small chips are added to the hot charcoals and all grill openings are closed until the flame-up is out.
Dry Wood Be aware that dry wood will have jumping flames so don't have any food directly over the wood or near it.
Wet Wood does not have jumping flames the moisture keeps the wood burning a little longer, if you listen you can hear it sizzle.

Our Big O.G. Charcoal Grill measures
22" x 34" equals 748 square inches and top shelf warmer grill 9"x34" adds 306 inches for a total of 1054 square inches.
See O.G. Grill below.