We’ve all been there! You purposely made a list of all the things you would need for the weekend BBQ. Carefully selected the meat, cleaned the grill or smoker the weekend before, and purchased the wood chips to impart that great flavoring you can only get from hardwood! You marinated the meat 24 hours ahead and woke up on grill day full of excitement.
WILDFIRE SMOKE TAINT grapes may add some bold tastes
WILDFIRE SMOKE TAINT IS THE BBQ COOK’S UMAMI
Summary:
The Wine Spectator article has us thinking how Wildfire Smoke taint grapes can make smoke taint in wine! Think what a smoke taint wine with a smoky taste can do for your Barbecue sauces! These vineyard grapes caught in the California wildfires by the traveling smoke can add some smoky boldness to our cooking!
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I came across a fascinating article in Wine Spectator (June 15, 2018) that made me salivate. The article focused on the wildfires of California, specifically Northern California, in October 2017 that had vineyards struggling with grapes that had not yet been harvested for wine production and were exposed to the fire’s smoke.
Smoke taint. That is the smoky flavors grapes will pick up from traveling smoke gases and particles that become airborne with the wind. Even if a vineyard did not experience the fire directly, it can be affected by the traveling smoke. That is the key though: a vineyard may or may not contain smoke taint in the grapes.
Let’s be honest. When you bought that charcoal grill you were likely thinking that you could both grill and smoke without needing to add anything. Soon, you realized, that just wasn’t the case. Now, you’re contemplating whether you need to purchase a smoker. Well, hold on the shopping trip until you read this. We can help you turn your charcoal grill into a smoker!
You can turn your charcoal grill into a smoker with these simple steps!
Measurement versus weight of “green” wood has been decided by the Federal Government years ago and must be sold only by Measurement!
SmokinLicious® receives this question ALL the time! Where can I find how much your product weighs?
We know consumers compare prices. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, we encourage comparison of our products to others on the market. The only problem is, many brands are selling by weight in the USA which is not the legal method for selling cooking wood chunks and chips.
There is a Law!
Need the regulation?
The National Conference on Weights and Measures -Uniform Regulation for the Method of Sale of Commodities, has very specific regulations regarding the sale of “Stove Wood” or “Flavoring Chips“. Regulation 2.43. (a) specifies that “Natural wood offered for sale in a packaged form…shall display the quantity in terms of cubic meters, to include decimal fractions of cubic meters; or cubic feet, to include cubic feet.”
What does that all mean? The short answer is, selling by weight is not fair to the buyer. If you purchased a bag of wood chips weighing 6 lbs., that same bag purchased a few months later may only weigh 4 lbs. yet, the price remained unchanged. An even better example is with hardwood chunks. Say a seller offers 10lbs. of chunks for a set price. The first time you buy, you get a 12x12x12 box but the 2nd time, the box is only 12x8x8. Same cost but the box suddenly shrunk. Why?? Wood naturally adjusts to temperature and humidity which results in weight changes. The denser and wetter the wood, the higher the weight. Dry it out, and you lighten up the weight.
Kiln Dried, Air Dried, Heat Treated – What Does It All Mean?
The nature of our SmokinLicious® products, products that have a controlled heat treatment process applied to it rather than kiln drying, is that they will continue to lose weight the longer they remain in storage. This is the natural dehydration process of timbered hardwood.
When the wood is initially processed it has a much higher moisture level making it quite heavy. Most would refer to this as “green” wood or unseasoned. Once heat treated to ensure thermal death time of any microbials and pests, the wood will weigh more than when it is packaged for the customer at the time an order is placed. This is the natural seasoning process affecting the weight of the wood and the main reason why regulations are in place to ensure a fair competitive market.
Be Wary of Those Who Sell By Weight
SmokinLicious®never advertises the weight of our products. In fact, the reason that we include the shipping cost into our prices is to eliminate this as a concern for our customers.
If you find products on the market that are selling by weight, we encourage you to seek further information from the supplier in order to know just what you are paying for. Many wood products labeled as suitable for grilling and smoking may actually contain little to no moisture. Rather than release flavor to your foods, these woods can potentially only offer heat which can render foods overcooked. Especially those woods packaged in plastic bags should be suspect as these are likely too DRY for your smoking and grilling application.
Dr. Smoke
Dr. Smoke, we comply with the Federal regulations on the sale of wood and ONLY sell or quote in measurement versus weight. Remember you don’t purchase a pound of 2 x 4’s
Is it fresh, is always a question that comes from new smokehouse products wood chips customers only! Our old customers know that at Smokinlicious® we are cutting products daily and measuring moisture to produce the best smoking wood in the world!
I always find it interesting when we receive a new inquiry about providing specialty products for commercial-grade smokehouses. I’m speaking specifically to the large commercial-grade smokehouse. The type that utilize walk-in, wall smokehouse units that can turn out hundreds of pounds of product each cycle.
First, there’s always the question if we can duplicate the current wood chip product. That’s where the education begins.
If you’ve purchased a smoker, you’re likely familiar with the term “water pan”. If, however, you’re more of an LP/Gas Grill person, than this term is likely one that escapes your knowledge.
Water pans are a means of introducing valuable moisture into the cooking environment which has immense value when grilling and smoking. Let me explain each of the pros of learning and using a water pan for your outdoor cooking, no matter the type of equipment you’re cooking on.
Temperature control. This is the ultimate need when you grill or smoker, especially when you smoke. Maintaining a stable temperature that you’ve predetermined. When the day is scorching hot and the equipment is made of metal, you will experience a challenge with temperature control. Introduce a water pan, and your battle can be won.
A water pan goes above the heat source. If using a charcoal grill or charcoal/wood smoker, this pan would be placed above the coal area. Have an electric unit and you’ll find the pan over the electric heating element. If you want to introduce a water pan on an LP/Gas Grill, this would be placed over the lit burners. Many vertical smokers come with a water pan.
Water Pan Pro #2
Water cannot go above the boiling point which is 212°F. Additionally, evaporative cooling also takes place as the water is exposed to heat.
Water Pan Pro #3
A water pan can become the number one tool when doing direct heat cooking over an open flame. Why? It acts as a repellent for the flame giving your foods a chance to survive without becoming a blackened, dried out, former piece of food.
Water Pan Pro #4
Are you having trouble with hot spots in your equipment? Well, a water pan will even them out. Now, the temperature you desire can essentially be locked in just by using a water pan.
Water Pan Pro #5
Humidity that develops from the use of a water pan keeps the surface of the meat moist, which in turn, attracts smoke vapor, which in turn, produces great flavor. The water vapor mixes with the combustible gases which are emitted from the burning material and add to the overall flavor. Yes, water is a passageway to all things flavorful!
What Goes in the Water Pan
It’s called a water pan for a reason. It is designed to hold water, specifically hot water to keep the cooker from wasting energy on heating cold water put in the pan. Here’s a tip when you fill the water pan: use a teapot to fill the pan while it’s in place so you don’t take the chance of spilling hot water on surfaces or you. Remember, water evaporates while other liquids don’t evaporate.
Don’t Make the Water Pan a Drip Pan
Here’s the thing with a drip pan. Due to its location directly over the heat source, when used on vertical units it often serves double duty as a drip pan. Don’t do that! Here’s why. The rendered fat drippings can produce an oil slick on the surface of the water which will prevent water evaporation.
Make Cleaning a Snap
Here’s a couple of tips when using a water pan. If your unit comes with a water pan, line it in aluminum foil which will allow you to simply pull the foil off and preserve the condition of the original pan.
If you’re using a unit that has no water pan but want to introduce one, simply purchase a disposable foil pan. You will want to purchase one that is compatible in size to the unit your using, that will fit comfortably over the heat source, and that can hold enough water to prevent you from having to make refill trips every 15 minutes.
Dr. Smoke- The water pan in smoker explained is essential for moist results in grilling and smoking.
Our Readers Are Asking…
What does water pan do in a smoker?
A water pan induces moisture directly into your smoker as an ally for the indirect dispersion of heat. Never use your water pan as a drip pan. Remember- drip pans = a collection unit for residual or run off grease from the cooking process; a water pan = water for moisturizing foods.
At SmokinLicious® we take protecting the customer’s information as if it was our own!
CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET- BY PROTECTING THE CUSTOMER’S INFORMATION?
I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences. You’re looking for a specific product, you come across a web page you’ve never visited before. You quickly seek out testimonials and location/contact information and develop an interest in purchasing from that supplier. Your only hesitation is, you don’t see a lot of information on who they sell to from a commercial prospect. So, you may bookmark them but you seek out another avenue for purchasing what you need or stay with the current supplier.
SmokinLicious® could be that company search.
Here’s the thing. Most Chefs, Food & Beverage Buyers, Purchasing Agents, and CEOs don’t want their competition to know about their operation. They certainly don’t want them to know about a key food ingredient especially one like hardwood that can make or break a menu or food item.
Would we like to add a page to our website and sales package of all the logos of the various companies, resorts, restaurants, and smokehouses that use our products from around the world? Absolutely! Would that give credence to our cause? Certainly! Could that posting bring new business? I would hope.
But here’s the thing. Companies and particularly Chefs and SmokeMasters, don’t like to give up their secrets especially when it comes to cooking, recipes, and technique. Every type of market is competitive but when it comes to food, the margins are really slim on turning a profit and making a restaurant, resort, or food company a success. For that reason, we’ve learned to always start out with our Partners telling them that “we can keep a secret”. We won’t look to post their logo on our website or include it in our media kit. We won’t ask them to give a detailed testimonial on what product they’re using and with what equipment. Instead, we stand behind them. We offer the technical support they can’t get anywhere else. We offer them consulting services they can’t get from any other wood supplier. And we offer customization of product that makes them stand out from all the other companies attempting to do a similar thing.
And what do we get? Pride. That we are the best product out there because our Partners get the results they want and need. That we have the knowledge of wood-fired technique and hardwoods that can’t be found anywhere else. That we can work with them to develop customization they won’t get anywhere else.
In the long run, it’s like having a BFF. We’ll always be there to listen to your needs, to guide you, to work through your tribulation, to celebrate your success, and to keep your secrets!
Dr. Smoke, we don’t let our secrets and we apply this same principle by protecting the customer’s information!
The questions are quite frequent: “Since (the equipment) uses lump charcoal, do you need to add wood for smoke flavor?” “Do wood chips or chunks work best if they are needed or desired?” “Generally, how much lump charcoal does equipment use for 10 hours of smoke?”
I’m going, to be frank. When having an opportunity to search through social media photos of various foods cooked by fire and smoke and seeing a reference to the wood, I get uncomfortable. There doesn’t appear to be the same concern for the choice of wood as there is for the rub, cut of meat, quality of meat, choice of equipment, and sauce.
Why is it that the wood used to flavor the foods grilled and smoked is an afterthought?
Rating Scale for Cooking Wood
Recently, I ran across an article in Reader’s Digest that focused on the dangers of wildfire smoke, especially for those living in areas of the United States that are hit repeatedly by these events. What struck me the most was the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index: good, moderate, unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy, very unhealthy, and hazardous. This guide is used to recommend evacuations of locations, use of HEPA filtration to allow people to remain in an affected area, and as a method of gaining valuable data post-fire on the effects, smoke has on plant life. There is considerable data available from tree bark which has long been known to absorb pollutants.
This got me thinking about hardwoods used for smoking, grilling, and overall cooking of foods. There is no regulatory agency that oversees wood used for cooking. Despite efforts to get the Food Safety and Inspection Services division to recognize the risks associated with cooking with wood, no governmental agency has stepped up to offer regulations in this area such as established inspections of equipment and wood.
Why Kosher is important for Cooking wood!
As the manufacturer of all the products sold under the brand SmokinLicious®, we struggled with what steps to take that would demonstrate our commitment to only offer hardwoods that are considered safe for cooking. Although we stressed that we are bark-free (an important step to reduce the exposure to toxins locked in the bark layers), that we only manufacture from the heartwood (an area of the tree that is known to be resistant to insects and decay), and that we manufacture each cut to the wood for the end cooking product, we simply desired some validation of these steps.
Since we’ve always considered the wood another ingredient to cooking, we decided to explore the options from the food perspective. What certification could we apply for that would demonstrate that we are a food-related item? Kosher certification was the perfect place to start!
Certification Means?
For us, the steps we’ve taken to obtain Kosher certification via VA’AD HAKASHRUS OF BUFFALO verified our commitment to keep our manufacturing facility at the highest standard possible. People are drawn to kosher food for various reasons including quality, a healthy lifestyle, food safety, and allergy security. By securing this certification, we can demonstrate to the public that our products satisfy the food quality and safety requirements they should strive for daily. As such, our customers don’t have to settle for an unregulated product that frankly, could contain pretty much anything in the package because, as pointed out, there is no system of check on wood cooking and smoking products.
The SmokinLicious® Cooking Wood Index
Taking a page from the Environmental Protection Agency, I thought it would be helpful to develop an index to use for hardwood intended for cooking. Our grading system is based on toxicity factors of a wood, ease of lighting, sustained burn, coal formation, smoke production, and heat level. Our index is: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, Unhealthy.
Excellent: Alder, American Beech, Ash, Cherry, Hickory, Pecan, Maple, Apple
We hope you will find this guide useful. Use it as a means of sorting through all the types of wood offerings to make an educated decision, to look for key information on the packaging that will confirm you are making a safe decision. After all, why take any additional risks when it comes to the health and safety of your family.
Making you an informed consumer through valuable articles like this one. Hope you enjoyed this blog about cooking with wood! Leave us a comment and subscribe for more great recipes, techniques, tips, and the science behind the flavor, that’s SmokinLicious®.
There are many opinions out there in the BBQ world when it comes to the wood used for smoking and grilling. Some people preach it doesn’t matter where the wood comes from as long as it isn’t a treated lumber. Comments include, “don’t worry if there are bugs or bug holes – if they’re in there, they’ll just burn up”, or “fires are hot so anything on the wood just burns so you can grill with moldy wood”.
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
Everyone starts their grilling career on this convenient, inexpensive, small piece of equipment. But do we do it correctly? Let’s review the basics.
First, this is for grilling over an open fire; it needs high heat to cook. It has a low (height) fire pan and generally no hood or lid. Great high heat cooker/grill – not a smoker.
Lesson #1 Hibachi Wood Grill:-plan what you cook properly!
Now, let’s review how to set up the fire. The region that gave the hibachi its popularity is the Far East which has access to a type of charcoal called “bichiton”. This is a very dense, heavy charcoal made from oak that is direct fired to a high carbonization level. This charcoal produces an extremely high heat; 3-4 times the heat level of an American charcoal!
Can’t locate “bichiton” charcoal or don’t want the expense if you find it? Well, you can use SmokinLious® products to get close to the results. Let’s begin with charcoal – North America produces lump charcoal pieces that are too large for the small Hibachi. So take 2-3 pieces(depending on size), put them in a small paper bag (lunch bag size) and press with your hands to break them into smaller “thumb” size pieces (or you can use a meat mallet). Then pour into the firebox. If the firebox is not full –repeat until you fill it. If you don’t have a small torch available, put some paper under the charcoal, then ignite. Or, you can place the original charcoal pieces in small paper bags, then break the pieces apart, and place the bag in the firebox for lighting.
Once the charcoal burns down (gray in color), start adding Grande Sapore® wood chips as this will provide for immediate heat and eventually, some flavoring to the food. Once the charcoal/chip combo’s flames settle down, you can begin cooking! Remember, hibachis are traditionally used for thin meats so adjust your cook time to what you’re cooking.
What I like about hibachi cooking is the ease of adding more wood chips when more fuel is needed!
Once you master the fire set up, you will enjoy some wonderful food and some really fun cooking the Hibachi way. Think Korean BBQ! Yum!
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.
