Scrap wood in the BBQ ccooker

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I have not used charcoal or propane in decades. Cook over good dry oak chunks. When you get the hang of it, a good bed of coals can be set up in less than a few minutes. I cook up ten pounds of chicken breasts at a time, so we have plenty for lunches. I get a bed of coals going on one side of the grill. I coat the meat, chicken or even fish with olive il and sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning and then sear the out side over the hot fire and then place the meat on the other side of the grill and close the gill so the food bakes in the hot smoke. The smokey flavor is so much better than anything cooked over charcoal or propane. We have a special pan with 1/4 inch holes for cooking fish and especially like salmon or shrimp cooked over a wood fire. We often grill vegetables too. A thick slice of onion, with a slice of tomato on top, or even a slice of pineapple. Sweet corn roasted in the husk is good. Spray summer squash lengthwise slices with cooking spray and seasoning and grill. Same for sweet potato slices.

[Mark Blatter]

I have a 'Black Egg', a knock off of the Green Egg. I use lump charcoal, but add various scraps of lumber that I save up. I use hardwood like cherry and maple, but also use some cedar and pine as well. I only use actual wood scraps that I have cut up myself to stay away from anything treated or processed in any way.

I did a ham about two weeks ago. We only have one oven in the house so I use my ceramic grill to help out. I just used it to heat up the ham and it came out great. A good smokey flavor, and I left off the spice/sugar sauce that they send with the ham. It is 98% sugar and I decided no reason to add more sugar to the diet. I do my turkeys on it every year now and they are fantastic. I use lots of wood to get things started, then add more pieces as time goes on to increase the smoke. Seems to work real well. Always looking for new things to cook on it.

[jim carter]

i use manzanita in my business so have lots of scrap. i have a special recipe i use to soak the manzanita in before smoking my meat. turns out unbelieveable. add flavor to the wood instead of the meat.

[Scott Winners]

Cherry scraps. And a brine. And bacon grease.

15# turkey, 5 gallon bucket (clean enough to lick), 2 gallons of water at room temp, 2 quarts of boiling water.

Per gallon of water turkey brine ( I used three gallon worth with 2.5 gallons of water)

1.5 cups salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cups apple cider (I have used orange juice and papaya juice with excellent results also)
1/2 teaspoon ginger
4 Tablespoons black pepper
1/2 cup lemon (lime, orange) juice

Put the turkey in the bucket. Split the dry ingredients into two mixing bowls. A quart of boiling water into each bowl, stir to dissolve, pour over bird with two gallons water. Maybe a pie plate to hold the turkey immersed over night. Fridge, probably take the plastic drawers out of the bottom to fit the five gallon bucket. In the morning rinse with tap water, air dry.

Flower power air intake wide open on 22 inch Weber, 5-10 chunks of cherry 1x1x1 to 2x2x2 per chimney of charcoal. Large bowl in the middle of the fire grate under the bird. Pour the lit charcoal onto either side of the bowl. Start with the grease from a pound of bacon, there will be some left over at the end. Work some under the skin all over the turkey, and then paint the outside of the turkey with bacon grease before it goes in the cooker.

Put the turkey in the cooker, directly on the grill, but over the bowl. Reload charcoal and cherry chunks about every 45 minutes (+36 dF day of cook for me, May 4). Rotate the bird every little bit, hotter in the middle and cooler at the edge, you want the breast and thigh meat to be done at the same time, 165 dF and clear juices. The cherry smoke will make a smoke ring in the turkey meat, you cannot judge doneness by meat color here. After about two hours baste outside of turkey with more bacon grease using a small paint brush about every thirty minutes.

Total cook time for a 15 pound bird at +36dF was 3:23. Likely faster in warmer weather, try to keep the ambient temp inside the cooker to 350dF of less. You will have less leftover bird than ever before.

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[Art Mann]

I routinely use lumber scraps in my Primo smoker (similar to Green Egg). I prefer Hickory for pork and Cherry for poultry. I only use lump charcoal in addition to the wood blocks and it will burn for 10+ hours while keeping the interior at 225 - 275 degrees. I normally don't open the smoker after I put the meat on until it is done. The exception is ribs. I normally add sauce and wrap the ribs in foil for the last hour.

[Alex Atkinson]

Some time ago I used to use woods for BBQ, but recently, I've bought an electric grill. Yes, it looks more like a big steak grill pan, but anyway, I realized how comfortable it is! It's a small and portable electric grill, which I take everywhere with me, when leave home for a while. I use my Weber Q2400 all the time when I need to cook vegetables, meat, fish, even toasts...everything. I like the thing that I don't need any "fuel" for it, but I really miss the smell of the open fire and its smoke.
I can say, that I exchanged this piquant taste of fire for practicality.

[Glen Dion]

Though my first choice is still the ole charcoal brisquit with a few scraps of wood on the faithful Weber. When having to use gas or propane I have a small stainless bowl\cup I place some shaving in and let them get smoking. It does add enough smoke for flavor. I've seen others brush the grilling surface with a diluted liquid smoke product.

[Rob Luter]

I use White Oak scraps occasionally as well as Cherry. My go-to is Apple or Pecan wood. I buy those in lemon size chunks that have been kiln dried. I've always been wary of using local orchard wood. We have tons of it around here when they prune the orchards but it gets sprayed every year with pesticides. I wonder if that winds up permeating the wood?