Adding Charcoal/Wood During Cooking; Flavoring Wood - Brinkmann Gourmet Charcoal Owner's Manual

INSTR-Gourmet Charcoal/CKN CJN

Flavoring Wood

Adding Charcoal/Wood
During Cooking
9
11/25/02 3:26 PM Page 10
To obtain your favorite smoke flavor, experiment by using chunks, sticks
or chips of flavor producing wood such as hickory, pecan, apple, cherry,
or mesquite. Most fruit or nut tree wood may be used for smoke flavoring.
Do not use resinous woods such as pine as it will produce an unpleasant
taste.
Wood chunks or sticks 3" to 4" long and 2" to 1" thick work best. Unless
the wood is still green, soak the wood in water for 20 minutes or wrap
each piece in foil and tear several small holes in the foil to produce more
smoke and prevent the wood from burning too quickly. A lot of wood is
not required to obtain a good smoke flavor. A recommended amount is
3-4 wood chunks or sticks. Experiment by using more wood for stronger
smoke flavor or less wood for milder smoke flavor.
Additional flavoring wood should not have to be added during the cooking
process, however, it may be necessary when cooking very large pieces of
meat. Follow the instructions and cautions below to avoid injury while
adding wood and/or charcoal.
Additional charcoal may be required to maintain or increase cooking
temperature.
NOTE: Dry wood burns hotter than charcoal so you may want to
increase the ratio of wood to charcoal to increase the cooking
temperature. Hardwood such as oak, hickory, mesquite, fruit and
nut wood are an excellent fuel because of their burning rate.
When using wood as fuel, make sure the wood is seasoned and
dry. DO NOT use resinous wood such as pine as it will produce
an unpleasant taste.
1. Remove dome lid by tilting it toward you to allow heat and steam to
escape away from your face. Use caution since flames can flare-up
when fresh air suddenly comes in contact with fire.
2. Wearing oven mitts, remove food from cooking grills, then smoker
body from base pan.
WARNING:
3. Set the smoker body with the water pan aside on a hard, level, non-
combustible surface.
4. Stand back a safe distance and use long cooking tongs to lightly brush
off ashes on hot coals. Use tongs to add charcoal and/or wood, being
careful not to stir-up ashes and sparks.
The water in water pan will be extremely HOT. When lifting
smoker body from base pan, use extreme caution and make
sure the water pan is securely in place on the three lower
support brackets. Keep legs and feet out from under the
smoker body to avoid being scalded by hot liquids spilling
from water pan. Be extremely careful not to tilt or jar smoker
so hot water does not spill out of water pan.