When learning to cook barbecue, the one thing that everyone seems to learn quickly is to use wood, such as wood chips or wood chunks, or wood pellets, to give your barbecue a smoky flavor. What is not learned quickly enough is how much to use and most use too much, creating an over smoked, bitter piece of meat that is not very pleasant to eat.

Wood flavoring has to be considered similarly to a spice.

If you put salt on something, you are careful to add small amounts and taste, until you come up with just the right amount. The same thing applies to smoke flavor, start with a small amount of wood chips, or a wood chunk, and work your way up. You will find out real quick that people have much different opinions to yours, on how much smoke flavor should be there, so starting with a small amount is the best advice to give.

Chips, Chunks, Sticks, or pellets

If you’re trying to figure this out, then my guess is you’re cooking with charcoal and wanting to flavor with wood. However, I will go over the uses for all 4.

Chips – Wood chips are often purchased, and used handfuls at a time. I really don’t recommend using them for cooking barbecue. The reason is they burn way to fast, before getting any real benefit from them. The best use for wood chips is for adding smoke flavor while grilling, where you would add them to a tray, wrapped in foil, or directly over hot coals.

Chunks – If you’re cooking barbecue, and using charcoal as your heat source, then wood chunks would be my choice, and it should be yours also. Wood chunks are big enough to give smoke for a period of time, and if mixed into your charcoal, should last. One thing to make note of is, if you will be wrapping your meat at any point during the cook, I recommend adding chunks as you go, rather than mixing them into your charcoal. You don’t want to be wasting wood chunks, when your meat is wrapped in foil.

Sticks – Can also refer to split logs, so we can obviously be talking a wide range in size and thickness. If they are thin sticks, you can certainly use them like chunks in the smaller cookers. But if you have split logs, then you need to save these for when you are using a large cooker, fireplace, or camp fire. Do not attempt to use split logs in charcoal cookers. You will ruin your cooker, and over smoke your meat. Split logs need a large area for clean combustion.

Pellets – Pellets are mostly used as a fuel source in pellet cookers however, it is getting increasingly popular to use wood pellets in varying flavors, to flavor meats on charcoal cookers, and gas grills.

Types of Wood for Barbecue

The different types of wood can complicate your decision on what to use, we will go over a few here, but if you decide on a single type of wood to use on most of your meats, such as Oak or Hickory, you would be just fine.

Fruit Woods

Fruit woods have always been popular to use, and tend to be milder in flavor. The use of fruit woods is very regional in nature. Here is a brief list of fruit woods used and the best meats to use them with.

Apple – Is a mild, sweet, smoke which is exceptionally good on Poultry. It is versatile enough to be great on pork, and beef, you can’t go wrong with Apple.

Cherry – Is a popular wood as well, especially Wild Cherry wood. Like Apple, Cherry is very well suited for poultry, but in some areas it is just as popular to use with Beef. Cherry can also be used on all meats, but be careful, too much can make your meat very dark in color, especially when using wild cherry.

Peach – This is a southern favorite, a mild very sweet wood is extremely well suited for pork and poultry, although like the others so far, can work great on all meats.

Citrus – Orange is likely the most popular out of the citrus woods to use, but they all are very similar, and you would likely not be able to tell the difference. Citrus is a very light, mild wood, which is great on all meats.

Guava – Even though it is not real popular, I had to include this wood because I feel it deserves to be here. Like citrus, it is a mild smoke, very good with poultry, and it is versatile enough to use on all meats.

Nut Woods

Hickory – This is likely the favorite of this type of wood, and like the oak has several related varieties. Hickory is a bold pleasant flavored smoke which is best suited for pork, and beef, but can be used for poultry as well. If you know how to use it, you can also use it for all meats.

Oak – Even though hickory could be considered the favorite, oak is likely the most used, and this is mostly because of the vast varieties of oak, which makes it the most common based on availability. It is the most versatile, and even though you have mild varieties and not so mild varieties, it can be used for all meats. Oak is an excellent wood for direct grilling.

Pecan – A close cousin to the hickory tree, a little milder, and very popular in the Deep South. Pecan is a good wood for all meats.

Black Walnut – Not a favorite of mine, but it is considered a smoking wood.  It is a strong flavored smoke, and it is best suited, for thick cuts of beef, or pork.

Other Popular Hard Woods

Maple or Sugar Maple – This wood is close to hickory or pecan, but sweeter. It is very popular to use with bacon, and all cuts of pork. It can be used for all meats if desired.

Mesquite – This is a very popular wood, which was fortunate for ranchers in the southwest who consider this to be a weed. Mesquite is strong as a smoking wood, and should be used sparingly. However, I highly recommend Mesquite as a direct grilling wood, in my opinion the best for steaks.

Alder – This is a mild smoke for the most part, and as a result is used a lot for smoking fish. It can be used on all meats, and it is very popular in some areas, and is used as a base in some pellets. Alder does make a great direct grilling wood.

By Kevin Bevington

There are many types of smoker you can buy, which include many shapes and sizes. When you’re purchasing a smoker there are only a few things that you really need to keep in mind.

1.            How many people do you need to feed?

2.            How much money do you want to spend?

3.            How much work you want to do?

Just like you see on TV you can actually build a smoker for very little money however, you’re not going to want to use a very low quality smoker to cook for many people. If you plan on cooking professionally as a caterer or as a competitor, you will want to buy a smoker that will allow you to cook a lot of food at one time. If you’re looking to cook in your backyard perhaps for just your family or a few close friends a smaller cooker would be your best bet.

What most people don’t understand is a large cooker will cook at a different temperature than a small cooker. What this means is, the cooking temperature is relative to the environment your cooking in. This may be a difficult to understand at first, but it is a concept you will need to grasp, if you plan on cooking in different environments. Let’s give an example, if I tell you that you should cook that brisket at 250 degrees for 10 hours. You can’t assume that statement to be correct, unless the following variables are exact.

1.            You would need to be using the same cooker

2.            You would need to be cooking the same piece of meat.

It’s impossible to match the first variable (unless you borrowed my smoker, but it’s possible to be close), or the second variable (unless you stole my piece of meat). Since we are talking about smokers right now, let’s start with the first variable. If you cooked that brisket in a 250 gallon tank/offset smoker, and I was using a bullet style smoker, it’s very likely using the cooking method I suggested, you would not want to cook at 250 degrees, you may want to cook at 220 to 225 degrees, or even a little less. And this is the reason why. That brisket (of equal size and weight) will have far less influence on the air immediately surrounding it, in your big tank smoker, than in my bullet style smoker. We have a huge difference in the volume of air in both environments. However, if you were cooking 10 briskets of that size and weight, you may want to now increase your cooking temperature to what I recommended using my bullet style smoker.

Still puzzled? Let’s look at this a different way, and compare it to volumes of water. If you take an ice cube and put it into a gallon of 80 degree water, and then take another ice cube and put it into a swimming pool of 80 degree water, will the ice cubes melt in the same amount of time? Of course not, the ice cube in the swimming pool will melt very quickly compared to the ice cube in the gallon of water, and why is that? Both environments are not equal, the ice cube in the 80 degree swimming pool has less influence on the water immediately surrounding it, compared to the ice cube in the gallon of 80 degree water. The same thing happens in the smoker, and just like water movement in the swimming pool, air movement in the smoker also has great influence on this. So, cooking temperatures and cooking times given in recipes, should be used as a guide, and not gospel.  You need to understand, and learn to use the cooker you are using, and there is no substitute for that.

This is probably the single biggest obstacle to many beginner bbq’rs, in fact the unfortunate thing is many start out with the cheapest smoker they can buy, and don’t understand that they have just purchased a cheap piece of equipment, loaded with design flaws. However, they are fairly easy to overcome if you understand the basics to controlling heat.

First, heat is produced by fire, whether it is wood, charcoal, or gas (we will talk about electric in a minute). A fire needs air to stay lit, right? Most of us somewhere in life have attempted the experiment of putting a candle in a jar, and watched it go out, as soon as it ran out of air.  The same applies to a smoker. We can now control the size of the fire, with the amount of air. Increase the amount of air, and you can increase the intensity of the fire (assuming you have enough fuel). Decrease the amount of air, and you reduce the intensity of the fire.

Second, you need to have somewhere for the smoke, and heated air to go. If you put an air tube in the jar with the candle, pushing air in, the candle would still eventually go out, suffocating from it’s own smoke. The same applies to a smoker, you need an escape (or vent) for the smoke and heated air.

Third, we have all learned somewhere that heat rises, so if we put an exhaust tube at the top of the jar, we have now created a vent, or escape for the smoke, and heated air. If we fit this tube with a valve, we can now control the amount of air leaving the jar. Now, along with controlling the amount of air going into the jar, we now have complete control of the intensity of the candle burning inside the jar.

Your smoker comes with the same elements. First you have a grate or pan that holds charcoal or wood, and vents that control incoming air, and a vent at the top of the smoker to control the air or smoke going out of the smoker. If we have a fire burning, and both vents wide open, then we have an intense fire, and a hot, clean (little smoke) cooking environment . If we close down the top exhaust vent some, we have now decreased the flow of air leaving the smoker, and are now trapping some of smoke for a longer period of time in the cooking chamber , and we now have a not so clean (smoky) cooking environment. This also reduces the draw of air and does decrease the intensity of the fire, by reducing the amount of air being pulled through the cooker..

If we now close the incoming vent, we have decreased the amount of air going in, and we have then decreased the intensity of the fire, and will decrease the temperature in the cooking chamber, because we have now not only decreased the volume of the fire, but the amount of heated air traveling through the cooker.

Until you get a hang of things, the best way to do this is to maintain your exhaust vent control at either a full open, or slightly less than full open, and control your temperature purely by controlling the incoming airflow. When you get the hang of things, you can then fine tune your cooking environment using your exhaust vent control.

It could take a few tries before you get the hang of this, but once you do get the hang of it, you will then be able to control your cooker, and produce the cooking temperature your looking for.

In a charcoal or wood fire, we have to be concerned with more than just air coming in and leaving the cooker. We also need to be concerned with waste (ash) blocking the air from getting to the fire. In a cooker, in order for heated air to flow, and for the fire to stay lit, air needs to get underneath the fire.

In many low budget charcoal cookers, they don’t necessarily take this into consideration and don’t  give any room for ash accumulation. When you burn charcoal or wood, this will produce ash, and some charcoal brands will produce large amounts of ash. If your using a charcoal pan, and just place your charcoal in the pan, and you manage to get it lit, your fire will be choked and put out by ash, before it ever runs out of fuel, and regardless of the amount of air given to it.

You need to use a charcoal grate, and have a minimum of 2 inches (more if possible), to allow for ash accumulation, and still give enough space for air to get underneath your fire.

In charcoal, wood, gas, and pellet cookers you need to account for the amount of fuel you will need to complete your cook. There is no exact method to figure this out, because it will vary based on cooking temperature, quality of fuel used, external temperatures, physical size of the cooking environment, etc. But here is a guide:

Charcoal – roughly 2-3lbs per hour

Gas – .5 to 1lb per hour.

Wood Pellets – 1lb per hour

Wood sticks (logs)- 2 to 3 per hour

Always over estimate your need, and you should be ok, you never know what may happen at any time to cause you to use more fuel than anticipated.

When using an electric cooker, you really don’t have the concern of having enough fuel, or the concern of having the airflow to keep the fire alive. Just make sure the power does not go out.

Forced Air Draft

What is forced air draft?  This is a fancy way to describe blowing air into a fire, and not relying on natural draft. This is most commonly and effectively done using a fan controlled by a programmable thermostat.

These devices are available for purchase to fit most cookers, and come built into pellet cookers, and some insulated charcoal cookers. These devices really help to control the temperature in your cooker, keeping it consistent, which will conserve your fuel giving you longer burns.

The selection process I use for this piece of meat, includes finding one has the fat well marbled or dispersed throughout the cut.

Then, I start looking at weight, the higher the weight, the longer the cook, so I like them right in the middle (8-9lbs). You can find very small ones, which in my opinion are normally difficult to get tender (4-6lb), and the very large ones (11-13lb) are difficult to cook evenly.

Ok, we have found our Boston butt, and it is now time to marinate the piece of meat. The most popular way, and very acceptable way I might add is to put a real good dry rub on, and let it marinate for 10 to 12 hours. A good rub, is the rub we assembled in our first segment in this series “All BBQ Needs is a Good Rub!”.

I like to use what is called a wet rub, which would mean to coat the meat first with a liquid of some kind then apply the rub, or it could mean to actually mix the liquid and the rub, and then apply. My favorite way to approach this would be to apply yellow mustard, then apply the rub. Just plain yellow

Mustard has 2 very desirable properties which make it a great choice in your wet rub application. First, it contains vinegar, vinegar being an acid will start to break down the surface of the meat, allowing the dry rub flavor to penetrate deeper and quicker, then if applied on its own. The other positive to yellow mustard is the consistency. Mustard is more like a paste and it will hold the rub on the meat very effectively, and the taste of it will actually blend well, and not be distinguishable on its own.

You can also inject this cut, and add flavors this way to the meat, such as apple juice, cider vinegar, etc.. This is a very acceptable way to prepare this cut of meat, and if you are going to do so, you would want to inject before you apply your wet rub. In this article, we will add additional flavors after it is cooked. After we have applied our wet rub, we will let marinate for 10 to 12 hours ideally, but if your in a hurry, then I would recommend a minimum of 4 hours. After the marinate time, about 30 minutes prior to putting it in your cooker, apply another coating of the dry rub only. Then let the rub work itself in for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Ok, we are ready to cook. I prefer to cook this cut slow, so I would recommend to cook this between 225 – 250 degrees F. Next, once the outside (the bark) reaches a nice dark color, I wrap the butt in heavy duty aluminum, an ideal internal temperature of the boston butt at this point should be between 150 -170 degrees F (after about 4 to 5 hours), then, place it back into the cooker. I have a few reasons why I like to wrap, first it allows you  retain the juices from the butt to use for flavoring after its cooked, it keeps the butt moist, and it will not lose as much moisture, and finally it reduces the cooking time. When foiling at this point, it helps break down the connective tissue in a quicker amount of time.

Remove the butt from the cooker once it has reached an internal temp of 195 – 200 degrees F. You will now want to let it rest in a warm environment (empty cooler, wrapped in a blanket, food holding box) for at least an hour. Then remove from the foil (retaining the juice), and pull, some like to use their hands, and others like to use forks, or a handy tool referred to as bear paws. Once pulled you can now add more flavor to your pork by adding BBQ Sauce, or the retained juices, adding rub, etc. Then serve..

About the Author

Kevin Bevington is the Pit master for the Championship BBQ Team, HomeBBQ.com He has won 60 Championship Titles including 30 Grand Championships, and 30 Reserve Grand Championships. Kevin has released 2 DVD’s for the Backyard Cook, Grilling with HomeBBQ.com and Backyard BBQ with HomeBBQ.com. He also sells some of the finest bbq and grilling rubs, and Barbecue Sauce, the actual products he uses in Barbecue Competitions.

Join the forum discussion on this post

By Kevin Bevington
Now that we have our rub, the right equipment, and we are able to control a consistent temperature, we are ready to attempt the toughest meat to cook, Beef Brisket. Lets first discuss how to select the meat you are about to cook. Beef Brisket can typically be sold in 3 different size cuts.

First, is the whole packer cut, this whole cut includes the 2 very distinctly different muscles that make up the entire cut, you have the flat which would be considered the flat long piece of meat, the point, which includes the nose end, and the meat layer underneath the flat, which is separated by a layer of fat which is also known as a deckle layer. The whole packer cut is the most desirable cut to cook in your smoker, the main reason being, the tremendous amount of fat that can be left on this cut to give it plenty of moisture to draw from while cooking.

The next cut would be just the flat cut. The flat is exactly that, if you buy this piece of meat, it will likely be closely trimmed, and that makes it more of a challenge to cook in your smoker, without drying it out.

Ok, now lets discuss the grade of meat you will need to choose, I will only touch on this briefly, because this subject could easily be an article of its own. The 3 beef grades we will discuss here are as follows;

Select – This grade is a leaner animal, and with beef brisket you need marbled fat to help get this fibrous cut tender, without falling apart, and being dry. This is not the grade to choose.
Choice – There is actually more than 1 level of choice, however, as a whole, choice has more marbled fat, and would be the one to pick, based on availability. You can cook a choice brisket until it is tender, without it falling apart, and without it being dry.
Prime – This grade has the highest level of marbled fat, and as a result, if cooked properly can produce a brisket of extreme quality. However, it can be very difficult to find.
Based on what is available to you, you need to select your brisket based on marbling (a web like appearance) of fat, and size. I would normally choose a heavier whole packer brisket, my favorite size somewhere between 14 and 16lbs. I would not cook one under 10lbs.

Now that we have our meat selected, you will want to marinate this piece of meat, either using a dry rub, or a combination of a marinade and a dry rub. You can also inject this piece of meat, however because it is so fibrous you will have to be very careful injecting, the majority of your injection could end up everywhere, instead of inside the brisket. If you do decide to inject, I would inject in the same direction as the grain.

Once you have placed your desired rub, and or marinade on your brisket, let this piece of meat marinate for at least 6 to 8 hours. I prefer to give it 10 to 12 hours marinate time.

Here is my recommended method for cooking this piece of meat. Your cooking temperature should be between 225 to 250 degrees F. Place the brisket in your smoker, fat side down, and cook until it the bark reaches the desired color. The internal temp at this point should be between 150 – 170 degrees F. Double wrap in aluminum foil, and put it back into your smoker, and continue to cook until tender in the thickest part of the flat. Using your instant read thermometer, the internal temp should be between 190 – 196 degrees F, and your thermometer should slide easily in and out of the meat. Then remove from your smoker, and let rest in a warmed environment, for a minimum of 1 hour. Then remove the brisket from the foil and slice against the grain, to a thickness of 3/8 of an inch. Serve immediately with your favorite bbq sauce.

Join the forum discussion on this post

By Kevin Bevington

There are different ways to cook, and determine doneness in your BBQ ribs, and we are going to break those down into the 2 types.

St Louis Spare Ribs – St Louis Spare Ribs can be one of the most difficult meats to cook and to get done accurately. Many of the ways you would determine doneness, take some time and experience to identify and master. But first, we will cover a good process to use, which will take you real close to being done, and then you can apply a couple of simple techniques to determine doneness.

You should cook ribs at a temperature of 250 – 275 degrees F. Place your ribs in the smoker bone side down, and cook them for 2 hours, or until they get a real nice color. Then wrap the ribs in heavy duty aluminum foil, still leaving the bone side down. Then cook for them for 1 hour wrapped.

Then open the foil (do not take them out of the foil), and cook for an additional 1 to 2 hours, depending on the following factors; physical size and weight of the ribs, and airflow through the cooker. The larger, or heavier the slab of ribs are, the longer they will take. Also, the more air flow through your cooker, the less time they will take.

So, until you have a good feel for your smoker use the following techniques to determine the doneness of the ribs.

After about 30 minutes with the foil opened, place your hand (in heat a resistant glove of course) underneath the foil, in the center of the slab, and lift. The slab should bend easily, and begin to crack in the thickest part of the slab. If you see both of these characteristics, then the ribs are done. If you only see one, or the other, then they are not done, and need more time to cook.

A good way to learn this technique, and verify that you your ribs are done, is take an instant read thermometer, and check the temperature in the thickest part of the slab. This should read approximately 194 – 196 degrees F.

Remove the ribs from the cooker, and place them in a warmed environment until you are ready to cut them. With Ribs, they are best cut and served as quickly as you can, after you remove them from the cooker.

Baby Back Ribs – On baby back ribs, we use the very same technique. Cook for 2 hours, then wrap in heavy duty aluminum foil. Leave wrapped for 1 hour, then open the foil, and let cook for an additional 15 minutes to 1 hour, or until done. You can use the very same doneness techniques discussed above.

Join the forum discussion on this post

By Kevin Bevington

As the masses begin to uncover their bbq grills and smokers for the season of barbecue and Grilling, many wonder what will set theirs apart from the rest. The answer? A good rub can make a world of difference. Sure, a good barbecue sauce is still a good thing to have to compliment your meal, but the seasoning is the key.

A bbq rub, is commonly referred to as a dry marinade, many times, it can actually bring more flavor to your barbecue than a liquid marinade, especially when used in a similar fashion.

Ok, lets look at the ingredient make-up of the barbecue dry rub, first, almost all barbecue rubs will contain the following basic ingredients;

Kosher Salt
White Sugar
Black Pepper
Paprika

These ingredients are typically used in fairly equal amounts, and other spices, and sugars can be thrown in to enhance flavor based on the type of meat you are cooking. A few of these additional ingredients are;

Spices
Celery Salt
Cumin
Chili powder
Cayenne Pepper
Garlic

Sugars
Brown Sugar
Turbinado Sugar
Demerara Sugar
Golden Granulated

The most important thing to remember about putting a good dry rub together is balance. A good balance of flavors is key to complimenting the meats natural flavor, you don’t want to cover it up.

Once we have our ingredients established, along with their measurements, we can now use them on our bbq. On thicker cuts of meat, such as pork shoulder cuts (used in pulled pork bbq), or beef brisket (a texas bbq favorite), we will want to give ample marinate time for the flavors to work into the meat. On these thicker cuts, you will want at least 4 to 6 hours at a minimum, but ideally 10 to 12 hours is best. On thinner cuts such as pork ribs, or steaks, you should be looking for a minimum of 30 minutes to 1 hour, and ideally 4 to 6 hours.

Another key to using a rub is to work the rub into the meat. When you apply a bbq rub, you can apply it over a wet base, such as mustard, or oil (olive or canola). This is called a wet rub application, and can help the rub adhere to the surface of the meat. The most popular way to apply a rub is to shake it on heavy and dry. Once this is done, it is important to work it in, or massage it into the meat. This will help the rub flavor penetrate much quicker.

Now that I have given you the basics, it’s your turn! But, I will give a great all purpose BBQ Rub that works especially well on pork, and chicken. Enjoy!

Basic BBQ Rub
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 cup paprika
1/3 cup garlic salt
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon black pepper

Kevin Bevington is the Pit master of the Championship BBQ Team, HomeBBQ.com. He has won over 50 Championship Titles. He also sells some of the finest bbq and grilling rubs, and Barbecue Sauce. For more information, please visit:

http://shop.homebbq.com

http://www.homebbq.com