Grilling over wood

[keith157]

Mind you not everyone has a backyard the size of yours

[CyderPig]

Hi Keith
Did you enjoy the Tipple?
Simon

[keith157]

Oh yes, yes, yes and yes

[The Foodtaster]

Oh yes, yes, yes and yes

I second that

[CyderPig]

Just a phone call away.

[keith157]

May well take you up on that, probably on a meat market day


But not for a month or so

[The Smoking Canon]

Oooo my favourite subject.

(seeing as i'm a woodsman and all that)

Cooking over wood is a big thing in the Basque region of Spain & it's getting the attention of chefs here in the UK. At home I cook over wood on a regular basis.
English hard woods have a unique flavour of their own. I cut mine into long wedges about 2" at the thickest part tapering off to nothing & into what I call book cut blocks (think of a paperback book size/thickness)

Seasoned wood is essential here.

Personally I like/use the following, the top three are used for the main body of the fire, the others to dress the surface during the cooking.

Oak - for heat and flavour-deep flavour and good embers.

Ash - has a light taste- burns well when seasoned.

Hornbeam - a very dense white hardwood that produces near coal like heat. Originally used by the Navy for making tackle blocks, probably one of our oldest plantation woods, found in abundance in Kent. It makes great charcoal.

Alder - good for lumpwood and chips.

Apple wood - when seasoned well is very very nice.

Sweet Chestnut - my absolute favourite flavour. I cut the unions from the branch as these burn slow and hot, I then make the rest into small smoking billets. Only down side is it can "pop" in larger logs. Chips well & tastes beautiful, it has an almost incense like aroma.

It takes a while to learn to handle wood as each has a different burning-flame to ember arc. But as a rule the heavier (when seasoned) the longer the burn.

On a 4-7 hour lamb/hog roast I'll use mainly Oak, Ash & Hornbeam- dressed in with Sweet Chestnut unions toward the end.

It's well worth the effort though.

*insert hungry face icon here*

[aris]

Sounds fab. Alot of the BBQ places in the US you see on TV cook exclusively with wood. It seems mostly oak, but some mesquite too.

What do you cook your hog roasts in?

[The Smoking Canon]

If I'm cooking in the woodland, or at a home party , then I've a very simple set up.

Essentially I've two metal bandstands with folded corrugated 8ft troughs side by side

This has a long square section spit or a flat mesh sandwich gate to hold the beast within.

We load the pits with wood and fire it up, stacking the wood for the whole burn underneath so it becomes hot and totally dry.

The whole thing has a folded tin roof, which bounces back the heat - cooking the animal slowly in the hot smoke. It gets a regular turn and spray with Kent Apple juice near the end.
( pork is digital probed and the legs removed near the end- these get boned and close cooked on a grill rack seperately)

The lamb is best nice and pink, though the legs are best off toward the end too.

Different parts are ready at different times, so food slowly appears from the grill over the day ,into the evening. Baked roots and potatoes in foil cook in and around the embers.

I encourage a no alcohol rule for the fire man ( usually me ). Lest we topple onto the hot embers at the critical moment, it's fun but respect is needed when a whole beast is on the rack.

Lastly, a tray of homemade sauce is cooked slowly over the fire , infused with the smoke.

Roll on the spring lamb I say.

"Hail to the smoke"

[SmokeyBBQYum]

I've only every tried the Weber Wood Chunks they sell http://www.bbqs2u.co.uk/40-weber-smoking-accessories So far the Apple wood chunks gave nice joint of lamb a tasty hint of flavour. Although i was using briquettes at the same time i just threw some chunks on - so not really grilling on wood by itself.