British BBQ Society Forums

Hi guys,

I have a wood next to me with lots of fallen trees that the managment scheme that we pay for (called Badgers Keep so don't worry about me taking a log or two as theres a team of people to look after the woods) has felled and cut into logs. I believe the wood is beech wood but I will have to check.
I used a log of this with my ribs and I noticed the lovely smokey flavour. Now I am just learning the tastes of different woods and I know that certain woods have very strong flavours e.g. mesquite but I have no idea yet what they taste like and so cannot tell the difference between a mild and heavy smoke.

Is beech a good one to start out with as I have an abundant supply?

Part two of my question. How to use the smoking wood. I have seen lots of videos of people simply throwing the wood ontop of the charcoal and it smoldering/burning away. However by doing that the wood might actually catch fire and burn which is not what we want at all as a relatively clean burn will not result in much smoke but actually heat and that's what the charcoal is there to do instead. With my new Excel 20 there is a free stainless steel smoking box included so I can put the wood in there and due to the lack of oxygen due to the air holes it should smoulder and not catch fire. Failing that how about wrapping the wood logs or chunks in aluminium foil. That would let the heat get to the wood but stop the air from making it actually burn.

What do you guys think and what do you do? I need to buy some googles as the smoke in my eyes hurt sooooo much on Saturday and made it really hard to flip the ribs even for a few seconds.!!

Thanks

In the "New to BBQ / Smoking Advice" section, there is a wood reference table that will answer most of your questions.

We don't have beech here in southern Arizona, so I can't say about that. My only advice is to not use too much wood. I usually toss a couple of pieces on the coals at a time, pices maybe 2 to 3 inches square. When the wisps of smoke stop, I toss a couple more on. I usually only add smoking wood for the first couple of hours of the smoke. Otherwise, the meat can get over smoked.