Let's talk chemistry for a minute. When you add wood that has soaked in water, the maximum temperature it will reach is going to be just about degrees, the temperature that water becomes steam. Until the moisture has steamed off, the wood won't increase in temperature. It can take 30 minutes to an hour for wet wood to dry enough to begin smoking. Before the wood is hot enough to smoke, it produces steam.
Steaming your meat isn't what you are after, and in many instances, the steam action will draw moisture out of your meat, increasing the chance of overcooking. While the wood is steaming, you will notice the temperature of your smoker fluctuating. That is because the evaporating water is absorbing heat and carrying it away much faster than if there was no water. One thing we all know about cooking meat on a smoker is you want consistent temperatures. It doesn't make much sense to add wet wood only to see the temperature jump up and down erratically.
When you put wet wood on your grill or smoker, it begins to steam, which can look like bright white smoke. You will likely smell the flavor of the meat being carried off by the water vapor, but the "smoke" you see isn't adding anything. When you're smoking meat, you are actually looking for thin, bluish-hued smoke that is nearly invisible. Black, gray, and white smoke are all indications of something going wrong. In all but the luckiest of situations, smoking meat with billowing clouds rolling from the grill is going to result in some very weird flavors.
Remember, chips or chunks of soaked wood will take longer to smoke. If too much smoke is generated, it can easily overpower the flavor of the meat and make it inedible. Obviously, the goal is to find the right balance. Limiting the amount of time you use the woodchips as your food smokes will have the biggest impact on how smoky your meat tastes.
Some smoking enthusiasts prefer to use woodchips only the first two to three hours, while others will use wood the entire time. So, do you need to soak woodchips? In most cases, no. If you want to soak the woodchips to infuse your food properly, then you will need to soak them in a liquid other than water.
Basically, to achieve the perfect type of smoke, soaking the woodchips should be avoided at all costs. In the end, soaking woodchips will be a matter of personal preference. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. If you soak the wood, and either use it wet or even dry it out again, it retains more moisture. The moisture in wood actually delays the combustion process. This means, before the damper or wet wood starts to smoke, that excess moisture has to effectively evaporate. There are two main things that occur when you try to use soaked wood chips.
Firstly, if you add wet, or soaked wood chips straight onto a charcoal grill or in a gas smoker or grill, the moisture will actually bring the overall temperature down. This can be both because the water makes contact with the coals or flame or if there is just more moisture in the smoker it can bring the temperature down too.
This steam is essentially very moist hot air, which can add a lot of moisture to your meat, and also bring down the temperature of the whole unit, again making it harder to keep a consistent smoke and temperature going, which is critical when smoking.
The only time you would want to be soaking your wood chips is when you want to add another flavor into the mix. As the wood chips absorb the moisture, the flavors within the liquid will be left in the wood, even after it dries.
The most popular liquids to soak wood chips in are whiskey, brandy, beer, or wine. When smoked it will impart these added flavors into the meat. As a rule of thumb, the best liquids to use will depend on what you are smoking, similar to how you would pair a meal with the appropriate drink. On particularly windy days, close the bottom vents that are being hit by the wind, using the vents on the opposite side to control temperature.
You may be thinking that you will just bring all of the food up to room temperature beforehand. Unfortunately, it would take approximately 12 hours or longer to bring a thick-cut steak up to room temperature throughout.
This means that you will more likely be growing bacteria and following unsafe food practices than getting the results you are looking for. Again, in the long run, it is not a huge change in times, but you do need to be aware of it. You can easily add charcoal and wood chips through the easy access doors on the two tiers, however, if you need to move or check on the food on the top rack, you will be lifting the lid.
This will release a large amount of the heat right out the top of the smoker. This means that the grill will have to come all the way back up to temperature before cooking and smoking can continue. This can take 20 to 30 additional minutes.
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