Greetings all,
From a lot of fun trial and error, I am finding my groove, cooking various foods in my smoker. I smoke chickens at 225º, usually for 3 1/2 hours. In these cooks, my wood chunks smolder, and smoke plumes occur,until finally the wood chunks turn to ash. Then of course, no more smoke.
In cooking fish, I'm noticing a different outcome for the wood chunks. For fish I set the smoker to 200º, and I time the cook for 90 minutes. As the smoker ramps up, there are some plumes of smoke. In the 90 minute cook though, the smoke plumes aren't constant. My fish is moist and delicious---and does taste of smoke. However, whenever I go to my wood box after a fish cook, the wood looks just a little blackened around the edge. It is nowhere near, turning into ash. I almost think that I should save the chunk and use it again in my next cook.
Is this the nature of cooking at a 200º temperature, having the wood not turn to ash? Maybe to compensate for only a brief period of smoke plumes, I should put in a few chunks so at least there will be more smoke.
I'd appreciate any input from my brothers and sisters in Cookshack land.
Cheers,
Jeff
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