You might find it interesting that charcoal is used for such things as making gunpowder, filtering water, curing tobacco, manufacturing glass, used as an additive to poultry and stock feed and as a pigment?

Charcoal is a black, brittle substance use most importantly for great outdoor cooking events. Many times charcoal is use to start a good fire and wood chips are introduced to add specific flavor to the meats. See the Specialty wood section for more information on flavoring of specific types of wood.

CHARCOAL

Charcoal consists primarily of amorphous carbon and ash. This carbon consists of tiny, irregularly arranged particles of graphite, which is almost pure carbon. It also has some other impurities consisting of sulfur and hydrogen compounds. It is partially burned or charred wood thus the name charcoal.

Charcoal consists of carbon full of porous, or many tiny holes, which assist in complete and thorough burning of the substance.

Charcoal consists of wood which has been heated to high temperatures in ovens while restricting the available amount of air. If oxygen was available, the wood would naturally burn up and that would be the end of this story. But, such is not the case.

When the wood is heated, the wood chemically decomposes and releases gases and tars which are saved as by-products. The resulting product is charcoal which is almost a pure form of carbon. The charcoal when burned releases an even hot flame, no smoke and burns almost completely. The only residue is a little ash. No smoke. It takes approximately 4 pounds of wood to make a little more than 1 pound of charcoal.

So far, we have been talking about pure charcoal. Some of the more popular "charcoal" manufactures do not use exclusively charcoal. The blend their charcoal with by-products (which we will refer to as "extenders") thus extending the amount of appeared charcoal. You can tell the difference quite easily. Most briquettes consist of extenders. After the fire has been burned, take a look at the ashes. If there is a heaviness when cleaning out the ashes, then you are probably removing clay and other particles called extenders. If on the other hand, the ashes are light and almost want to float away when disturbed, then you have been burning true charcoal.

Look at the packaging. If it does not state 100% hardwood charcoal, pass it up. You will be much happier with the results of using real charcoal. It burns cleaner, hotter and more evenly than the products using extenders. Why would you want to burn clay in your pit or grill?

CHIPS (WOOD)

As mentioned above, wood was probably the first and most important fuel used by man (generic). Our ancestors would both keep warm and cook food using the most plentiful fuel around - wood. We still use wood to heat our homes, cook our food and maybe they did also, curl up with someone you want to get romantic with. While once plentiful, wood has become more scarce as our population increases and forests decrease. As a result, costs have gone up.

Unless you have a forest next to your house, there will be inherent expenses incurred in obtaining your cooking wood. If you had all the wood you needed, the ideal method of cooking with even and consistent temperatures would be to have a second fire located next to your smoke-cooker. This fire would be your source for coals. You would burn the actual wood in this second fire and, when needed, take a shovel, scoop up the required hot coals and add them to the grill or smoker. This method would all but eliminate flare ups and out of control fires while at the same time, insure even cooking temperatures.

Since this is not possible in most cases, many folks have resorted to using smaller pieces of wood to add the flavor without necessarily focusing on creating the heat. For example many use small wood chips, soak them in water and place them on the fire. As the water evaporates and the wood begins to burn slowly, the smoke flavoring from the burning wood flavors the meat.

There are many different sizes of wood chips, but for the sake of convenience, we will be discussing the three basic sizes as shown in the photograph:

Large - really too large to be called "chips"; rough cut and about the size of a softball

Medium - again rough cut and about the size of a rubber stamp

Small - Shavings really, larger than sawdust.

The large size (on the left side of the picture), in addition to creating smoke, is large enough to also create heat. We would not necessarily soak these in water before using. Instead, simply place one on the fire as needed to keep the source of heat active. You must, however, have a sufficient source of heat already established before using these wood "chips".

Of the three, the medium chips (on the right side of the picture) are the most common and area usually available at the grocery store in the charcoal section. They are not really large enough to be a source of heat, however are sufficient to create the necessary smoke to flavor the meat. We suggest soaking these pieces of wood for 2 to 4 hours prior to use. After you have created the heat source in the grill or smoker, place a handful of these wood chips on the coals. They will hiss and simmer and as they slowly begin to dry and smolder, will create the needed smoke. Some folks will wrap the chips in heavy duty aluminum foil and puncture holes in the foil. After which they will place this bundle on the fire. The chips will also smolder and create the smoke needed.

Chips (on the bottom center of the picture above) are best used for making smoke
in the gas grills. These chips are placed in a smoker box (as shown to the left) and the box is then placed over the gas burners. The smoker box is a cast iron box with a removable lid. (See photo) The lid has several slits in the top to allow the smoke to escape. The wood chips smolder inside the box and you then have your smoke! The box could, I guess be used in wood grills and smoker, but the thing is somewhat heavy and would have a tendency to settle into the coals. It would then be difficult to add more wood/coals to the fire without having to take out the box first.

We hope this has helped you assess the various uses of charcoal and wood chips. As you have seen, there are direct uses for each and as such, will deliver different and unique grilling and smoke-cooking opportunities. Good luck and most importantly, don't hurry and be sure to have fun!

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