Holy smoke! Grill with flavor from special woods

Article by: SUSAN M. SELASKY , Detroit Free Press
Updated: June 6, 2012 - 3:11 PM

Wood smoke will add flavor to any grilled meat.

Photo: Susan Tusa, Detroit Free Press

Camera Star Tribune photo galleries

Camera view larger

0
comments
resize text
print
buy reprints

Tweet
share

email
Email share

your name

your email

recipients email

+ add a comment add a comment

As the grilling season ignites, you can infuse even more flavor into your meat.

Toss a few wood chips on the heat or into the smoker box, watch and smell. Those wisps of smoke are bringing new flavor dimensions from woods like apple, hickory and mesquite.

Where there is fire, there should be smoke, and it's definitely heating up the barbecue scene as avid outdoor cooks experiment with woods, says Jamie Purviance, author of the new "Weber's Smoke: A Guide to Smoke Cooking for Everyone and Any Grill" (Sunset, $21.95).

Purviance says students in his grilling classes are particularly interested in how to use wood when grilling such things as chicken and pork tenderloin for shorter periods, not the traditional "low and slow."

His book covers that plus all of the basics, from the type of charcoal to use to which wood chips go best with certain foods to wood smoking with a gas grill.

There are more than 80 recipes, too. Some for the beginner include Hickory-Barbecued Chicken and Mesquite-Grilled Cheeseburgers. More ambitious grillers might try Brined and Maple-Smoked Bacon and Beer-Braised and Mesquite-Smoked Short Ribs.

"It's actually very simple," Purviance says about using wood smoke. "It's the way we've been cooking since man has been cooking. We just found ways to control it."

Smoking basics

• Go low and slow (most of the time). True barbecue is cooked low and slow over indirect heat with wood smoke. It's the traditional way "to make sinewy meats so moist and tender that you hardly need teeth." But, Purviance advises, don't miss out on adding wood smoke to foods that cook more quickly over direct heat.

• Don't peek. Each time you open the grill, you lose heat and, more important, smoke. Open the lid only when you must.

• Keep the air moving. If using a charcoal grill, keep the vents open and position the vent lid away from where the coals are. Having the vents open draws smoke from the charcoal and swirls it around the food.

• White smoke is good; black smoke is bad. White smoke indicates smoldering wood. Black smoke can mean the juices are burning and tainting your food.

• Let the bark get dark. This is especially true with ribs and large chunks of beef and pork that should have a "dark mahogany, borderline black crust called 'bark.'"

related content
A meat-smoking primer

Wednesday June 6, 2012

Author Jamie Purviance answers frequently asked questions.
Recipe: Hickory-Barbecued Chicken

Wednesday June 6, 2012

HICKORY-BARBECUED CHICKEN