To soak or not to soak

[WasatchQue]

That is the question. My chips seem to go up too quickly if I don't. Give your thoughts.

[vermin99]

I use chunks rather that chips and I don't soak them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv7y1TWyKEw&feature=channel_page

[mikelindner]

I actually weighed out the difference once between soaked and unsoaked and didn't see much of a weight difference between dry and soaked chunks. That tells me that I'm really not getting much water that is being saturated by the wood so I don't soak any more.

Plus I think the main reason to soak is toadd a little more humidity into the chamber and the smokenator does pleanty of that on it's own

[peteuk]

Wood doesn't absorb much water at all - if it did they wouldn't make boats out of it ;-)

[djl777]

I just got my Smokinator 1000, but I have quite a bit of experience with wet and dry smoking. I don't currently have access to chunks so I'm using chips. Without fail, if you add chips without soaking, they're going up in flames within seconds, especially with the lid off. A few things about this: The chips are best soaked in warm water, they should be soaked for at least one hour AND keep a supply on hand soaking in a bowl while you're cooking so when you add more chips, they're as wet as possible. If you do this, I promise you'll have longer lasting chips. Personally, I find using foil to be a hassle as you have to deal with removing and replacing the foil pack.

[flbuckeye]

The Amazing Ribs site did some research and found that soaking wood is pointless

www.amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/mythbusting_soaking_wood.html

[flbuckeye]

Jul 13, 2013 20:02:13 GMT -5 djl777 said:

I just got my Smokinator 1000, but I have quite a bit of experience with wet and dry smoking. I don't currently have access to chunks so I'm using chips. Without fail, if you add chips without soaking, they're going up in flames within seconds, especially with the lid off. A few things about this: The chips are best soaked in warm water, they should be soaked for at least one hour AND keep a supply on hand soaking in a bowl while you're cooking so when you add more chips, they're as wet as possible. If you do this, I promise you'll have longer lasting chips. Personally, I find using foil to be a hassle as you have to deal with removing and replacing the foil pack.

You can also wrap the chips in foil (with holes poked in the foil to allow the smoke to escape) to slow down the combustion. Wood absorbs very little water. Probably why boats are made from wood.