When Do You Add Wood To A Smoker? Timing Is Everything


Smoking meat isn’t very complicated, but you need to follow certain steps in the right order. Wood is a key component to meat smoking and you need to get the timing right. I was interested to find out the perfect time to add wood to the fire, so I did some research on the science of smoke from wood. 

As a general rule, wood should be added to the smoker a few minutes before placing the meat on the grill. If added too early, it will burn out and the smoke will go to waste. The first 2-3 hours of cooking are critical for the meat to take on smoke, as once the bark has developed on the outer layer of the meat, smoke will not be able to penetrate. Wood can be added on top of the fire at the last minute before adding the meat, or scattered underneath the unlit coals. A charcoal chimney can be used to pre-light coals before adding them to the smoker.

Meat is usually smoked between 225-300°F, depending on the type and length of cooking. Good smoke, which is thin and almost clear, will be produced within a few minutes of adding the wood. If the smoke is white, it is still suitable for short cooks but can make meat taste bitter for long cooks. Black or gray smoke will make the meat taste like soot and should be avoided. White smoke can be caused by a dirty grill or cook chamber, or using wet wood or wood that has not been properly seasoned. Using a water pan can help reduce the amount of white smoke produced.

Key PointDescription
Wood timingWood should be added to the smoker a few minutes before placing the meat on the grill; the first 2-3 hours of cooking are critical for the meat to take on smoke
Placement of woodWood can be added on top of the fire at the last minute before adding the meat, or scattered underneath the unlit coals
Charcoal chimneyA charcoal chimney can be used to pre-light coals before adding them to the smoker
TemperatureMeat is usually smoked between 225-300°F, depending on the type and length of cooking
Good smokeWood will produce good smoke within a few minutes; if the smoke is white, it is still suitable for short cooks but can make meat taste bitter for long cooks
Bad smokeBlack or gray smoke will make the meat taste like soot and should be avoided; white smoke can be caused by a dirty grill or cook chamber, or using wet wood or wood that has not been properly seasoned
Water panUsing a water pan can help reduce the amount of white smoke produced

Timing Is Everything

You don’t want to add wood too early, otherwise it will burn out before the meat is in the smoker. Meat will only take on smoke in the first stage of cooking , so the first 2-3 hours are critical. Once the bark has developed on the outer layer of the meat, smoke will not be able to penetrate.

Wood Placement

Most people will throw the wood on top of the fire at the last minute before adding meat. World BBQ Champion Harry Soo is known for scattering wood chunks underneath the unlit coals. This technique will allow the wood to smoulder during long cooks and provide the meat with a consistent flow of smoke. This method works well when using the Minion Method of arranging coals, or Soo’s Donut.

Light The Coal

Use a charcoal chimney to pre-light the coals before you add them to the smoker. A chimney is a cheap accessory that will make life so much easier. You can buy them in the barbecue section of your local store or order them from Amazon. Fill the chimney with lump charcoal or briquettes. Place a fire lighter underneath the chimney and set it alight. It will take about 30-minutes for every coal to set fire. As the briquettes ignite, a thick, white billowing smoke will follow. This is bad smoke and will make the meat taste terrible. Once the smoke has cleared and the briquettes are fully alight, they are ready to be dumped into the coal basket in the smoker. Lump charcoal is a little different but much the same. Lump charcoal won’t burn even because of the different shapes and sizes. 

After you have filled the coal basket with a chimney of lump or briquettes, open all the vents on the smoker and wait for it to rise to the target temperature. Meat is usually smoked between 225 – 300°F, but this will depend on what you are cooking and for how long. 

Add The Wood

Once the temperate has stabilized, add the wood to the smoker. Give it a few minutes to burn and the temperature should rise a little more. Make some final adjustments with the vents until the temperature has stabilized at a level that you are happy with.

Where To Place The Wood

The best place to to lay the wood is on top of the coal basket. Wood won’t take long to catch fire if the coals are fully lit. If you are using a kettle grill, another option is to place the wood on the grill next to the meat. This works fantastically as long as the wood is sitting directly over the fire. You can use this technique on vertical smokers if the bottom grill is close to the coal basket. 

Wait For Good Smoke

Within a few minutes, the wood will produce some good smoke. Once you have a nice, thin, almost clear smoke, add the meat. If the smoke is white, this is still suitable and will give the meat some smokey flavor. White smoke is fine for short cooks, but if meat is exposed to the white smoke for long cooks such as brisket, then it will taste bitter.

Tips To Avoid Bad Smoke

Don’t add the meat if the smoke is black or gray. This smoke will make the meat taste like soot. Black smoke can result from several things. 

  1. A dirty grill — Once the grease catches fire, it will create a gray/black smoke. 
  2. A dirty cook chamber — If the walls of the cook chamber are covered in soot, this will influence the smoke. 
  3. Treated wood — Most woods are not suitable for smoking meat. Wood that has been treated, varnished or painted will produce a disgusting, toxic smoke that will contaminate your meat. 
  4. Wrong wood — Not all trees and shrubs have wood suitable for meat smoking. Woods such as pine, fir and cypress contain a lot of sap which doesn’t make for a good smoke. Do your research before you use a wood for cooking. The most suitable wood for cooking are the fruit woods and hardwoods. If you are just starting out, stick to the barbecue wood from the hardware store. 
  5. There is much debate whether to soak wood on not. Wet wood produces bad smoke and will lower the temperature of your cooker.

How To Get Good Smoke

Smoldering wood. The smoke wood produces depends on a number of things. Airflow through your smoker is important and will determine the quality of the smoke. If wood isn’t getting enough oxygen, it will smolder rather than burn fast. Smoldering wood will produce too much smoke. Smoke from smoldering wood is a different flavor to smoke from burning wood. So if you want a good smoke, make sure the vents are open enough so there’s a nice oxygen flow. If the air flow is good, then the fire will burn the wood faster and make cleaner smoke. 

Wood smokers. Most smokers use charcoal, but stick burners (or offset smokers) use wood as the sole fuel source. These types of smokers are for the more experienced pit masters and require a lot of attention. Stickburners are hard work and need logs thrown on the fire regularly. 

Blue smoke. A thin, see-through smoke is the most coveted smoke in barbecue. You especially need this clear, blue-tinged smoke when you are cooking low and slow for several hours. 

The fast burn. Don’t be afraid if the wood is burning fast. If you want to achieve a clear, blue smoke then you can’t let wood smolder. It has to burn. You’ll burn through wood fast and need to add more, but the flavor from blue smoke is way better than smoldering smoke. 

Ash choked. Make sure your fire is burning clean and has good airflow. If the coals get choked out by ash, they will produce a bad smoke and cover the meat with soot. To avoid coals choking in ash, make sure you have a raised coal basket is the ash can fall through the grate rather than covering the coals. 

Wood pellets. If you are grilling steaks or chicken, pellets work really well because they burn fast and create a lot of smoke in a short amount of time. Pellets or wood chips can be used in a smoking tube or a wood chip box and thrown on the grill. This is a quick and easy technique to add a shot of smoke flavor to your barbecue.  

Wood chunks. For cooks longer than 1-hour, wood chunks are the best option. Chunks will provide adequate smoke for the first few hours of the cook which is all you need. Meat will absorb most of the smoke flavor in the first two hours of cooking. Once the surface of the meat develops a bark, less smoke can penetrate. In the latter stages of the cook, mopping the meat will continue to attract smoke. 

Mop or spritz. After the two-hour mark of a cook, keeping the meat moist is a priority. It is at this point where foil wrapping and mopping takes place. When moisture is added to meat through mopping and spritzing, it will attract smoke to the meat. 

The climate. Weather plays an enormous part in determining the type of smoke your smoker will produce. Cold weather, wind and rain will mess with your temperature and achieving the thin, blue smoke may be out of reach. 

Don’t cook over coals. If meat is cooking directly above the coals, the fat will drip down onto the fire and produce dirty smoke. These meat drippings add to the mix of flavors along with the coal and the wood, but over an extended period, burned meat drippings can affect the taste of your meat. 

In Summary

  • Smoking meat involves using wood and timing the addition of wood to the fire properly
  • Wood should be added to the smoker a few minutes before placing the meat on the grill
  • Wood should not be added too early, as it will burn out and the smoke will go to waste
  • The first 2-3 hours of cooking are critical for the meat to take on smoke
  • Once the bark has developed on the outer layer of the meat, smoke will not be able to penetrate
  • Most people add wood on top of the fire at the last minute before adding the meat
  • Another option is to scatter wood chunks underneath the unlit coals, which will smolder during long cooks and provide consistent smoke
  • Charcoal chimneys can be used to pre-light coals before adding them to the smoker
  • Meat is usually smoked between 225-300°F, but this will depend on the type and length of cooking
  • Once the temperature has stabilized, add wood to the smoker
  • Wood should be placed on top of the coal basket or next to the meat on the grill
  • Wood will produce good smoke within a few minutes; if the smoke is white, it is still suitable for short cooks but can make meat taste bitter for long cooks
  • Black or gray smoke will make the meat taste like soot and should be avoided
  • White smoke can be caused by a dirty grill or cook chamber, or using wet wood or wood that has not been properly seasoned
  • Using a water pan can help reduce the amount of white smoke produced.

My Favorite Meat Smoking Tools

Thanks for checking out this article. I hope you learned a few things. Here are some of my favorite tools I use when smoking brisket that may be useful to you. These are affiliate links, so if you decide to purchase any of these products, I’ll earn a commission. But in all honesty, these are the tools I recommend to my family and friends who are just starting out.

Meat Thermometer: There are dozens of fancy thermometers on the market, but I still use my trusty TP20. For around $50, I have a high-quality meat thermometer with two probes, and can track the temperature of my smoker with one probe, and my meat with the other probe. The ThermoPro TP20 is an Amazon Best Seller because it’s the easiest thermometer to operate, is durable, highly accurate, and comes with pre-programmed meat settings.

Instant Read Thermometer: Arguably, the second most important tool you need is a fast and accurate instant-read thermometer. These tools play an important role in the latter stages of the cook when the meat needs regular checking in multiple areas. I use the ThermoPro TP19 because it can do everything a ThermaPen can do, but for a fraction of the cost. You can check out the TP19 on Amazon here.

Wireless Thermometer: The latest thermometers on the market have no wires and can be controlled by wi-fi via your phone. Airprobe 3 is the best of this technology.

Butcher Paper: Wrapping brisket in butcher paper has become a huge trend in barbeque thanks to Aaron Franklin. Wrapping your brisket in paper will give you a nice brisket bark. However, you can’t just use any old paper, it has to be unwaxed, food grade paper. You can find it on Amazon here.

Advanced Thermometer and Automatic Temperature Controller: Once you’re ready to take things seriously, the FireBoard 2 Drive is a six-channel Bluetooth/Wi-Fi thermometer that can monitor up to 6 pieces of meat, control and graph your cook sessions on your smartphone, and attaches to an an automatic blower that will convert your charcoal smoker to a set-and-forget. This is one of the most advanced meat thermometers on the market. You can check it out on the FireBoard website here.

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Damien

Author and founder at Meat Smoking HQ

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