Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Take Grilling To A New Level Of Flavor With Barbeque Woodchips

By Ashley King

Take some advice from the experts: use barbeque woodchips to add zing to your grilling. If you're a master barbeque chef, then you likely know the advantages of woodchips. But plenty of folks don't have a clue why this product is so popular. Woodchips are small bits of wood used in your charcoal or gas grill. If you are not using a wood fire to cook your food, then the only way you are going to get real smoke flavor is by adding wood to your flame.

Woodchips take your outdoor cooking to a whole new height. Whether you have a barbeque that's gas, electric or charcoal, you can add BBQ chips to get authentic barbeque flavor. A standard way to add them to your barbeque is with a smoker box that can be put directly in the grill to add that special wood smoke taste. Make sure you read the directions for your grill before trying this.

When you use BBQ chips, be careful to keep them smoldering relatively slowly. Otherwise, the resultant intense smoke will mess up your food with an acrid flavor. If you soak them in water for around 15 minutes before you use them, you will delay their burn and make them smoke more. Before you use them, however, let the wood "drip dry" for several minutes before you put them in your fire. You want the wood moist, not sopping wet. When utilizing a small smoker in your grill, you don't necessarily have to soak your wood first. Although soaked wood burns longer, if you're cooking a steak you might not need them to burn for that long.

Smoking chips are available in a wide range of flavors that cater to all preferences. You can try appealing flavors such as cabernet, hickory or mesquite. The stores that sell woodchips will have flavor guides to enable you to wade your way through the new world of woodchips. As a rule, the lighter the meat, the milder the wood you will need to use. However, it also does not hurt to be daring and try something strong like mesquite with chicken; simply begin with fewer chips than you'd typically use.

Alder woodchips have a mild flavor and are suggested for use with seafood and pork. The flavorful fruitwoods go best with veal, poultry and pork. These types of wood include cherry or apple. Hickory or maple woodchips are strongly flavored and should be utilized with beef, poultry and pork. Beef, duck and lamb complement the strong-tasting mesquite, and oak, another strong flavor, is good with beef and ham.

But keep in mind that barbecuing is all about the meat. Your fancy woodchips will simply be going to waste on a substandard piece of meat that no amount of grilling expertise can rescue. Make sure your meat or chicken is fresh and from a trustworthy butcher.

If you want to grill a great piece of meat, then try making use of BBQ woodchips to improve the flavor and aroma that goes along with barbeque.

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