What is BBQ Smoking? Fundamentals, Science, and Techniques

If you’re reading this post, I’m assuming that you know how to select the best wood for your barbecue, and now you are looking to get consistent, desirable smoke from your wood.

In this post, we’ll discuss the basics, the science, and the tips for smoking your food to perfection. Let’s get started!

Barbecue Smoking is a process of cooking, preserving, and flavoring food by exposing it to smoke produced by burning fuel. The smoke and heat dehydrate the meat and give it an antibacterial property to preserve it for longer. It is a process that has been used for thousands of years. 

There are two main types of smoking – Cold smoking and Hot smoking.

What is Cold Smoking?

Cold smoking is done by smoking the meat for a long time between 68°F and 86°F (20 to 30 °C).  It does not cook the meat but imparts a smokey flavor to the food. The meat is cured with a combination of salt, sugar, nitrite and/or nitrate to preserve it. I don’t recommend trying this at home because it’s very risky if done incorrectly.

What is Hot Smoking?

Hot smoking is done by smoking the meat for a long time between 126°F to 176 °F (52 to 80 °C). The meat is cooked in smokers or other controlled environments to produce flavourful cooked meat. Hot smoking is essentially what we call barbecue smoking today, although there are some differences that we’ll discuss below. 

What’s the Benefit of Smoking Meats?

You may be wondering – if smoking is a lengthy process, why put in so much effort?

The reason is that smoked meat is simply tastier! The tastiness of smoked meat can be perceived in three aspects – flavor, bark, and tenderness.

Smoking your meat low and slow imparts a unique flavor to the meat. This flavor can’t be attained by other cooking methods like grilling or baking.

To get into the science, when the process of combustion happens, it creates smoke. When the meat is exposed to this smoke (and heat), it causes physical and chemical changes in the meat called Denaturation.

Denaturation is a complex process, but simply put, the proteins in the meat start to change their nature. The amino acids and reducing sugars in the meat react, causing the meat to turn brown. This browning creates a distinctive flavor and coloring of the food. Moreover, the barbecue smoke contains over 100 different compounds and phenols. The smoke combines with the meat to form new flavor compounds. 

You could say it’s a small chemistry lab right in your backyard! This unique flavoring makes it worth all the time and effort put into cooking the meat.

The bark is an incredibly rich crust that forms on your smoked meat when cooked low and slow. 

BBQ Bark is formed when the smoke from the firewood reacts with the barbecue rub applied on the moist surface of the meat. A  properly formed BBQ bark that has a sweetish and smoky flavor.

The advantage of smoking meat is that it creates soft and tender meat that falls off the bones and melts in your mouth.

When cooked low and slow, the fat and collagen of the meat break down. The breaking down of collagen is vital to the tenderness of the meat because collagen is what makes the meat tough by holding the meat together. Collagen doesn’t render easily because of its high melting point, but when it is subjected to constant heat, it melts away. This process is called rendering. 

This process results in meat with a soft, gelatin-like texture. The melted fat and collagen also make the meat tremendously moist and juicy.

The Science of BBQ Smoking

When wood burns, it emits smoke through the process of combustion. The smoke has more than 100 compounds present in various states – solid, liquid, and gas. Creosote is a category of compounds present in smoke that heavily contributes to flavor. Among this category of compounds, Guaiacol and Syringol are the heroes! They are the ones that are primarily responsible for the aroma and flavor of smoke.

The exact composition of these compounds isn’t fixed. It varies depending on the amount of oxygen available for combustion, the humidity in the atmosphere, and the temperature at which the combustion process happens, the wood used (tree species, age, dryness), and even the mineral composition of the soil that the tree grows in. 

Four Stages of Wood Combustion

To understand how to get optimal smoke, we need to know how wood combusts. 

Wood goes through four stages. For the sake of ease, I will describe each stage as a distinct process. However, in reality, these stages happen simultaneously in a barbecue smoker. 

This is because wood is a good heat insulator. This is why it can be on fire on one end, yet you can grab the other end just fine! This heat insulation causes the fire to spread slowly across the wood. The stages of combustion are repeatedly starting and ending at different points in the wood.

This uneven and mostly incomplete combustion is why the temperature of wood fires varies depending on the spot the reading is taken. This is the reason the heat in a smoker needs to be continuously regulated for good results. Without the proper care and attention, your brisket will turn into an inedible hunk of jerky!

Let’s look at the four stages of wood combustion.

Stage 1: Dehydration (below 500°F)

This stage occurs below 500°F (260°C). The water present in the wood evaporates, but there is no flame, heat, or smoke. By the end of the stage, the wood is completely dry.

To help get past this stage, an external heat source is required. This could be in the form of burning tinder, lighter fluid, or even a blow torch.

Stage 2: Pyrolysis and Gasification (between 500°F to 700°F)

These stages happen between 500°F to 700°F (260°C to 370°C). 

Pyrolysis is the process in which heat causes the breakdown of compounds in the wood to form new compounds. Many of these compounds are gaseous compounds, some of which are flammable. This process is called gasification. 

Stage 3: Burning Bush (700°F to 1000°F)

This is one of the important stages for a good smoke. It happens between the temperature range of 700°F to 1000°F (370°C to 520°C).

When a flame from an external heat source comes into contact with the gases produced in the previous stage, it catches fire. At this point, it may look like the wood is on fire, but technically, it is not the wood but the gases that are burning.

In this stage, a cyclical process of burning begins – the burning flame causes gasification, which causes more flames. These burning gases cause the wood to char, but the wood does not combust.

This process is very similar to the burning of a candle wick. Just like a candle wick burns for a long time without being consumed, the wood isn’t consumed by the fire because of the bubble of flammable gases enveloping it.

During this stage, nitric oxide (NO) is formed. This gas can create smoke rings on the meat provided there is sufficient oxygen. To find the best ways to get a scrumptious smoke ring, head over here!

Stage 4: Charcoal Formation (above 1000°F)

This is the stage above 1000°F (520°C). 

In this stage, most of the organic compounds have burned off, and the wood has turned to pure carbon, also known as ‘char.’ With enough oxygen, the charcoal combusts at temperatures over 1500°F with little to no smoke.

Phew, that was a science lesson!

Tips to Perfect Smoking

If you don’t want to risk bad-tasting food, try to create smoke without using the food. These dry runs will help you understand your barbecue smoking better. 

Once you are comfortable operating the equipment, all you will have to focus on is timing the cook and balancing the flavors. Timing the cook is easy if you’re using a cooking thermometer. To balance the flavors, use the woods, marinades, seasonings, and sauces in moderation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I Soak the Wood?

This is a much-debated topic that has everyone confused. It is actually better if you do not soak your wood. 

Why? Because soaking the wood produces bad smoke and cools the fire. This creates an unpleasant flavor and increases the cooking time. 

To read more about this to understand why head to this article!

Should I Use the Wood Bark for Barbecue?

People often claim that using wood bark doesn’t change the flavor of the food, but I don’t recommend using it because of the bad taste and pollutants.

The bark has a different composition from the rest of the wood. It acts as a barrier to protect the wood inside. Depending on where the wood is sourced from, it is exposed to the external elements like mold, harmful chemicals, and air pollutants. The wood bark absorbs these pollutants over the years, and these pollutants can end up on your food. Wood bark also contains higher levels of moisture, which creates black smoke.

Is There a Limit To How Much Smoke Meat Can Absorb?

The meat continues to absorb smoke as long as there is sufficient smoke and moistness on the meat surface. There’s a popular myth that meat stops absorbing smoke after about two hours – this is not true unless you are smoking incorrectly.

You may see poor smoke absorption if your smoker is burning hotter than usual. The higher temperatures will cause the meat surface to dry out and reduce the amount of smoke that can be absorbed. 

To avoid the problem of poor smoke absorption, use a water pan, rub on some moist basting sauces, and add some more wood to your smoker.

Final Thoughts

I hope this guide helped you understand the ins and outs of barbecue smoking. 

With smoking wood carefully selected, techniques scientifically tested, and recipes artfully perfected, your path to grill mastery is unstoppable! 

Want to learn more barbecue tips, tricks, and techniques? Subscribe to BBQanswers.com by hitting the bell icon on the bottom-left corner of the screen.