Soaking Wood Chips For Grilling Isn't As Useful As We Thought

In the annals of grilling history lives the belief that wood chips need to be soaked before they're used on a grill or smoker. Over the years, plenty of experts in the field have claimed that a soak of at least 30 minutes, and oftentimes several hours, is necessary to stop these small pieces of wood from burning up too quickly and will help increase the amount of smoke they give off — and thus, increase the smoky flavor.

But in truth, this practice shapes up to be more grilling lore than fact for a few reasons. According to the experimentation of the team at AmazingRibs.com, soaking wood chips for even 24 hours showed very little water actually being absorbed. Most of the wood was still entirely dry on the inside, with only some moisture in the cracks and on the surface. If the soak is only a few hours, as many resources recommend, even this minimal moisture probably won't seep into the wood.

Apart from generally being ineffective, the soak can negatively affect the grilling process. Soaked wood chips can slow down the cooking time, upset the grill's temperature, and reduce the flavor that a grill can impart.

Not keeping a consistent temperature is a mistake you should avoid when grilling, because temperature control is crucial to effective smoking and grilling (not to mention, cooking in general). When the temperature fluctuates inconsistently in a grill or smoker, the cook time can become unpredictable, and the food can cook unevenly. Even if the moisture hasn't penetrated the wood much during soaking, as the experimentation shows, there will be water on the surface that cools off the coals, absorbs the heat of your grill or smoker as it steams off, and causes the temperature to rise and fall until all that water is gone. Water won't go above 212 degrees Fahrenheit, its boiling point, but steam doesn't necessarily stay at the same temperature — when water is fully converted to steam, it can get hotter. That's hard to regulate.

The wood chips themselves won't rise above 212 degrees Fahrenheit until all that moisture has evaporated, which can take between 30 minutes and an hour, according to The Bearded Butchers. Slow cooking generally needs a grill temperature between 200 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit — but even food that requires slower grilling at low temperatures generally needs 325 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. If the wood chips aren't getting up to temperature while the moisture evaporates, the meat will be sitting in the smoker at the wrong temperature for this extra time, surrounded by steam — and since smoke is what you're after, then steam just isn't going to cut it.

Smoke is the source of that delicious flavor unique to grills and smokers. And it's important to pay attention to the type of smoke when grilling — what you're looking for is thin, blue, nearly invisible smoke rather than thick, dark gray smoke. Because soaked wood chips start by giving off steam they'll take much longer to reach this ideal smoke type. The blue-ish smoke needs dry wood, hot flame, and oxygen, but wet wood and its steam will affect the temperature and impede the fire. Gray smoke often comes from a cooler fire that smolders instead of burns, and from insufficient oxygen, and it will give an ashy taste to the food. Burning wood and a well-maintained flames are how you get the ideal smoke.

So for the sake of flavor and temperature, soaking in water is out, according to the majority of grillmasters. There's still a debate to be had it seems, though, over the taste-based merits of soaking in other liquids — think wine, beer, or whisky — with some experts saying these libations will add flavor complexity. But others say there's no point. After all, smoke is what imparts the flavor, and these otherwise delicious liquids are just going to evaporate as steam before they can give off any flavor — they'd probably make a better pairing in a glass than absorbed in wood chips.