Do I need to soak wood chips before smoking?

In truth, soaking your wood chips and chunks isn’t necessary and here’s why. Wood chips and chunks that have been soaked have to get rid of any moisture before they can produce smoke. There is not enough moisture to produce significant steam or smoke, however, it will produce delightful flavor on your food.Click to see full answer. In this manner, how long should you soak wood chips for smoking?For the best smoke, soak chips for at least 30 minutes. Drain the chips completely. Place these on the hot coals. Heat the wood chips for 10 minutes or until these start to emit smoke before placing food on top of the grill.Furthermore, how long does it take for wood chips to start smoking? Open the lid for a minute to let the accumulated heat dissipate. When you put it back down (with the meat on the grill), the temp should be under 300, and the chips should smolder for about an hour or two. You can load up quite a lot of chips – once they get going, but under low heat, they don’t burn up that quickly. Secondly, how do you prepare wood for smoking? Do not soak your wood and it is not necessary to remove bark on woods from fruit trees, in my experience. Make the sticks into wood chips, and cut the bigger pieces into (roughly) fist-sized chunks. You will then need to season (thoroughly dry) your wood before using it for smoking.How much wood chips do you put in a smoker?Four cups of chips is usually good for about five hours of smoking. There are many popular choices for Wood chips which include cedar, alder, hickory, maple, cherry and plum. Just remember that many times when you add wood to your smoker it can cool it down unless you have an offset smoker.