My neighbor the retired pitmaster talked me out of soaking wood chunks

For like 5 years I soaked my hickory chunks in water for 30 minutes before every cook. Saw it on some YouTube channel back in 2019 and just never questioned it. Then my neighbor Bob, who ran a competition team in Memphis for 20 years, watched me drop a chunk in a bucket and asked what I was doing. I told him and he just laughed and said "soaking wood only makes steam, it does nothing for smoke flavor." I figured he was old school and stuck in his ways. But last month I tried his way, dry chunks straight on the coals, and the smoke tasted way cleaner. No more white billowy stuff either. I checked the temp on my thermometer during the cook and it held way steadier too. So have any of you actually tested dry vs soaked side by side, or am I late to this too?

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iris_burns15d ago

Hate that feeling when you've been doing something wrong for years and nobody told you. Bob did you a solid, even if it stings a little.

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