04. Adding Smoke

Many people associate the aroma of wood smoke with grilled foods. But gas grilling adds no wood smoke flavor, and charcoal adds only a wisp. It’s true that you get some smokiness from dripping fat in a gas grill, but if you really want to get smoking, you need to burn wood. The traditional way is to build a wood fire. The modern way is to add wood chunks or chips to your gas or charcoal grill.

Wood chunks and chips work best when using indirect grilling to cook large or thick foods that will need at least 30 minutes of cooking time. That gives the food time to absorb the smoky aromas. But you can also infuse smoke flavor into small, thin, or delicate foods by smoking them over the unheated area of your grill and then moving them to the heated area to cook through. For an example, see Smoked Jerk Tofu.