Barbecue on wood fire

The best BBQ's are wood fired, you get real wood smoke flavour. Anything else is just a just outside hotplate/grill, and might as well be electric

Using charcoal is easy and safe. A simple hack is to use some small pieces of strong smoke flavour generating wood on top of your charcoal when you are actually cooking

Smoke is all part of the BBQ experience, and after a little practice at fire lighting techniques, shouldn't become a big issue. Join the local Scout group as leader, and they will teach you how to make good cooking fires :-)

I've never used wood myself, but I found this link that seems pretty good. It describes the different types of woods and how much smoke they produce or what flavour they add to the meats.

Interesting question. I recently converted an old propane barbeque to a wood fire one. After removing the propane burners, etc. I cut a hole in the center big enough to fit the chimney of a rocket stove (home made) and attached it underneath. It easily reaches temperatures of 550 F and did splendid on the steak & potato test as well.

The stove's chimney is clean (no smoke) and only used a couple of handfuls of kindling size spruce to complete the task. Have made refinements and now have maxed about 750 F.

The only fly in the ointment is a fairly constant attention to the fire, not a bother if you are sitting nearby with an appropriate beverage :)

I use a Webber kettle for both grilling and barbecue. I use lump charcoal (not briquetes, but it also personal preference). When I want to add smoke to the barbecue, I'll buy shredded wood chips in whatever flavor/species is necessary. Soak the chips for a good half hour before lighting the fire, fill the "fire basket" half-way with coals and light it up. When it is ready to cook, I pull the fire basket all the way to one side of the kettle, put the meat on the far side of the grate. I also mostly close the air-holes. This causes the oxygen in the grill to lower a bit so the fire burns slower. The last thing I do when putting down the meat is that I add a handful of charcoal to the fire basket and a handful of the soaked chips.

I then check the meat every half-hour and add a handful of both charcoal and chips until the meat is finished. If it is a large cut of meat like a pork shoulder or beef roast, I also use a mop sauce to keep the meat moist and to build up a layer of bark on the outside of the roast.