How to Barbecue Pork: A Step by Step Guide: Step 3. Adding hickory

At noon I checked the coals again and took the grill and the meat off to make it easier to move the coals about and spread the hottest around the grill; and also to add hickory chips that had been soaking.  Moving the grill and meat can be messy: the meat is dripping fat.   I put some newspapers down and put a couple of broken flagstone pieces onto the newspaper.  I put the grill and meat on the flagstones and have at the coals.  I fold a couple of paper towels multiple times so that I do’t have to touch the hot grill, or ruin potholders on the well-stained handles.

After adjusting the coals, I add the hickory chips, replace the grill and meat, and close the lid.

This process takes a minute or three, during which times oxygen pours onto the coals, heating them up.  Often they ignite a bit, but the wet hickory chips limits the blaze.  I close the vents on the lid, once it is replaced, and that immediately extinguishes any flames and starts to cool down the briefly overheated coals.

The hickory chips start to create smoke, and the smoke  drives out oxygen and helps cool the coals.  That allows me to reopen the vents, and perfumes the neighborhood with hickory smoke.   I am a good neighbor to have.

I try to keep the grill at between 225 and 250 degrees.  It will range between 200 and 275 or even 300.  Here it was approximately 220 degrees, so I opened the vent a tiny bit.