Burls vs chunks (fruitwood for smoking meat)

[colauhu]

I am pretty new to smoking meat, and so far i'm loving it. I found a good deal on chunks of fruitwood from a local guy (good deal compared to the local hardware store anyways) and he had both chunks and burls to offer. He told me that the burls are "what the pros die for" becuase they have have more scar tissue and provide better flavor. I tried to search for burls and smoking, and pretty much just came up with woodworking sites. Can anybody provide any info about his claim? Are the burls from fruitwood trees better than the rest of tree for providing flavor? Either way I'm excited to try smoking with something other than hickory...

Thanks for the help!

Colauhu

 

[daveomak]

I don't have a clue about burls....  try them and let us know how they smoke....

Please take a moment and stop into " [color= rgb(146, 144, 139)]/[/color][color= rgb(128, 0, 0)]Roll Call[/color][color= rgb(146, 144, 139)]/[/color]   " and introduce yourself and get a proper welcome from our members.... Also, if you would note your location in your profile, it will help in the future when answering questions about smokin'...   elevation, humidity etc....    

We're glad you stopped in and joined our group...    Enjoy the long smokey ride....     Dave

 

[colauhu]

One of my main issues that I am so new to smoking, that I have not had the opportunity to taste the nuances between different kinds of wood. I just finished a 14 hour pork butt smoke using the apple wood burls. Unfortunately I don't have anything to compare it to so I can't really say how good or different the flavor is between them and regular 'ol chunks. I guess that just means more experimentation :-)
 

 

[so ms smoker]

  Now that was the right answer! Practice, practice, practice!  Each time change one thing be it the wood, the rub, or whatever. This way you start to notice the differences. Also, keep a 'smoking log book' for each smoke. This way you can look back and see what you did and the changes made.

  Mike