favorite types of wood

[graybeard]

•  Hello ddigital, try to use less wood next time and make sure you are getting a good air flow.

beard

 

[oldschoolbbq]

Digipimp,you live in an area with lots of Maple.I feel you are paying a premium for the mesquite and if you have never used whole Mesquite, you will find that it is much stronger than Hickory.I say that as I grew up in Texas and did a lot of cooking on smokers. There is not a lot of Oak up here in our latitude,and it is expensive too-so getsome Maple and try it alone and then try it with Hickory.Maple makes a good all around wood. If your fuel for smoke is chips,then find a tree trimming company and ask them for a bag of chips and dry them at home....

I really feel you will enjoy the Maple,IMHO.

Have fun and,

 

[alelover]

So far in my limited smoking career I have used pecan (MY FAVORITE), apple, oak and hickory.

I like them all.

 

[jdt]

From my experience

I don't like mesquite at all

Hickory is good stronger than Pecan

Pecan is great stronger than Maple or Oak

Maple is a good all around, Oak is a fuel wood IMO not as much flavor as cherry

Cherry is stronger than apple

apple is just a touch stonger than pear/peach and plum

Cherry with a bit of hickory is usually what I do but its not beyond reason to mix it up and have apple, cherry, hickory, oak, maple and pear all in one overnight cook just for fun, Cooking with sticks I figured I would oversmoke something eventually but luckily the bellfab draws so good I have had no problems yet.

If I had a source for pecan it would be pecan and cherry mainly but its hard to come by pecan up north here,   

 

[Bearcarver]

Cherry, Apple, Maple, and Peach are good for pulled pork, briskets, chuckies and things like that, but when it comes to my Bacons, it's gotta be Hickory, and a lot of it!

My Hard Smoked Salmon was best with Hickory too, but I never had Alder before. I can't wait to try that in my A-MAZE-N-SMOKER!

My two pennies,

Bear

 

[alelover]

I would like to try alder too. I don't think we have them trees here in NC though. Alaskan Brewery uses it to smoke the malt they use in their Alaskan Smoked Porter and it is fabulous.

 

[distre]

I use pecan on most of my smokes and everyone loves it. I think of oak as a fuel wood as stated before. Mesquite can be strong like hickory, and oak would be a good to mix with either of these in my opinion. Fruit woods are not easy to come by in my area other than small chunk and chips, but I keep looking for a source.

 

[ak1]

90 percent of the time I use maple. But I've also used Hickory, Alder, Mesquite, Apple, Plum, Birch, Beech, Oak, Cherry, Walnut, Ash, Peach, Pear, Linden, Lilac, Rose, Grapevine, Pecan, Pine cones, Cedar.

Right now I've got some Black Locust aging that I want to try.

 

[pineywoods]

Cedar is not a recommended wood for smoking not sure about pine cones either

 

[pit 4 brains]

Being from the SW, I cut my teeth on mesquite smoked, grilled, and pitted bbq so naturally it is a pleasent flavor for me. I guess most folks around here are used to it so there isn't much complaint. Burn it a little green or on a cool fire and yes, you will taste the south end of it. I have had soome apple that was sent to me and recently began using pecan and I love it. I did some CB with a bit of walnut and it was good. My most recent was three chickens over pistacio and that was a great smell and flavor, but my ole standby is plain lump mesquite..

 

[dforbes]

oak for heat, then pecan and cherry. hickory is good but a little bit can go a long way. i like mesquite, but it is not readily available here

Dennis

 

[cwalk]

I agree totally. If I can help it ill never use hickory again. This past weekend I used cherry and loved it. Not an overpowering flavir but yet noticable. Hickory is popular cause its plentiful but im on a search  for tons of cherry wood

 

[ak1]

Piney,

My bad. I should have been a bit more specific. I didn't really smoke with cedar, or pinecones. It was more of a smoke/ grill process. With the cedar, I put some shavings into a smoker box and used it while I was grilling some fish. 

With the pinecones, I used them as the fuel  cooking some bratwurst. It's a method popular in Germany. The pinecones give an interesting flavour to the sausage.

 

[solaryellow]

It all depends for me. I am not a fan of mesquite but the chipotle I have been doing lately wouldn't be the same without it. I lean more towards oak and pecan (Thanks Jerry!) for beef. Hickory is what I use mostly for pulled pork, some bacon and some sausages. I like to use cherry for baby backs and apple for poultry and some bacon. I sometimes will use maple for bacon and some beef. And other times I will mix it up just to try something new.

 

[alelover]

A tree cutting service would more than likely sell you wood. I have one by me I get it from. I got this for 10 bucks. Hickory on the left. Red oak on the right. They're about 2 1/2 feet long.

He had pecan too but it wasn't split yet.

 

[tedpop]

i am using Olive wood as it comes free  where i live, i have some oak and a lemon tree recently chopped down  will be tried in the future.

The Olive wood iis good on chicken  but since it's all i use can only wait untill other woods are used to compare. I can get my hands on Cherry, Plum,  and almond wood as well as the almond Husks that will smoke well, So ive been told, any coments on nut shells for smoke??????

 

[tjohnson]

Maple is used by alot of smokehouses because it gives such a mild smokey flavor.

Personally, I mix Maple and Apple together, but recently tried ground up wine barrels on chicken.

Cherry is a great all around wood too.

Todd

 

[hdsmoke]

I mainly smoke pork and on ribs i use all cherry usually...butts i use a mixture of cherry and hickory, and sometimes i have some oak i will throw in for fun.  The hickory and cherry mixture is really good on the butts...maybe a 2-1 cherry to hickory ratio.  I found some apple splits in a friends wood pile and took them home and split them down to size for my smoker and i might throw those in with the hickory this weekend on the butt and see how it is. 

 

[coffee_junkie]

My favorite wood is FREE!

In order of my favorite.

Pecan

Apple

Hickory

Lilac

Cherry

Maple

Around here the stores mostly carry Hickory, Mesquite, and Apple. I have only been able to get one bag of pecan here ever, I love that stuff! I was able to get ahold of an entire apple tree, it will last me for a long time!

 

[northern greenhorn]

I use apple the most, but I like pecan, maple, and hickory