HICKORY ! Then What ?

[dick bullard]

I must admit to doing most of my smoking with Hickory....now I'm primed to try something else. Any suggestions for my really 1st time on a new wood. I have tried Mequite I think once with out much luck, but I understand it can be a touchy wood to use.....bitter and all....so what would you recommend for a wood which could be an all around smoking wood like Hickory ? Thanks in advance,
Rick

 

[fatback joe]

I love, love, love, Cherry.

 

[q dawg]

Seems to me a lot of the folks like using PECAN !

Q Dawg

 

[meat hunter]

Like Joe said, Cherry. A great wood. Maybe some sugar Maple? Did you see the list that Dutch out about all the different woods and what they par well with? If not, let me know and I'll send you the link.

 

[gene111]

cherry, maple,oak,apple,ect,ect.... the list just keeps going but i have used all of these with good results!!!!

 

[q dawg]

Can you go ahead and link that list for some of the rest of us too !! Thank U much !!!

Q Dawg

 

[richoso1]

Cherry, apple, maple, red/white oak, alder wood, mesquite. I usually combing woods for a nice rounded out smoke flavor. Enjoy yourself and try a few other woods.

 

[chefrob]

in my horizontal i've been setting up the coal bed with oak and ono lump(hawian mesquite) then tossing on large hunks of pecan. in my vertical i use lump with apple and cherry.

 

[hog warden]

Once you branch out from Hickory, what you smoke with depends as much on what you are smoking as anything. Then it also matters if you are cooking with wood or just using chunks, chips sawdust etc. for smoke flavor.

For poultry and most pork parts like butts, ribs, etc. the fruitwoods like apple and cherry are popular, along with harder to find mulberry, apricot, peach, etc. Sweet smelling smoke. Hard maple is also used here.

For a lot of smoked sausages like polish or even summer sausages, hickory is still #1, along with oak and pecan. Hickory is the flavor you want and leaves a nice red/pink color on the sausage.

Red meats like beef can handle the stronger smoke flavor of hickory and oak.

Pecan is also in the hickory family, but the smoke is milder. Very popular with guys using wood along in offsets. Nice mild smoke flavor and a lot of btu's.

And no reason you can't mix nearly all of these if you want.....as long as you have the general idea of what and when.

Mesquite is tried a lot of times, but I'd confine it to grilling wood only. Hot fire.....grill over the coals. Too strong to use for smoke flavored anything.

A lot of nut trees work, but some don't. Walnut for example is bad. No softwoods like pine or fir ever. No plywood or manufactured woods ever.

 

[mballi3011]

I'm a lucky gasser cause I have a store that I can buy differant woods all the time. They carry about 15 differant kinds of chips and almost the same on chunks. But I really like apple,cherry, pear, orange, oak, maple, hickory, pershimmon even and for fish I like alder and ash. So there is some of the ones that I can buy just down the road.

 

[smokebuzz]

Muhlberry,Very good smoke.

 

[gregzee]

I mostly mix woods when i smoke. For beef i enjoy an equal mix of Hickory and Oak. Pork, i like 1 piece of pecan and 3 chunks of cherry and for poultry i go just cherry. Lately ive been using pear only on ribs and my wife thinks its much better than my usual mix. Its definetly a very good smelling wood to.

 

[melindab]

I just ordered some nectarine, peach, and pear wood, never used any of the three before and excited to try them. I also got some coffee wood coming out of pure curiosity, not sure what to expect there! I almost always use Jack Daniels oak barrel wood or Hickory...also LOVE alder wood for fish or chicken.

 

[gnubee]

Definately alder for fish. Man I wish I could get a load of alder.

 

[grillin_all_day]

I used alder on beer can chicken and loved the taste. I'm actually going to branch out and will be ordering 10# of cherry and 10# of apple. I can't wait to throw some BB's on when I get my woodQ

 

[bbq engineer]

I love the fruit woods...Apple, and Cherry. I also like pecan a lot, and will then make mixes of the above three. I want to get my hands on some peach wood this year.

I don't like mesquite, unless I throw a chunk on the grill beside a burger or steak. Not a good smoking wood IMHO.

 

[fire it up]

The woods I use more often than anything else is oak and cherry combo.



You ever find yourself in Jersey I can help you with that, the farm I buy all my wood from has tons and tons of peach wood.

 

[rbranstner]

Cherry and apple for me. But I would love to get my hands on some peach wood to try some time.

 

[grillin_all_day]

I really don't use mesquite much either. In fact, the only time I've used it was when I smoke fatties. It's a shorter smoke, and I think it gives a good flavor to the sausage.

 

[treegje]

give me oak and cherry,these are my most used wood