# Wood for shoulder and brisket



## wisconsinsmoker (Jul 19, 2012)

The next time I fire up my smoker I was thinking about adding a Beef Brisket along with my Pork Shoulders. If I'm doing Brisket and shoulder at the same time what kind of wood would be the best? I've had good luck using Cherry with my pork shoulders. I'm hesitant to use Cherry with a brisket. The reason I'm hesitant is because when I've done beef (burgers) on the grill in the past using cherry the burgers don't seem to absorb any smoke at all and it's been pretty disappointing eating smokeless burgers off the grill. Any thoughts on what kind of smoke would be best for both brisket and shoulder? 

I have Red Oak, Cherry, and Apple all dried up in my garage attic. I'm drying some sugar maple that should be ready in a week or 2, would it be worth waiting until that is done?


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## coffee_junkie (Jul 19, 2012)

II would use the cherry myself, I think your experience with the burgers had two strikes, one it was ground beef and two it was on the grill. I think you will find that a brisket that will be smoked for 20 hours (or whatever) will take smoke way different than grilled burgers. Red oak would be a nice complement to the cherry also.


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## chef jimmyj (Jul 19, 2012)

coffee_junkie said:


> II would use the cherry myself, I think your experience with the burgers had two strikes, one it was ground beef and two it was on the grill. I think you will find that a brisket that will be smoked for 20 hours (or whatever) will take smoke way different than grilled burgers. Red oak would be a nice complement to the cherry also.


 X2...JJ


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## so ms smoker (Jul 19, 2012)

Of  those  three, I vote for the red oak!Mike


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## cliffcarter (Jul 20, 2012)

IMHO northern red oak is not a very good wood for BBQ, grilling yes, BBQ no. Keep in mind that there are 3 different oaks that are called red oak. Two, coast live oak(found on the west coast and used traditionally in Santa Maria style BBQ) and southern red oak found, as the name suggests, in the south. Northern red oak is a notoriously slow drying wood and may take up to 3 years to be dry enough to be used for cooking

and often has an ugly urine smell when burning. If the cherry you have is black cherry(AKA wild cherry) I recommend you use that on the beef. Maple is my preferred cooking wood for almost everything, if you think it may be ready in only two weeks it is probably ready now.


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## piaconis (Jul 20, 2012)

X3 JJ and coffee.  I did both pork and a flat on the smoker lately, and cherry was the way to go.

BTW - if you want to grill and get better smoke flavor, try indirect grilling next time.  Set your coals on one side, meat on the other.  At the end of your cook time, put it right over the flame to crisp the outside.


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## wisconsinsmoker (Jul 20, 2012)

thanks for the advice, I appreciate it a lot. The cherry that i have been using is Black Cherry that i cut from my families hunting property. I think im going to keep it simple and stick with straight Black Cherry for a while until i get some more experience. BTW i used the cherry a couple of times on the grill cooking once a salmon and second time a rainbow trout that i caught out of Lake Michigan. The cherry smoke added an outstanding great flavor both times to the brown sugar soy sauce olive oil brine. Next time I catch something its going on the smoker with cherry smoke. 

I will repost after I smoke up my first brisket. If I catch any fish and smoke them ill let you know how that goes to.


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