Wood for smoking?

[cuinrearview]

I start with a double layer of unlit briquets, cover with a single layer of fully burning briquets, then toss my smoking wood on top. When finished, the wood still has it's shape but has turned to charcoal. That tells me no flare-ups. Temp remains constant - around 240F. A whole pork shoulder takes about 6 hours to reach 165F. I can get an 8 - 10 hour burn this way. This is in a smoker I built from a vertical 55 gal drum.

Your butt's not finished at 165° is it? Are you slicing it, or cooking further in the oven? My wood chunks come out the same way, and I don't soak them. I run my smoker 200-225° on the dome thermometer, and never have a flare up. Low and ssllllloooooowwww......

 

[NSMaple1]

I must be the only one that soaks the dry wood for more smoke and less flare ups. I am however not an expert.

That likely comes down to the smoker configuration. Some are better or worse than others. First time I used mine (it's LP), the chips burned up. I got a crepe pan, cut the handle off, and set that on top of the factory chip tray. Put the chips in that. All better. So now if I use chunks, I take the crepe pan out & use the factory tray with the chunks to the side away from the flame. If I use chips I use the crepe pan.

Also got a bigger pan for water.

Also found the thermometer to be not very accurate - digital probe one is highly recommended.

Then once I got the hang of the control knob & found out how to set it 'lower than low' - it's full smoke ahead. Nothing quite like a rack of ribs right off your own smoker, after spending a lazy day watching the thermometer.

 

[661Joe]

Im a big jerkey guy. Ive got recipes from three hours to 16hrs depends on what im doing and yadda yadda i use a bullet style smoker. And low heat and that small blue tent of smoke and some beer whike i wait. Also i use water in the pan sometimes and sometimes i dont again depends what im doing.. Ive tried alot of wood and again EVERYONE'S favorite flavor comes from the oak.

 

[buzz sawyer]

Your butt's not finished at 165° is it? Are you slicing it, or cooking further in the oven? My wood chunks come out the same way, and I don't soak them. I run my smoker 200-225° on the dome thermometer, and never have a flare up. Low and ssllllloooooowwww......

Yeah, should have finished the process description. At 165 I wrap it and either put it back in the smoker or in the oven at 200 for another 4-5 hours. Cool the juice in the fridge so I can skim off the fat and add the juice to my pulled pork.

 

[TeeMan]

Pecan chips leftover from splitting. Soak them about 30 minutes before using.

 

[Hinerman]

I know some like green wood for smoking but I think it gives an off flavor. Dry wood for me. IMHO it doesn't get any better than apple.

A BBQ restaurant here cooks with green hickory. He tells his hickory supplier, "Cut it and deliver it the same day". He buys about every 3 weeks.

He has a high end smoker (very large). He sets the temp he wants, the smoker opens a draft and kicks on a fan to maintain the desired heat with green wood. Smoker shuts down when desired temp is met. He tells me green wood makes more smoke.

In case you are wondering, he is considered the best around by many.

 

[DoHomerSimpson]

While the smoking of food produce is not as well- developed here in Ireland as elsewhere, I've heard some years ago that when smoking, two things should be avoided for health reasons- softwoods and wet timber. This advice appeared to stem from the tendency of both to produce tars and other substances in the smoke that would be considered to be carcinogenic. Dry hard woods would be less prone to producing such potentially dangerous substances. I have no knowledge as to how flavour is affected. I do know that when Irish smoked salmon is being marketed, the fact that it was 'oak- smoked' is particularly emphasised.

 

[OnTheRoad]

Yes, dry apple is excellent for smoking. I am in BBQ country and a bit of an enthusiast. I use apple, cherry, and hickory though grape vine is nice and for a stick burner white oak is great. Apple has a fairly mild and sweet flavor that works great for meat that has little flavor like chicken breast, pork loin or butt, and fish.

For bbq, you don't need the wood to be bone dry but it doesn't hurt anything either, but you do want it dry. If you were using a grill to smoke, you'd probably want a bit more moisture but in reality, for bbq the moisture level is not critical. Maybe for stick burners it's different but I use Weber bullets and they are fueled by charcoal and flavored by wood.

 

[buzz sawyer]

While the smoking of food produce is not as well- developed here in Ireland as elsewhere, I've heard some years ago that when smoking, two things should be avoided for health reasons- softwoods and wet timber. This advice appeared to stem from the tendency of both to produce tars and other substances in the smoke that would be considered to be carcinogenic. Dry hard woods would be less prone to producing such potentially dangerous substances. I have no knowledge as to how flavour is affected. I do know that when Irish smoked salmon is being marketed, the fact that it was 'oak- smoked' is particularly emphasised.

Interesting point. I know wild cherry leaves, twigs and bark can contain hydrogen cyanide and be poisonous to grazing animals. From what I've read, low temps used when smoking typically do not result in the formation of HC.

 

[bowtechmadman]

I usually use a mix...depends on what I have cut/split. I've used hickory, oak, cherry, maple, apple, peach. Wish I had access to more hickory and apple, majority of what I use is white oak, cherry, maple (most prevalent in my woods). I'm running a stick burner and would agree with an earlier comment about using the fruit woods more for chicken/pork, beef and venison I use more oak/maple. I only use dry/seasoned wood have always read/heard a lot of negative about green wood. I also try not to have any bark on the wood.

 

[Bob95065]

Don't use eucalyptus

 

[svk]

I have some pin cherry that came down over the road during the ice storm last week. Going to cut the bark off it and cube it up for doing ribs.

 

[Backus]

green tag alder

 

[hedge hog]

you work for traeger ?
or is the solid form more than hickory?
never heard of this til I started using a pellet grill and we started using alder for cabinets

 

[tnichols]

Anyone ever use mulberry?

Yes, and it worked real fine. It is a fruit wood after all, we found the flavor to be pleasant. YMMV.

 

[alleyyooper]

Depending on thre flavor I use cherry, maple, apple, plum and hickory. I use chunks, try to keep them about 2"x2" size wise and I always soak the chunks for an minium of 12 hours before using.
The chunks also work well on charcoal in a grill doing burgers.

Al