is all hickory the same or is some better than others for smoking meats? I recently took down and enormous hickory and was wondering if it’s suitable to use for smoking? Thanks guys, love it here....
You "found" a Hickory here in New Jersey? Dam man.... Where do you live? They are like finding Wooly mammoth's down here. To answer your question, "yes there is a difference" in the Hickory's but all of them smoke wonderfully. "LET IT DRY" contrary to what you may read! I've smoked 1000's of lbs of pigs, pork, ribs and Chicken with hickory. Clean the bark off before you smoke with it. The bark will give it a bitter, sometimes sharp taste. Use chunks about the size of your fist unless doing a whole pig. I like mocker nut for smoking but there is pignut and shagbark. again all smoke well but have slightly different tastes. "My" opinion the shagbark has a bit of a stonger flavor than the rest. Those are the only ones I've tried. I know there is a black hickory and a sand hickory, there may be more. I "very rarely" get a hickory and when I do it's usually from one of my friends who are tree surgeons. "NICE" score for here in NJ Andy!!!
I wouldn’t say we have tons of it in Burlington county but it’s not terribly hard to find. I have a little less than half a cord of it in log length at the moment.
Our soil is real sandy down here and thats why we don't see much, I'm down here at "exit 0"... Once in a while I'll stumble on one.
I didn't remember where Hunteron county was, I see your over at the "nicer" part of the state! The scenery only gets better over there. You have "real" woods where we have the pine barrens. I think the big reason we don't see certain trees is because of the crappy soil. "But" for what ever reason tomatoes thrive here! I usually get more than I can handle, wind up giving most away.
I have a few hickory trees around. One in particular, I suspect will need to be felled. Unsure of sub-species. It is adjacent to two of those big oaks we had taken down, 2/17. I noticed last summer/fall, that it had sent out quite a few new branch shoots, in the lower third of the tree. Then this spring, the top third did not league out, like the rest of the tree. Guessing that it's 35-40feet high, maybe 7-8 inch towards the bottom. I'll leave it alone for now, but it's on my radar. Not a good day for pics. I will over the weekend.
Top that appears to be dead. The two oaks were to the righy, where there's open sky now. Sprouts on bottom third. Leaves and bark
Gypsy moths from two years ago take that out? Most of my trees came back the same year, but I lost a couple.