A discussion on smoker woods

And apricot is not on the chart.

could be because it’s off the charts in my opinion. My absolute favorite. Love the aroma of it

 

Probably because apricot is not common

I use cherry mostly. Some maple.

 

I could take some pictures as proof of the comments in the above post, but the camera on my phone has quit for some reason.

Some 65 years ago my grandparents planted three eastern white pines in their yard (my yard now). One of those three pine trees died. Another is approaching 100 ft tall and likely 30 inches thick, perhaps a tad more than 30”. The third pine tree was planted next to a large black walnut that’s about 12 ft away. Remember all 3 pines were planted the same day 65 years ago. The third pine near the walnut is only about 15’-20’ tall and only about 8” in diameter and is 65 years old.

 

I don’t discriminate i pretty much use all hardwoods at this point whatever is most dry i will go for first…i used to strictly burn cherry then a little bit of oak would slip in then id try mixing some ash and poplar…i cant really tell the difference to be honest! Right now im smokin ribs with black locust red oak cherry hickory ash and poplar

 

I’m not sure I’d use black locust, honey locust, or osage. I’d want to research them more myself. I’ve never seen them on a list of useable woods for smoking.

 

Ive used osage orange also a bunch of it

 

Black walnut is one i would avoid

 

See my post above about black walnut. Nope…I wouldn’t use it either.

 

I was going to mention that one. Also American elm and horse chestnut.

 

I like most fruit woods, a few nut woods such as oak and pecan. Have no use for mesquite and like hickory only as a accent to other woods. It is overpowering and tends toward bitter if used alone. I guess my go to wood is alder, next is pecan and either of these mixed or mixed with fruit wood. Here is another wood flavor chart:

 

I love hickory. Not so much mesquite. Fruit and nut woods are great.

They don’t call it Hackberry for nothing. Nope. Won’t do it.

 

Getting ready to cut 3 50+ year old apple trees down this January.

 

Mmmmm. Good stuff.

 

I plan on using half of it for smoking wood and the other half of it for smoking wood.

Any ideas how to dry it for smoking wood?

I thought about waxing the ends of some of the rounds, for smoking wood. Not sure whether to leave in rounds or not. Any ideas on that?

 

I think ideally you would want it green for smoking. Actually I've heard its best to soak the chips in water prior to using them in the smoker.

 

Cut green for which type of smoking?

I always soak chips in water, but I assume it didn’t matter if wood was green when cut since it’s dry, dry in the bags in the store.

 

If I'm cutting up smoker wood, it goes in the only metal tote I own. If I have a good supply, rounds do not get split and are covered in rubber and set in a shady spot to slow drying. I have a stick burning offset smoker so no watering down of the splits. They produce enough smoke as is.

 

If chips going on to charcoal then maybe green.

With a stick burner I use dry wood , You don't want a ton of smoke when doing this.
Over the time of a cook it gets plenty of smoke naturally. When mine is running good you see very little smoke.
You kind of have to look at this like your woodstove. Burn dry wood and go outside and look at the stack ; very little smoke. Now throw on some green wood , heavy denser smoke. This is not an ideal burn.

Me , dry and barkless is the way to go.
It just does the work for you.

 

+1

 

Same. I don't associate black locust with a great smelling smoke. I go light on oak since it's quite strong. Same for mesquite.