Substitute for maple wood chunks?


 
B

Benjamin.H

New member
Planning on doing the maple glazed turkey from The Big Bob Gibson book. The recipe calls for hickory,oak, and maple. Problem is I cannot find maple chunks anywhere.

Thoughts on substituting apple or cherry chunks for the maple chunks???

How many chunks of each do y'all suggest? I have a 22 WSM.
 
I'd hesitate using hickory on poultry. It can overpower a bird very easily. But big Bob Gibson is a far better cook than I am, so who am I to argue his recipe? Cherry in small amounts is great on poultry. So is Apple. If it were my bird, I'd go light on smoke. Maybe one small chunk of apple, cherry and oak.
 
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Agree with previous post on hickory, can be overwhelming, Cherry is a good bet. Personally I like the chunks better than the chips.
 
Apple all the way. Turkey smoked with apple wood is delicious. I am doing maple and pecan this year. I get a lot of my smoke wood from Ebay.
 
Went ahead and used oak,cherry, and apple. Think ill be alright to pull em at 160 and wrap em tight in foil. The company won't be here for a while so I'm thinking about glazing them closer to when they get here.
 
Benjamin.H said:
Went ahead and used oak,cherry, and apple. Think ill be alright to pull em at 160 and wrap em tight in foil. The company won't be here for a while so I'm thinking about glazing them closer to when they get here.
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Oak, Cherry, and Apple sounds like a great combo. I think your wrap and glaze plan sounds good ...it should hold fine for a few hours if you put it in a cooler. It might soften the skin though.
 
Sounds like you have things under control, but for future reference maple's one of those mid-flavored woods. Stronger than apple/cherry, not as strong as hickory. Little more mild than oak. So as Bill says pecan or peach is in the same ballpark (pecan is kind of like mild hickory if I remember properly). Frankly hickory + oak + maple is not going to be THAT different than just using pecan although it's always nice to get a little variety in there if you have it handy. But don't fixate on it.
 
The family is still raving about the turkey breasts. Thanks for the help along the way. I've decided I am going to purchase a meat slicer and just cook my own lunch meat. That beats paying deli prices and I can make it the way I like.
 
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