Fruita Wood Supply - new baby steps needed?


 

BFletcher

TVWBB Platinum Member
I just received Red Oak and bought it from Fruita Wood because I read a recent post here about this vendor. Having been smoking for 2 years all my chunks came from Lowe's or Amazon until now. This box has a scent that I can detect from a distance of a few feet; my other bags are similar to the scent of nothing more than writing paper but this is my first oak purchase. Is this experience attributed to the specie, or am I just now about to experience a smoke unlike what I experienced over the past two years?

Do I need to also learn how to seal and isolate wood chunks, and is there a nominal shelf life?

As an aside, my previous bag purchases contained a considerable amount of extremely small fragments rather than what I would ascribe as true chunks; this box from Fruita contains true chunks from top to bottom.

Thanks
 
Welcome to the world of fresh, select smoking wood !

You should notice a vast difference in the amount of wood chunks needed to flavor your bbq. Two or three small chunks maybe all you need.

https://fruitawood.com/features/
"Our woods are shipped in boxes which allow them to breath. We offer a free MESH bag to store them in just for asking for one. We also recommend you store your wood in a cool damp place. Especially our Peach and Apricot wood. Our wood is shipped at its premium state of flavor. Keeping the wood in a refrigerator or in a cool basement will help preserve this premium state."
 
I am not an avid smoker, but it seems a bit much to advising people to put their wood chunks in a refrigerator. I have dried wood and just keep my chunks in a 5 gallon pail in the garage and sometimes soak them for a half hour or so before using them. But, like I say, I just have a Genesis 1000 gas grill that I use for grilling and smoking. But, no one is going to get me to store my wood chunks in the fridge. Even if I wanted to, the wife would call social serviced on me to have me evaluated. Save the fridge for the Spare Ribs.
 
I use much smaller chunks as I do my smoking in my Genesis 1000. I can fit only so much wood in the "V" shaped smoke box and only small long chunks. If I don't soak them, they tend to burn up quick and will even start on fire. Damp wood works better for me for that reason.
 
I’m with Bob, most of the commercially available “big box” places isn’t particularly good. I had a really delightful gift box of maybe 25 pounds of cherry that a friend brought me a while ago. I wish I had more, It was exceptional!
 
I have a buddy that burns wood for heat. He downed a couple cherry trees that were in bad shape and I grabbed a 5 gal pail full of 2-4" logs. Then I just split them up. As much smokeing as I do, they will last a long time. Also, my parents have a Crab apple tree that was looking like it was on it's way out all last summer. I told them that if it doesnt come back this spring, that I wanted the main truck wood from it if they had it removed. It is about 4-6" at the base and would give me enough wood for a few years.
 
BFletcher... Would love to hear how your Coastal Red Oak smoke flavor infusions are going !

As far as shelf life, it has been said that 6 mos would be the most. I concur with that assessment, based on my personal usage of Fruita Wood chunks. Heck, even past those 6 months, it's still better than any big box store plastic wrapped wood.
 
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I'll update you once I throw a couple chunks in the smoker. I'm 50'ish and just had my first experience with Tri-Tip a month ago, so this is the primary reason I bought the red oak (for the next Tri-Tip). I live in a rural area and have rather limited options when shopping but I found it at Sam's Club, though it was already marinated, and some of you veterans may not consider my only option as a quality piece of beef. But we certainly enjoyed it and I guess it's relative, right? Even though I haven't used the oak yet I was impressed enough that, yesterday, I ordered a box of hickory.
 
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I'll update you once I throw a couple chunks in the smoker. I'm 50'ish and just had my first experience with Tri-Tip a month ago, so this is the primary reason I bought the red oak (for the next Tri-Tip). I live in a rural area and have rather limited options when shopping but I found it at Sam's Club, though it was already marinated, and some of you veterans may not consider my only option as a quality piece of beef. But we certainly enjoyed it and I guess it's relative, right? Even though I haven't used the oak yet I was impressed enough that, yesterday, I ordered a box of hickory.

I wonder who's going to be the first here to get a humidor for their smoke wood :)

So long as you like the marinade, no problem. my earliest memories of TT are blurred with London Broil, but we at them after a short marinade in Italian dressing several times.

dish-1000.png
 
I bought a mixed fruit wood box from Fruita last year. (Apple, cherry, peach) Excellent results. Absolutely loved the peach with pork. I thought it better complemented the natural pork flavor rather than dominated it.

I've been trying to decide if I should go with chips or pellets for my A-Maze-N tray. When I decide I'll probably order that along with more peach and some oak.
 
Living in Michigan I need to get some of the orchard owners around here in my circle! Come trimming time I could probably end up with just about anything I’d ever want in the fruit wood arena. That reminds me, I need to trim some suckers off the crabapple tree out front! Snows all gone, should be a ten minute project today!
 
I recently bought POST OAK from Fruita, yet to use it, but it looks damn close to the widely available Wisconsin White Oak...
...also, I recently came upon some fresh cut (within 4 months) apple wood. This apple wood is THE BEST I have ever used.
Most likely because it is freshly cut, many pieces still feel damp... but manalive, does it give off some fantastic smoke AND flavor to what i'm smoking....

I like Fruita now that the shipping is free, it wasn't always free, if I remember correctly....
but also because it looks like their wood is QUAILITY! wood.... and that is what everyone wants.


Storing it in the fridge??? well, if you have a second fridge.. say, in the garage AND the beer doesn't mind sharing it's bunk with wood....
then, it's ok.
 
I've never understood the store smoke wood in fridge suggestion, they have low humidity unless they have a humidity drawer.
 
Our garages in the Mid-west are just big fridge/freezers this time of year. I store mine in cheap dollar store laundry baskets ( lets the wood breathe)
I use Smokenlicious, which hasn't recommend putting fruit wood in a fridge, but they are all about the proper moisture content for smoke- wood.
Could be comparing apples to oranges cause the only fruitwood they carry is wild cherry IIRC.

Tim
 
Freezer won’t work, too many briskets and butts!

The crabapple suckers took twenty min and nothing smokable but, the curblawn looks much nicer!
 
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