Cherry Wood


 
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Penoose

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Supposedly, cherry wood is LESS potent than hickory, with a "subtle" flavor that is good for chicken. My own experience, however, seemed to belie this widely held notion. My friends and I smoked some chicken using a cherry/hickory mix and found the flavor to be overpowering. We use hickory all the time with great success, so I can only assume that the added variable - the cherry wood - was repsonsible for our botched bird. The thighs tasted uncannily like hot dogs. Perhaps they were just oversmoked?

Any comments/similar experiences?

P.j.
 
May be that you have discovered a new kind of meat! "Birdogs"!!! Sorry, I couldn't resist!

I have used hickory with a dash of cherry wood thrown in with great results. In fact, some of the best chicken I've cooked so far has been smoked with this combination of wood.

How much of each did you use?

Jim
 
Probably you used too much wood. I would use 1 fist, 2 at the most if you really like smoke.
 
"May be that you have discovered a new kind of meat! "Birdogs"!!!"


Jim, you are making some close friends of mine feel uneasy!!! /infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif LOL

Bob
 
P.j.
I have never used a combo of woods. But, I have used apple, pecan, hickory,oak, never cherry with chix.
My personal opinion, Nothing beats hickory, oak comes in second.
Mike
 
Penoose,

I've used cherry by itself for chicken, and have always been happy with the result. It is very easy to oversmoke with cherry wood in my experience, so I usually only use one medium or two small chunks. I'd imagine using it in combination with hickory could easily produce the overpowering flavor you described.

Rick
 
My favorite these days is orange believe it or not...been using it to smoke chicken or even small game hens. Cherry is hard to get in central Florida but word from orange groves is easy to come by. Give it a try sometime. Have even used wood from Grapefruit and Lemon trees. Gives a good fruity flavor to your poultry. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif
 
I've also found cherry to be a pretty powerful tasting wood. Mixed with hickory it imparts a wonderful flavor. But you need to be careful with cherry - oversmoke with it and food becomes somewhat bitter.
 
I live out in Valrico past Brandon off of Hwy 60 and there are lots of Orange and Grapefruit groves out in this area. I buy most of my produce out here from places like this and when I'm buying oranges or other produce I just ask them if they have any trees they have chopped down and if they do I give them my number and ask them to call me. Sometimes when they are thinning out their groves it's pretty easy to get the wood. All they do is toss it in the chipper if they don't do something with it. I got some from a neighbor that wanted to chop an orange tree down in his back yard. He didn't like oranges and was tired of the mess they made when the dropped on the ground. I let him chop it and then I took what I wanted before he disposed of it. There is also a store in St Pete where I bought my WSM that had alot of unusual woods. I believe the guy also told me he'd order what I wanted if they didn't have it in stock. I'll look up the name of the place and post it in the forum..It's been awhile since I have been there (since it's so far for me to drive).
 
Here's a good place to get wood and stuff in St Pete or it was the last time I was there...that was at least a year ago. It's where I bought my WSM. Seemed to be the only place I could find it in the greater tampa area.

GOOOO TB Lightning...did you say.....Sweep the Canadians...why yes we did and we did...LOL

Buchan Gas
6150 49th Street North
St Petersburg , FL 33709
(727) 526-9121
 
We used a 2 parts Oak to 1 part Cherry mix on our Brisket last weekend to take 3rd for the Smokin' Poobahs at the Sugar Creek contest. I love the flavor and color I get with Cherry, but I do think you need to be mindful that it is a fairly potent wood. I think it has more oil in it than other woods typically considered more "harsh", which it might impart to the meat over time...which might also mean that the longer the cherry is seasoned (i.e., the less "green" it is), the better it might turn out for 'que. Just some undereducated guesses...
 
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