Compatible smoke woods


 
Charles Howse

Charles Howse

TVWBB Wizard
Hello All! Just wondering if we have a list or know of one that lists which smoke wood compliments another smoke wood.
i.e. Pecan and Cherry under a chicken, or Oak and Hickory under a Boston Butt.
 
Chris posted this just the other day.
I'm sure some combinations can be made easily off of this.
As far as taste, I think we all would have different opinions so it would be hard to say for sure.

tvwbb.com

Smoke Wood Chart from The Woodshed

From my friends at The Woodshed in Orange, CA...a nice chart on smoke wood flavors and usage.
tvwbb.com tvwbb.com
 
Thanks Darryl! I think this may actually be an easy task.
I'm smoking a Boston Butt Sunday, I have Apple, Hickory, Oak, Maple, Cherry, Peach, Pecan and maybe some others available.
Any recommendations based on experience?? Prefer to use something 'different'.
 
I go by basic rules but can make changes...just for a change.
My go to's are
Beef - Hickory for sure, I like to add Pecan or something that isn't " sweet ".
Chicken - my new impossible to beat favorite is the peach I just acquired. Everything is else too much flavor for me with chicken.
Pork.....ribs and butts I treat the same. I was used to using cherry and apple a lot, I do like this flavor. More recently I have been enjoying Pecan with most of my meats.
I have a bag of Alder too......I used it all the time with pellets but don't really know where it belongs in wood chunks.
While I don't think settling on the same flavor all the time is a good idea, I would like to think that swapping up a mix between apple, cherry, pecan and peach would be a suitable selection. I do not have or have ever had maple or oak ( besides my old pellet grill ) so I cannot speak much about the flavors of that smoke with or without mixing woods.
 
Darryl - swazies said:
have a bag of Alder too......I used it all the time with pellets but don't really know where it belongs in wood chunks.
Click to expand...
We love Alder on Chicken, now I get it from the right coast ( New York state) from Smokinlicious.
The stuff from the PNW reminds me of Cedar which I don't like.
 
timothy said:
We love Alder on Chicken, now I get it from the right coast ( New York state) from Smokinlicious.
The stuff from the PNW reminds me of Cedar which I don't like.
Click to expand...
Hi Timothy! I would have never thought of using Cedar. Things that are in the 'Evergreen' family don't say 'smokewood' to me. ;-)
 
My 2 favorite 'different' woods are apricot and plum....with plum being one of my favorites ever, it was somewhere between cherry and apple but with a unique 'flavor twist'....I lucked out and got both free from coworkers. I did an experiment using skinless/boneless chicken breasts, mainly because they are a very neutral flavor, and a simple salt/sugar brine and smoked batches with different types of wood, took them to work and asked for volunteers (everyone did) and well over 50% of the guesses of wood type were correct, with some people being 80% accurate so i love the idea of using different woods and different combination.

If you can get your hands on some plum wood give it a try
 
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