Need a little help with Hickory vs. Mesquite!!!

[G.A. Green]

Folks:

Wanting to cook packer brisket & butt tonight but ran out of oak; all I have is mesquite and hickory. Love hickory with butt, love mesquite with brisket - which one with both?

Opinions? Thanks in advance!

 

[Dan H.]

well i would call that a personal preference. I've done the two before and elected for Hickory + Apple, apricot, or cherry. If i was doing that today i would use apple... tomarrow may be different, sometimes it depends on which is closer on my bbq cabinent in the garage.

I like to go about 2 chunks of Hickory to about 4 the other, that seems to be plenty of smoke to me. I also like oak, to bad your empty on that.

 

[Brian Bo.]

I'd go with the hickory, personally. I love mesquite for my briskets, but I've also used hickory for my briskets and they still taste great. The pork will come out a lot better-tasting with hickory than it would mesquite, as I think the mesquite will be a bit too strong for the pork to handle.

 

[Bryan S]

HICKORY for your cook. Mesquite is good on beef but for a long butt cook it gets very bitter IMO. I used mesquite one time on a pork butt and that's the only time I had to toss the meat, to my taste buds it was nasty. I use mesquite all the time for my High Heat 5 hrs or less brisket cooks.