Peach Wood -- what are your thoughts?


 
C

C. Moore

TVWBB Member
A friend has a peach tree down and has offered to let me cut away at it. It is a fairly sizeable one. On television, I have seen Myron Mixon of Jack's Old South Barbecue tout peach wood. Have any of you used it and what are your thoughts? Any thoughts on whether the limbs or the trunk are better?
 
I haven't used it but I wood like to. Shouldn't be much difference between the trunk and limbs except the size of chunks you would get. Limbs can be easier to cut chunks from since you have to chop it a lot less to get the right size chunks. Just make sure to season it long enough.
 
I agree with Bob. If you can get that peach, please do. And if you are anywhere near me, I'll be happy to bring my truck over.

Any fruitwood is supposed to be good for grilling and smoking, but to me peach has the most promise. I need to find me a source.

Rich
 
I got a small amount of peach wood from one of my BBQ teammates who pruned it off a neighbor's tree that was encroaching on his yard. Great peach flavor and the smoke is nice and mild.
 
Not to hyjack the thread but I have a question. It seams most people say to make sure the wood is "seasoned properly before use". I was watching Pitmasters the other night and and at least one of the guys was using peach wood that he said was "just cut and nice and green". This guy competes pretty regulary and has done pretty darn well. Does the wood need to be seasoned or not? Just got me to thinking.
 
Peach is a terrible wood to use for smoking and I think you should immediately ship every bit of it to me for proper disposal.

Kidding aside, I know several teams that use peach exclusively and they do very well with it. I just scored a whole pile of it that I'll be cutting up this weekend. I also got a good bunch of pear wood that smells wonderful.

I really don't know much about green versus seasoned wood but I would think that overly green wood could produce creosote from the fresh sap. I could very well be wrong on that.

Russ
 
I have some peach and have used it a couple of times...it is great, similar to apple or cherry wood, very mild so it works well with pork or poultry
 
Peach seems to work great on everything I've tried it with, especially pork shoulder, and I actually would have it green rather than so dry that the bark is starting to come off. With greener wood you won't need to use as much and the smoke will last longer. For pork butt or brisket, I often use a few peach chunks with one or two chunks of hickory/oak, the amount and size depending on the age/dryness of wood. I often will use three chunks down in the coals and three on top.

Regarding what's "seasoned", I read just the other day where Chris Lilly (of Memphis in May and Big Bob Gibson's BBQ fame) considers anything THREE months or older as being "seasoned". Lots of folks would consider six months necessary to be seasoned, but regardless, my experience is that seasoned wood is only REQUIRED for wood burning smokers. Now I'm not mimimizing the mistake of oversmoking. However, that can be done in any cooker, no matter whether using seasoned wood or not.
 
C. Moore....I assume you are somewhere in the southern states area. I am in SC and have access to peach wood on a somewhat regular basis.

Honestly you can't go wrong with a fruitwood like this, but as with anything new, it takes a few practices to dial in your techniques.

I use pecan more than peach, but both are in the softer wood category which makes them burn more quickly and produce good quantities of smoke.

I always mix them about 1/3 fruitwood with abut 2/3 hickory. I have noticed that the smoke from fruitwoods tend to make your smoked meats a tad on the dark side if used exclusively, plus the smoke depth may not be as much as you desire. Hickory gives the depth, and since it is quite hard, wont darken your meats too much.

By all means try peach.....thats a celebrated wood here in SC.
 
It's a good time to visit your local orchard and see if you can get some of the large main limbs that have broken from the weight of fruit and summer storms.

Last year, the big broken limbs all still had peaches on them, but this morning we brought three large ones back since all but a couple of the peaches were gone. The core wood is supposedly better for smoking with, and so this year I put all the little stuff on the burn pile. It's pretty easy to tell by the color of the cut. The smaller limbs are pretty light in color, with the core wood being much more "peachy".
icon_biggrin.gif


You gotta love the smell of this stuff when cutting it, and I've finally got fresh peachwood for my pork butt cook this week!
wsmsmile8gm.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top