Smoke wood, thoughts on oak?

[MickHLR]

Texas is post oak territory. I love it. I really enjoy some hickory too. Oak is milder. It seems to burn longer but not as hot. I'm really fond of pecan which seems like a compromise between the two.

Live oak and post oak are quite different, with live oak being about twice as hard and about 50% more dense. For a WSM, I'd think that post oak would be easier to deal with. That said, a lot of restaurants use live oak, probably because they get more BTU from a cord.

Let me say I agree with the other two Texas boys on here. LOL! And, in Texas, post oak is probably the most-used smoking wood there is. I use a lot of post oak, red oak, and hickory...because those are the prevalent woods from my area. To me, the post oak and red oak both seem to burn a little hotter than the hickory. As far as taste, I believe the red oak provides a tad sweeter taste. And, I believe the post oak is the milder of the three. I like all three, but probably use hickory the most. I've used some pecan, but wasn't a big fan, mainly because it's a cool burner. And, I have used some mesquite in the past. It is probably the hottest burning wood in Texas, and provides the strongest smoky taste, but is more prevalent from central Texas and to the west. I've never used any of the fruit woods or live oak, and really never even thought about it. But, if it were more prevalent in this area, I might have to try it. I think people should try using the wood native to their area, and go from there.

I have bought some of that packaged wood from various places when I've run out of wood in the past, but never cared much for it, as it always seemed to be too dry and burned way too fast, with little smoke. I like my cooking wood to be seasoned for about a year before using it. Then, I will use what I have seasoned for at least a year, sometimes two. After that, it just goes to the firewood pile.

I've been giving away wood to everyone I know with a smoker since I got the WSM. Why? Because I only use one to two splits, cut up into chunks with my miter saw, for a cook now. Whereas, with my stick burner, I'd use 10-20 splits for a cook. Each year, I like to start off with a 1/3 cord of each...post oak, red oak, and hickory. That can be cut back drastically now that I'm using the WSM exclusively. Here's a pic of the wood I started with this year...1/3 cord of post oak in front, 1/3 cord of red oak in the middle, and a 1/3 cord of hickory in the rear.

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[J Hasselberger]

Lookin' good there, Mick. I have a guy coming to trim one of the post oaks that's getting too close to the house, so I'll have a nice supply in a year or so.

 

[Jeffery Link]

I've been using Red Oak for tri tip and brisket with good results, this spring i made another pick em 4 choice purchase from fruitawood.com and tried the post oak for the first time, 2 weeks ago I used it on a brisket cook and it smelled awesome out of the box, and left a very nice red smoke ring on the packer I cooked, looking forward to using a chunk of post oak for my next tri tip cook.