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Smoking wood selection


 
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Paul Vogler

New member
Sorry for bringing this up again. Looked buy did not find what I am looking for.

I am going to start this off asking a few questions about Hickory, but anyone can jump in with a question of their own about smoking woods.

Is there any difference between heart wood and the wood under the bark but before the heart wood? Either better for smoking? I have a nice little supply of hickory splits.

Thanks
 
I did a search on "heart wood" and found this - Heart Wood

Doesn't look like "heart wood" gets much discussion here.

Here is a conversion on Heartwood on another bbs - heartwood

Click on the first followup
 
I've used a bunch of Pecan and Hickory and never paid any attention to whether it was heart wood or not. It's more important in boat building and knife finishing than BBQ.
 
Whether it makes a big difference or not, for smoking in my kettle or wsm I'll go ahead and remove the outer layer with a small hand axe right before a cook.
 
Russell, Dave, and Jim.

Thank you all gentlemen. As I said, creating a good smelling and tasting smoke has recently gone wrong and I was lost. I am starting to get back into the grove. 2 weekends ago I had one my best smokes lately. Although it was chicken quarters and at 300 degrees. I did not foil the water pan. And all of the grease fell into it and started to boil. I also knocked off small splits from the larger splits. First 3 was pure heartwood. And the 4th split is of sap wood.
Now last weekend I had skinless breast and skinless and boneless thighs. So I am thinking I have to drop the temperature from 300 to about 250 - 260 degrees. Also I foiled the water pan this time. Well the smoke taste is ok to good, but not as good as the smoke the weekend before. Also I used two pieces of sap wood and one of heartwood. So was wondering if it was the sap wood versus the heart wood. Or the lower temp and foiled water pan?

If your still with me, thanks for reading all of the above.
 
Paul.
I buy my smoke-wood from smokinlicious. They only use the heartwood, and I noticed a big difference when using hickory from them vs the bagged hickory from HD or Lowes which seems like mostly outer layers with bark.
In a pinch I still use the bagged stuff, I just need to use 2-3 times more..

Tim

Tim
 
Originally posted by Paul Vogler:
...2 weekends ago I had one my best smokes lately. Although it was chicken quarters and at 300 degrees. I did not foil the water pan. And all of the grease fell into it and started to boil.
Click to expand...

If you liked that, I'd try skipping the pan altogether and smoke the chicken directly over the coals.
 
Originally posted by Paul Vogler:
...Now last weekend I had skinless breast and skinless and boneless thighs. So I am thinking I have to drop the temperature from 300 to about 250 - 260 degrees.
Click to expand...

Why's that?
 
Like I said I use hickory/pecan bark on without regard to heart wood. Maybe it's because I'm in Texas a smoke intense state.
 
I've never noticed a difference in inside/outside wood or even saplings.

I think chicken with the waterpan removed would be a great thing to try. I know that wings are, and intend to try a whole chicken ASAP.
 
Timothy,

Thanks for the link and did some reading that open my eyes and has me thinking new thoughts. I am going to cut the heartwood out of my splits and just use the sap wood for fires in one of those fire pits this fall.

Dave,

I knew that without the bones and skin this stuff was going to get done way to fast. And didnt really think it would have enough time to pick up any smoke flavoring. From your post, I get the impression that you would have kept the temperature up around the 300 temperature that I had used the week before. Also I am thinking that there is a difference when chicken grease is boiled in a pan, versus hitting hot coals and flash burning. But with foiling the water pan with the foil raised up and no contact with the bottom of the pan. Would reduce the chance of the grease from boiling. Two weeks ago the smoke was basicly the best ever. But three was just a very settle bite to the flavor. I might be in left field, but was thinking the oil that vaporized might be the cause of that.

As for me and mine, we will be using heartwood for now on.
 
You mention smoke flavor. For me, a day later everything has a more intense smoke flavor. My face being in the smoke during cooking deadens my "smoke receptors".
Also water boiling adds steam which can be a more effective transportation for smoke.
 
Originally posted by Russell Y:
...water boiling adds steam which can be a more effective transportation for smoke.
Click to expand...

So is that why the smoke is so much more "forgiving" when I use water in the pan? I find I can use significantly more wood with water, and I haven't oversmoked anything in my wsm other than trying ribs cooked without foil and no water in the pan.
 
Dave,

Well I smoked up a small 3.5lb roast today. I wanted to do the slow and low smoke, so I used water in the water pan. Now I just got done doing two smokes with empty water pan and chicken. Both times the chicken came out with a nice hickory flavor. Well the roast did not even have a slightest hickory flavor.

So, I am going to have to learn how to build a fire that only gets up to 230 degrees max for those low and slow cooks.

These only the views of a newbie that could be all wet behind my ears.
icon_smile.gif
 
Originally posted by Paul Vogler:
Dave,

Well I smoked up a small 3.5lb roast today. I wanted to do the slow and low smoke, so I used water in the water pan. Now I just got done doing two smokes with empty water pan and chicken. Both times the chicken came out with a nice hickory flavor. Well the roast did not even have a slightest hickory flavor.

So, I am going to have to learn how to build a fire that only gets up to 230 degrees max for those low and slow cooks.

These only the views of a newbie that could be all wet behind my ears.
icon_smile.gif
Click to expand...

Paul, how much wood did you use?

Unless cooking poultry, if I'm running a dry pan I'm gonna foil the meat. Sort of like steam from the pan, finishing cooking in foil dilutes the smoke as well. So basically, that means I use a pretty good bit of wood unless smoking poultry with no water. Russell probably described it best in his above post regarding smoke and water in the pan, but I've also heard folks describe the steam as "washing" the smoke.

Anyhow, for instance, yesterday I mixed it all up and did something completely different for pulled pork, trying a new recipe and combining a lot of things for a very interactive cook. For wood, I started off with three fist sized chunks of shaggy bark hickory to smoke the two 8-9lb pork butts, going with a foiled pan since I was cooking hotter than usual and wanting a "faster" bark. The plan was to add a good sized chunk or two of apple if the smoke dissipated much before foiling time, and sure enough, since my fire was hotter than usual, that was the case. I wouldn't have went through near that much wood in such a short time cooking with water in my usual manner, but the meat would've smoked for much longer, 12 hours+. These guys that run a dry pan and don't foil the meat would oversmoke every time if using as much wood or smoking as long. Been there, done that, tried just about everything once.
 
Dave, I don't foil and I don't use water. I add lots of wood when I smoke on Brisket and butt. No big deal on butt since you shred it anyway. Brisket is tough enough to handle alot of smoke (yes, even mesquite). Never had either one turn out bitter. If you are talking fish,poultry ,meatloaf,etc. I might agree. AS I've said before it's an individual taste. It's not a hard and fast rule.
 
As I said, creating a good smelling and tasting smoke has recently gone wrong and I was lost
Click to expand...

Hey, Paul

In your opening post you mentioned hickory. If you're using hickory with the chicken, that might explain some of the hit-and-miss. Many people find that hickory is too powerful for chicken, and overpowers it, and easily gives it an oversmoked flavor. Most folks use oak, pecan, maple, or fruit woods (apple, cherry, etc...) for chicken, and avoid hickory and mesquite.
 
Originally posted by paul h:
Dave, I don't foil and I don't use water. I add lots of wood when I smoke on Brisket and butt. No big deal on butt since you shred it anyway. Brisket is tough enough to handle alot of smoke (yes, even mesquite). Never had either one turn out bitter. If you are talking fish,poultry ,meatloaf,etc. I might agree. AS I've said before it's an individual taste. It's not a hard and fast rule.
Click to expand...

Paul, I probably shouldn't have mentioned specific wood amounts since that's a preference thing and depends on species and level of seasoning as well.

But forget rules and arguments for a minute and let me ask you something as to really what I was getting at. Do you not agree that if you DID foil OR go with a water pan, that you would have to run heavier smoke if wanting to come close to your present level of smoke flavor preference? Not only is that my experience, I'd say that most of the guys that warn about using too much wood are either in the dry pan camp or cook with out foil, or both.
 
To Dave, From the original Paul. LOL

Ok, you asked me how much wood did I use. Just a tad bit more than with the chicken at 300 degrees. So, I would say that I used 18"L X about 1/2 to 3/4" sq splits. I cut the heartwood from some hickory splits I have.

Yes had water pan with water. And dropped the temperature back to about 235 +/- 15 degrees. I Put on a mustard rub of my design. Put on WSM about 7AM and off by 1:30. Foiled at 165 degrees which was at about 10:30. And I added about 1/4 cup apple juice @ 70 degrees. the IT was about 207 degrees (thats when I could easily pass an ice pick through it.

Will have to try this again in a few weeks and add a lot more wood. And here I thought less was more. Well worked with the chicken..
 
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