What kind of oak for smoking?


 
John Neuser

John Neuser

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A few of years ago I took down a small apple tree in my yard. I cut up a few branches that were about 3" in diameter for use in my WSM. After seasoning for about six months it worked great. My daughter recently bought a piece of property with a lot of red oak on it. In fact, so much so, that she sent a lot of the logs to a sawmill to be milled into flooring for her new house. Can this red oak be used in the WSM? Many companies that sell oak smoke woods just say "oak". They do not specify white oak, pin oak, red oak, etc. Post oak being the exception. Thought I'd pose the question before I give it a try and ruin a hunk of beef. Thank you.
 
I get red and white oak from the right coast in New York state, love it on all things biff.
Surprisingly oak is milder than hickory.
 
When sourcing wood for an offset you generally can't specify a specific oak unless you are in Central Texas. There's a lot of tree services that sell firewood on the side and there are tons of species of oak. Around here oak and pecan are plentiful. I don't know what oak but I can tell I've used other several species as well as kiln dried post oak from the store. Honestly, I can't tell a lot of difference. I can tell oak from pecan, but not oak from other oak. So take from that what you will. It seems to take longer to season, but it seems to burn longer and make better coals than pecan. I generally mix and match them, though.
 
There is a local guy who makes different things out of Makers Mark bourbon barrels. He sells bags of the scrap pieces. These are my favorite to use.
From the MM website:
True bourbons like Maker's Mark® are aged in virgin white oak, charred on the inside with several seconds of fire and only used once to age bourbon.
 
Pat G said:
True bourbons like Maker's Mark® are aged in virgin white oak, charred on the inside with several seconds of fire and only used once to age bourbon.
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I watched a show on scotch and they bought single use bourbon barrels from the USA to use in Scotland.
 
There are times that I miss the flavors of good scotch, bourbons and micro beers.
This last few years I have rediscovered their flavors by using them in some of my cooks.
l have read that some use the old barrels to bbq with.
Love to get me some of that.
 
Red oak is native to Cali, it's very expensive & hard to find online. Fruita Woods is currently out of stock on it, but they do offer Eastern red oak.
 
Mark Foreman said:
I just got red oak from Sharpe Gourmet Cooking Wood in Southern California. Love their woods.
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I was really looking for the red oak in 12" log or splits to use in a Santa Maria attachment, however I may wind up ordering chunks from Sharpe's.
 
EricV. said:
I was really looking for the red oak in 12" log or splits to use in a Santa Maria attachment, however I may wind up ordering chunks from Sharpe's.
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Give them a call. They may be able to custom cut. I asked for 2 inch chunks but their equipment couldn’t cut it that small but they did take the time to see if they could accommodate me.
 
So I am in oak country in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range of California. Red oak In California is coastal live oak mainly found along the coastal range. Live oaks in general (interior live oak in my neck of the woods) have a very thin bark which makes them both a good fire wood and smoke wood. They typically burn hotter and produce less ash than CA blue oak…also referred to as white oak that have a much thicker bark. While a good hard wood and smoke wood the BTUs are lower than live oak species and also produce a much stronger smoke at start up and more ash.

There was a reference to Santa Maria valley oak. This is a form of red oak or live oak (coastal or canyon oak) be weary of true valley oak (or water oak). These grow well in the valleys of California like the Sacramento Valley typically near water. They grow fast and are very porous which makes them terrible fire wood and smoke wood as it is tough to get any BTUs out of them even after a few years seasoning.

Anyway, just an old cow puncher that has been around oaks In California. Thin bark oak good. Thick bark okay. Valley oak no way.
 
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