wood choice?


 
P

PaulBz

TVWBB Fan
Ok so I live in St. Louis. And two of the top joints here that have gained national attention use Cherry and Apple woods with no hickory. One uses all cherry and one uses a mix of cherry and apple. I have tried all cherry and apple woods, and I am not a fan of the fruit woods on pork or beef. I like hickory a lot better and it's not even close. It has a better smoky flavor imho. Also I have used the commercial woods like Western, or Kingsford that you can find at just about any big box store and I don't like them. Get some real Ozark hickory from a smaller company rather than the commercially made stuff and the taste difference is night and day. Any thoughts on this?
 
My favorite local bbq place uses a combination of oak and cherry. It's more oak than cherry. He says the cherry burns way quicker than the oak. Honestly, I don't get any cherry taste from his bbq. I'm still pretty new at using smoke, but I have used hickory, pecan, apple, maple and cherry. All except the apple and hickory were Western products. The hickory is Publix brand and the apple is from Maine Grilling Woods. My favorite so far are the Western cherry and maple...soooo good.

I just ordered a sampler pack from Maine Grilling Woods. Can't wait to check out their other woods. The apple was good.

I, like you, am curious to see how others think.
 
I use cherry on ground beef ( hamburgers, meatloaf) cause I like the flavor. I use it on ribs because I like the color it adds but I also add hickory or pecan.(usually 3 parts nutwood 1 part cherry)
I tried some BBQ from a team that used all cherry and it was ok, kinda lame on the smoke flavor, and I feel the same way on apple by itself.
I get my good hickory from Smokinlicious, the bag stuffed works in a pinch but you need to add 3 or 4 times the amount to get some flavor.

Tim
 
Yeah, my local butcher told me as well to put a little cherry in there as well. Maybe I'll put a little in on my next cook. I did all cherry one time and did not like the flavor at all. I'm a hickory guy. Now I have never done oak. I don't seem to find oak sold around here anywhere. I'm sure the St. Louis bbq store does. It's such a hike to get there though. So I should order some online and try it.
 
I did cherry on chicken as well and didn't really like it. I smoke salmon with cherry and it's awesome. But I didn't like the cherry with pork beef or chicken. That's just my personal preference though.
 
I like hickory and use it on everything. Pecan, cherry, apple, oak are all good. If you like hickory then use it. I find no over smoked flavor from it as others do. If I did,I'd go with milder wood. Just a matter of personal preference and some variety
 
As Timothy stated earlier, I like cherry when I do ribs because of the deep mahogany color it produces. I find no real taste difference when using it, just the beautiful color. Myself, I rarely use hickory because my wife doesn't like a strong smoky taste. I've found pecan is probably my go to wood for just about everything, but I'll mix in white oak, Apple, cherry, peach, maple, and (small amounts) of hickory depending on the type of meat I am smoking. Don't give up on pall all together, try it on your turkey this Thanksgiving.....(to us at least) it's out of this world good!!
Tim
 
The fruit woods are milder, hickory and oak stronger, depends what smoke profile you like.
I use a lot of cherry cause I have a lot, I'll mix in oak, maple, and some hickory depending on what I'm cooking. I can get a strong smoke with cherry, I think it matters how much smoke you give it, more so then the type of wood.
Did some chicken parts yesterday and just used some dead twigs from a flowering cherry and it was pretty good, though my son said it could have used a little more smoke.
so... like all things, ...it depends. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top