Wood Chunk Questions...


 
D

Dan McDonald

New member
Tapping into the smoking brain trust for some advice.

I'm planning on smoking ribs this weekend.

After hurricane Irene, many knocked down trees here in VA. A friend had a Red Oak that got blown down and he cut up and gave me a few logs.

Any advice on using Oak for smoking ribs?

Also, the wood is green, maybe been cut up a few weeks.

My thought is the greener the wood, the more moisture and consequently more smoke?

thanks in advance for any advice!
 
i myslef have never used green wood, however ive heard of people saying it can give off a bitter taste.
 
Definitely season it so it burns properly. I use red oak on briskets and other beef and it has a nice flavour. Not to strong not to mellow.
 
Honestly there are two schools of thought on green wood. I know quite a few teams who use it. I also know they have all been cooking for a very long time and understand how to use it.

If you have never tried it, I would stick to seasoned oak, or at least be prepared to ruin your meat
icon_smile.gif
 
Cut/splitt it up to smaller chunks...Store in a area with some airflow,and you can use it in a month or 2. Oak goes well with pork.
 
Since I've been more inclined to cook butts by day lately, I'm leaning more toward the "well-seasoned camp", even for fruitwoods, (ESPECIALLY FOR NUTWOODS.) Stands to reason I can learn what's going on better by day than by pillow.
icon_wink.gif


For instance, I'm smoking a couple of butts today and along with one chunk each of hickory and pecan, I started with a couple of peachwood chunks. I'd split the peach chunks fairly thin several weeks ago to speed seasoning since they were cut this summer, but ended up removing one of them from the cooker after getting a whiff of the unusually heavy smoke. I'd used some of the same peachwood back on my Labor Day cook and thought it was a bit much, but thought it would've been seasoned enough by now. Well, after the smoke thinned out I layed a well-seasoned pecanwood chunk on the edge of the ring and then moved to the center after it got hot....BIG DIFFERENCE in the smoke, in both smell and appearance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top