I have bought/made/salvaged all kinds of wood chips for my BBQ.
Hickory and sugar maple are my ol' faithfulls, but apple and alder
work nice too.
Now, a lady friend of mine (out West) swears up and down that oak
works really well.
I can't imagine. Oak? That sour smelling stuff?
Don't like cherry. Tried it...not good. (I love the wood itself, and
always have lots of cherry shavings and chips...too bad.)

What else should I try?


r

Here in Texas oak and mesquite are pretty much staples for smoking and
grilling. As you know, the **** smell will leave the oak with a year
or so of seasoning.

Some folks don't like mesquite, but I like it as a mix myself, in with
charcoal or lump. It is also great to grill chicken, sausage, steaks
or burgers with it as the meat isn't over the smoke of the mesquite
all that long, but enough to give it a distinct flavor.

I use white, red, live oak, etc. when I have a long smoke for butts or
brisket. If you like a mellow smoke, use just a few fist size chunks
for the first three or four hours at least, and more if you want a
better bark on your victim.

I fill my custom charcoal basket with about 7-8 pounds of charcoal,
and intersperse about 4 or five fist size pieces in the charcoal and
fire it off. As the charcoal burns down it will reach the wood and
ignite it as it burns providing a most satisfactory smoke, burning
slowly and evenly.

Properly seasoned oak of any variety I have tried makes a mellow
smoke, with more character than hickory or cherry. A great many
professional competitors use oak as their smoking medium in
competition.

If you are a fan of lump, then no doubt you have used at least some
oak in the mix unless you made it yourself.

Robert

wrote in message
Here in Texas oak and mesquite are pretty much staples for smoking and
grilling. As you know, the **** smell will leave the oak with a year
or so of seasoning.

Ditto on oak and mesquite, but don't forget pecan ... my personal favorite
for sausage and chicken.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 8/8/07
KarlC@ (the obvious)

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:22:48 -0700, Robatoy
wrote:

I have bought/made/salvaged all kinds of wood chips for my BBQ.
Hickory and sugar maple are my ol' faithfulls, but apple and alder
work nice too.
Now, a lady friend of mine (out West) swears up and down that oak
works really well.
I can't imagine. Oak? That sour smelling stuff?
Don't like cherry. Tried it...not good. (I love the wood itself, and
always have lots of cherry shavings and chips...too bad.)

What else should I try?


r

Oak is good, pecan is good, mesquite is good and I can't imagine why
you don't like cherry. My personal favorite. Keep a wet bucket of it
all the time. Southern cherry must be different than Northern cherry.

Some of those floridians swear by palmetto roots, but I've not tried
that. You're not going to find it in the frozen north anyway.

The only wood I've tried and didn't like was walnut. Too strong.



Frank

On Sep 14, 11:23 am, "Swingman" wrote:
wrote in message
Here in Texas oak and mesquite are pretty much staples for smoking and
grilling. As you know, the **** smell will leave the oak with a year
or so of seasoning.

Ditto on oak and mesquite, but don't forget pecan ... my personal favorite
for sausage and chicken.

The hulls ( Like Dave suggested) or the wood?
I never knew that pecan is a member of the hickory family.

I keep forgetting about mesquite. I just don't see much of that around
these parts.
But I have bought baggies of the stuff from my BBQ dealer, and quite
liked the flavour.

A local pub makes every kind of daiquiris imaginable. One day the
bartender tried ground up hickory nuts.
One of the regulars, a physician, was the first to try it out and spat
it out in disgust. "WTF was THAT?", he asked.
"That was a Hickory Daiquiri, Doc."

I know, I know...that was awful.

r

"Robatoy" wrote in message news:
On Sep 14, 11:23 am, "Swingman" wrote:
wrote in message
Here in Texas oak and mesquite are pretty much staples for smoking and
grilling. As you know, the **** smell will leave the oak with a year
or so of seasoning.

Ditto on oak and mesquite, but don't forget pecan ... my personal
favorite
for sausage and chicken.

The hulls ( Like Dave suggested) or the wood?

Either will work ... and the nuts for making the pie for dessert. (Recipe on
the "Karo' syrup bottle has yet to be beat).

I never knew that pecan is a member of the hickory family.

Same genus, different species. Practically speaking there can be so many
variations in color that they can be hard to tell apart. You have to be
careful at the lumber yard that one doesn't get passed off as the other as
some salesman will swear there is no difference ... there is.

They also smell distinctively different when burned/smoking ... pecan
imparts a sweeter flavor to the meat in my estimation.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 8/08/07
KarlC@ (the obvious)

Robatoy wrote:

On Sep 14, 11:23 am, "Swingman" wrote:

wrote in message

Here in Texas oak and mesquite are pretty much staples for smoking and
grilling. As you know, the **** smell will leave the oak with a year
or so of seasoning.

Ditto on oak and mesquite, but don't forget pecan ... my personal favorite
for sausage and chicken.


The hulls ( Like Dave suggested) or the wood?
I never knew that pecan is a member of the hickory family.

I keep forgetting about mesquite. I just don't see much of that around
these parts.
But I have bought baggies of the stuff from my BBQ dealer, and quite
liked the flavour.

A local pub makes every kind of daiquiris imaginable. One day the
bartender tried ground up hickory nuts.
One of the regulars, a physician, was the first to try it out and spat
it out in disgust. "WTF was THAT?", he asked.
"That was a Hickory Daiquiri, Doc."

I know, I know...that was awful.

r


Ugh, how long have you been waiting to work that one into a
conversation? ;-)

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA

On Sep 14, 6:26 pm, Nova wrote:
Robatoy wrote:
On Sep 14, 11:23 am, "Swingman" wrote:

wrote in message

Here in Texas oak and mesquite are pretty much staples for smoking and
grilling. As you know, the **** smell will leave the oak with a year
or so of seasoning.

Ditto on oak and mesquite, but don't forget pecan ... my personal favorite
for sausage and chicken.

The hulls ( Like Dave suggested) or the wood?
I never knew that pecan is a member of the hickory family.

I keep forgetting about mesquite. I just don't see much of that around
these parts.
But I have bought baggies of the stuff from my BBQ dealer, and quite
liked the flavour.

A local pub makes every kind of daiquiris imaginable. One day the
bartender tried ground up hickory nuts.
One of the regulars, a physician, was the first to try it out and spat
it out in disgust. "WTF was THAT?", he asked.
"That was a Hickory Daiquiri, Doc."

I know, I know...that was awful.

r

Ugh, how long have you been waiting to work that one into a
conversation? ;-)

I had it blocked out of my mind for years...I don't know why my
protection mechanisms failed.

On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:22:48 -0700, Robatoy wrote:

I have bought/made/salvaged all kinds of wood chips for my BBQ.
Hickory and sugar maple are my ol' faithfulls, but apple and alder
work nice too.
Now, a lady friend of mine (out West) swears up and down that oak
works really well.
I can't imagine. Oak? That sour smelling stuff? Don't like cherry.
Tried it...not good. (I love the wood itself, and always have lots
of cherry shavings and chips...too bad.)

What else should I try?

Fruit woods go great with poultry. We did last Thanksgiving's turkey
on a grill with apple, and pear is my favorite with chicken. Try and
match/complement spices/marinade with the wood.

--
Steve Hall [ digitect dancingpaper com ]

In article . com,
says...
I have bought/made/salvaged all kinds of wood chips for my BBQ.
Hickory and sugar maple are my ol' faithfulls, but apple and alder
work nice too.
Now, a lady friend of mine (out West) swears up and down that oak
works really well.
I can't imagine. Oak? That sour smelling stuff?
Don't like cherry. Tried it...not good. (I love the wood itself, and
always have lots of cherry shavings and chips...too bad.)

What else should I try?


r

Beech is good, Manuka (you probably don't get THAT where you are), Gum
(eucalyptus saligna, e. botryoides) works well, for fish anyhow.
I have a bag of White Ash shavings that I keep for the purpose.

Wish I could lay my hands on some Hickory shavings.

-P.

--
=========================================
firstname dot lastname at gmail fullstop com

"Robatoy" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have bought/made/salvaged all kinds of wood chips for my BBQ.
Hickory and sugar maple are my ol' faithfulls, but apple and alder
work nice too.
Now, a lady friend of mine (out West) swears up and down that oak
works really well.
I can't imagine. Oak? That sour smelling stuff?
Don't like cherry. Tried it...not good. (I love the wood itself, and
always have lots of cherry shavings and chips...too bad.)

What else should I try?

I use a lot of oak as it is plentiful here. Works well with beef.

When I use cherry, it is usually mixed. Come to think of it, most every
batch of meat I've smoked this year was a grab of what was in the scrap
bucket or tree trimmings, or both.

I like walnut, but it can be strong.
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/

On Sep 14, 5:11 pm, "Swingman" wrote:

Either will work ... and the nuts for making the pie for dessert. (Recipe on the "Karo' syrup bottle has yet to be beat).

Can I get an *AMEN* to that one. A slice of the Karo pecan pie, a
small wad of French Vanilla Blue Bell next to it, and a cup of strong
coffee is heaven itself.


They also smell distinctively different when burned/smoking ... pecan imparts a sweeter flavor to the meat in my estimation.

Milder, too. I really like it myself for chicken, pork loin, etc.,
but not so much for The National Meat of Texas, beef. I like a little
more smoke on my briskets, and personally have found that pecan can be
a little too mild. Some of my friends actually like the milder smoke,
so I guess it depends on what you prefer.

Since there is plenty of all those woods around here, I just tune the
smoke mix and quantity to what I am smoking.

Robert

Robatoy writes:

A local pub makes every kind of daiquiris imaginable. One day the
bartender tried ground up hickory nuts.
One of the regulars, a physician, was the first to try it out and spat
it out in disgust. "WTF was THAT?", he asked.
"That was a Hickory Daiquiri, Doc."

I know, I know...that was awful.


No worse than the "Slippery Hickory Dock" line they used to use on
the Jungle Cruise.

scott

On Sep 14, 12:22 am, Robatoy wrote:
I have bought/made/salvaged all kinds of wood chips for my BBQ.
Hickory and sugar maple are my ol' faithfulls, but apple and alder
work nice too.

What else should I try?

Here in Florida we sometimes use orange tree chips, although hickory
and mesquite are more commonly used. It gives the meat (usually
chicken or turkey) a good flavor. and doesn't make a fowl odor.

Dave FL

On Oct 2, 1:55 pm, Dave wrote:
On Sep 14, 12:22 am, Robatoy wrote:

I have bought/made/salvaged all kinds of wood chips for my BBQ.
Hickory and sugar maple are my ol' faithfulls, but apple and alder
work nice too.
What else should I try?

Here in Florida we sometimes use orange tree chips, although hickory
and mesquite are more commonly used. It gives the meat (usually
chicken or turkey) a good flavor. and doesn't make a fowl odor.

Dave FL

That sounds intrigueing. I will ask a friend of mine to try to get me
some.