Which wood to use?

L

LazyEngineer

500+ Posts
I am firing up the smoker tonight for a brisket. I am probably going to throw some ribs, chicken, and pork loin on tomorrow morning.

Here's the question: Should I use oak, pecan, or hickory wood? I plan to use some lump oak charcoal in addition to the wood.
 
Huh huh. He said "wood." Sorry. Had to be juvenile for a moment.

The short answer to your question is "yes." All of what you listed is fine, and I don't really have a problem with mixing them -- I've used a mix of oak and pecan before, and it worked perfectly well.

I'm running short on wood these days, though. Down to about 2 cues worth of pecan. I need to scrape some more up.
 
I vote hickory.

& Just because I want to.

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Well, the place I get wood is supposed to stay open till 6:00. They closed early and now I'm screwed. Crap, I've got a brisket and boston butt and only freaking mesquite chunk (and b&b lump charcoal). This sucks. I may have to get some hickory chunk from home depot to tide me over until the morning.

This sucks.
 
I should have thought about that. The brisket is on the smoker. It actually looks pretty good. I got a 20 lb bag of mesquite chunk from HEB for $7 that is generating plenty of smoke. I think it will be ok. I'm going to pick up a lot more wood in the morning to finish it out.

I'm half drunk on scotch.
 
1. Looks VAN-tastic!
2. You'd best be doing that again in about 6 weeks & let that puppy rest on the way out to the Smoker Invitational...

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I'm doing a brisket right now, and I haven't been able to get the damned smoker up above about 200 F. We're planning to eat the brisket for lunch, so it's not a big deal, particularly since I'm going to foil-wrap it and finish it in the oven, but still it's frustrating.

I've asked this before, but forgotten the answer -- does oak/pecan/hickory/mesquite log get the smoker hotter than charcoal, either briquet or lump? I'm fighting a losing battle here. (I'm not saying this is an emergency -- the brisket has been cooking in a 175 F- 200 F smoker for 6 hours. Some folks go that low. I just usually aim for 225 F.)
 
Good tips, Rusk. You are absolutely correct that I am having airflow problems. My firebox has a grate on the bottom, but it's much less "round" than yours, so there is even less clearance below the grate than you show on yours.

I think I'll head to Home Depot and get the same parts to build a true box. Thanks.
 
If I knew how to weld and had the equipment, that thing would have been easier and cheaper to make.

That angle iron on all the edges was more than I thought it would be.

That is expanded steel grating, it is found in the same section as the sheet metal at Home Depot. (and the angle iron is right next to it)

The packaging on the expanded steel even says "BBQ grills" on it. They really intend it to be the cooking surface, but whatever... being expanded already, it doesn't change size much with the heat.

That particular box was made with 2 sheets of 12x24 inch (I think it was) expanded steel grating. The base of the box is 12x12 inches, and each side is 12x8 inches. Cutting the pieces was a pain in the *** because the hacksaw I was trying to use was too big to fit between each little grate, so it would bind up on the parts I already cut.

I had to cut each little grate piece with a chisel and a sledge. But once I got it all cut, it was just a matter of bolting it all together.

If you can weld or know someone who can, you can do it much cheaper and easier because you probably wouldn't need the angle iron and obviously won't need the bolts, nuts, and washers.
 
Damn. You guys are good. I have been struggling this winter with keeping the desired heat level up and thought I had made progress when it dawned on me to get another rack and set it in the bottom of the barrel fire box to get the fuel off the bottom. That helped, but now I can tell I'm going to have to get/make one of those boxes. I say "get" because I'm not very mechanical like some of the engineering-types around here.

On the subject of wood, though, I prefer a 2 to 1 mix of oak to hickory for brisket or any beef for that matter, 100% hickory for all pork, a 50/50 oak/pecan mix for chicken and 100% alderwood for all fish. I was ordering the alderwood off the net from Alaska or BC before I discovered they carry it at Barbecues Galore. Alderwood is really mild and does a great job of smoking the fish without overpowering its own flavor.

I know a lot of people love mesquite, but I've never developed the taste for it (despite growing up in the middle of it.) But, "that's what makes horseraces."

Anyway, thanks for the tips. I love this board.
 
I can't describe to you guys how good the pork shoulder turned out. I cooked it for 12 hours in the smoke at probably 180 degrees, then put it in the oven for another 8 hours in foil.
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It was incredible.

Hickory + pork =
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The brisket didn't turn out all that well. I would rate it "ok".
 
If you are too lazy to make a box, you can get a small fan and point it toward your intake. Don't put it too close or you will stir up ashes.
 
When I first started smoking, I had the "brilliant" idea of using a leaf blower to get some airflow. BIG mistake. I ended up with ash all over my meat. Air flow at 10 mph is good. Air flow at 150 mph is probably excessive...
 
Pecan is hickory. What do some of you mean when you mention pecan and hickory separately? I've never considered purchasing hickory since I've always had my own supply of pecan.
 
Pecan is part of the hickory family, but they are not the same tree and certainly don't impart the same taste when smoking. I have to admit that I have been adding apple wood with my other woods (typically either pecan or oak) and it really adds a nice flavor.
 
I rarely if ever smoke meat but whenever I am grilling I always add wood to my charcoal fire for some good smoke flavor.

My dad has a large pecan tree in his front yard and I will pick up some of the larger pieces of limbs and soak them in water to add to my fire. I also throw quite a few of the pecans themselves in there as well. It adds some great flavor to whatever you are grilling.
 
I wonder if ol' Big John is sitting outside his trailer over in East Texas, sippin' a Bud Light, laughing his *** off at us city slickers. Probably a huge pile of hackberry over there just waiting to be bagged and shipped off to Albertsons everywhere. I've been buying these big assed mesh bags of Big John's Grilling Wood labeled either Oak, Mesquite, Hickory or Pecan. The bark in those labeled Hickory or Pecan don't look quite the same and, maybe i'm not the best sniffer in the world, the smoke from the Hickory seems to be a lot more...intense? I don't know now.

Being thoroughly confused, I go to Wikipedia to check out Wally's premise. Sure enough, right down the line, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus (High School Biology class painful flashback right now) are the same for Hickory and Pecan. Only the species is ever so slightly different.

I'm now thinking Rick Barnes might really have been from Pecan, North Carolina. Andrew Jackson might have been called "Ol Pecan." We could be having hickory pie every Thanksgiving? And, that old Brassie I have in the garage might really have a pecan shaft.

This is really depressing, adding up all the money I've spent on Big John's damn hackberry disguised as four distinct "grilling woods." "Oh, the humanity!"
 
Some great ideas. My brother-in-law is a welder by trade and made me a smoker about the size of a Bandera. I have used the firebox to grill fajitas and burgers about 5 times (he got it for me around February).

He welded it for me such that (my request) it sits on a center pole. We dug a 2 1/2 foot hole in the ground where I wanted it in the backyard, about a foot in diameter. We then put an aluminum center pole at the bottom of the hole sticking up about 3 feet, then poured concrete in the hole. Let it dry for a week and then put the smoker around the pole (he made the smoker to instead of having legs, to have 1 hollow leg in the center and supported it off that. So I can move the smoker 360degrees to maximize air flow.

In the firebox, he also welded a tray for the coals, wood with 3/8" metal. This does 2 things: it protects the bottom of the firebox and it raises the fire about 2 inches.

I need to post some pictures b/c it is a great thing he made (and I am very thankful).

I have yet to smoke anything on it but want to try in 2 weeks. When I have been grilling, I have messed around with the intake openings and the chimney opening to maintain about 200-220degF in the smoker part. I can get it at 200-220 pretty easily but over 6-8hr, I haven't tried.
 
Dang, all this fuss over keeping a temp constant, what a lot of bother. It's not necessary. I scrape the ashes out and then load my firebox up with charcoal (it's got a grate on the bottom that I salvaged from the last smoker that I had), light it and get it going, put the briskets on, and then put the hickory and/or mesquite chunks on top and close it down so there's barely any airflow going in, just enough to keep the fire lit and then go to bed. It starts out at about 300 and during the night it regulates it self and when I get up in the morning it's usually about 200 and I give the brisket a peek and poke the fire and add more charcoal/wood depending on how the brisket looks close it up and let it go some more. My briskets always turn out great.

I probably need to build one of those boxes to contain the charcoal as that salvaged grate is on it's last legs.
 
What do you guys do with all your ashes when you are done smoking? Ie, the next day? Isn't that stuff pretty acidic?
 
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