Having watched a wide variety of cooking shows over the years, it seems that BBQ/smoking enthusiasts have pretty strong opinions on the type of wood they use. Hickory, mesquite, apple, oak; on and on. Is there really anything to it other than preference? I am a casual backyard smoker (I actually use a pit barrel cooker that uses charcoal, but I add wood chips too) and I have not been able to notice a real difference. Can you really taste the difference? I understand some rigs use different wood for burn time/intensity, but does the flavor really reflect it?
My take is that the wood doesn’t matter much, mostly because I am smoking flavorful, heavily spiced or rubbed red meats or pork. Maybe mesquite would be out there on the noticeably different end of things, but hickory or oak or pecan? I can’t really tell the difference, all the more so because I don’t have the chance to do a side by side comparison in the moment.
I use hickory, mesquite, sometimes apple. I have even made my own alder chips (bark removed), but no, I don’t think I can tell the difference.
So much of the flavor comes from the dry rub, or brine the meat was soaked in, or the sauce brushed on, that I think I would have to start with unflavored meat and try each type of chip to tell a difference, and I am not sure I could tell even then.
I’m an amateur smoker and I have a hard time believing that people could tell the difference in double blind taste tests. I could imagine that some woods have a bitterness that one could detect but I haven’t noticed it. Until I see reasonable tests I’m assuming this is similar to wines.
I do think I can taste broadly between a few types. Nut-wood like hickory or oak is different from fruit wood like apple or cherry or peach. Mesquite is totally different, not even close.
Hickory is my desert island, all time favorite.
Cherry and apple have very distinct flavors from each other. I’m not as familiar with other woods.
I use mostly maple, because it’s what I generally have available. Does well on red meats, OK on salmon, but I prefer to use alder or apple for fish. I like green vine maple for smoking sausages. Don’t care for the flavor cherry gives, so don’t use it anymore. As I normally use charcoal to start, then switch to a full wood fire while smoking, I don’t get to utilize mesquite, as we only seem to be able to get the bagged chips/pellets here, but on a trip to Corpus Christi several years ago that involved driving a UHaul back, I stopped & loaded up on mesquite logs. Sadly, they’re just a memory now.
I don’t think it makes a big difference on meatier cuts like brisket, ribs or pork butts, but on lighter cuts like fish, chicken and turkey the stronger smoke flavors of mesquite and hickory can be too much. I use apple or pecan for those.
Of course that’s for real wood fired smokers. For pellet grills the smoke flavor isn’t as strong so it doesn’t matter. I add an additional smoking element in the chamber when doing brisket on a pellet grill.
To me, hickory tastes stronger than most other woods. Mesquite is the strongest (I don’t like mesquite). I prefer using oak (which is medium to me) or a mix of oak and apple for a lighter smoke flavor.
Or at least that’s how it seems to me. Or I use hickory or pecan with apple and use apple as the base wood and hickory/pecan for a little bite. (Pecan is like hickory light to me, but stronger than apple. So pecan I might go 50-50 with apple, but hickory I’d go 25-75 with apple.)
But, for the most part, I really can’t tell the difference.
Yeah, I agree, mesquite is by far the strongest flavored wood I’ve smoked with. Its flavor seems to hit you in the nose al lot more than other woods do. It burns hotter and seems to give up more smoke than other woods, pound for pound, so a little will go a long way if you’re using it as an addition to charcoal. My wife thinks it works for beef, but pretty much forbids me from using it on anything else, except sparingly. Even if I like it on both pork and chicken, I understand her point - you can tell it’s been smoked in mesquite. I don’t use anything else for brisket, myself.
Oak works for beef as well, but without nearly as strong of a nose hit. The biggest difference between it and mesquite, to me, is that oak will not tend burn as hot or flare up as mesquite does. So if you’re going to do a long, low temp wood-only smoke, it’s a much better choice than mesquite.
I don’t think oak works as well on pork or chicken. It’s still a heavy flavor, without the nose hit you get from a short mesquite smoke. That’s not a problem for me, because when we’re smoking pork or chicken, my wife and I actually agree that a mix of hickory and apple is the best mix. Pecan is in that mix too, and I never really thought of it as a lighter hickory, until the post before mine. I’m not certain I totally agree, but that’s certainly a good starting place (and better than my previous “It’s just different” stance).
re: headline: I do inhale smoked meat.
So it sounds like some of you can definitely tell some sort of difference, with mesquite being the standout. Very interesting. Since I am only adding chips to my charcoal it doesn’t seem to matter in my situation.
At the risk of hijacking my own thread, do any of you have tips on ending up with edible skin on smoked turkey? I love the way the meat comes off my pbc, but no matter what I try, the skin is tough and inedible.
What temp are you cooking at? I just did a turkey breast for Thanksgiving on my Kamado Joe and it was great (including skin).
- Brined the bird in a simple brine.
- Put an herb butter rub under the skin.
- Grill at 225 with applewood chips in packets directly on the coals.
- Heat deflector in place. Drip pan with water & apple cider vinegar below the bird.
- Bird directly on grill up high.
Took about 2-2.5 hours to cook. I did baste with the remaining butter rub about 30 minutes before done.
My pit barrel runs pretty consistently at 240. One of the compromises you give up for simplicity is lack of precise temp control. Time frame is roughly the same, depending on size. I do not usually brine my bird when I smoke it because I feel it comes out too salty. Do you think the brine helps get the skin crispy?
Not sure if it’s that or the butter rub under the skin. That probably has more impact.
As for salty brine, I used this:
- 3 quarts cold water
- ½ cup kosher salt
- ¼ cup white sugar
But cut the salt to about a 1/3 cup. The turkey was not noticeably salty to me.
Thanks! I will experiment with that.