Here's some woods used to smoke

By North Star




1. Alder's natural sweetness is especially suited with pork.

2. Apple's natural sweetness is good for any type of meat. It's great in combination with other woods.

3. Cherry is especially good with beef and pork. It has a tendency to turn meat a rich mahogany color. It's best to balance Cherry wood with Hickory, Alder, Oak or Pecan.

4. Hickory is the all-time favorite of many Midwest and southern state barbecue cooking teams. Too much hickory smoke can turn meat bitter.

5. Maple is quite similar to Alder wood. Maple is sweet and also darkens the color of meat. Balance it with Alder, Apple or Oak. Sugar Maple wood is the sweetest.

6. Some say to use only Honey Mesquite wood. The Wesatch variety of Mesquite "pops" embers. Mesquite is oily in nature, so it burns hot and fast.

7. Oak. Red Oak is the best variety for smoking.

8. Pear, Peach and Plum. These woods require a certain level of expertise in their use. Peach and Plum woods tend to lose their flavor shortly after being cut. For the best results, make sure you the fruit bearing kind of Plum.

9. Pecan is a member of the hickory family, and becoming more popular for smoking. This is a pungent wood, which should be used sparingly.

10. Dogwood is quite similar to Oak in its smoke flavor.

11. Grapevine cuttings add a nice flavor to fish, poultry and beef. You could achieve the same effect by soaking wood chips in an inexpensive wine before throwing the wood on the coals.

12. Herb woods, such as Basil, Thyme and Rosemary are usually used in combination with other woods. A good combination would be Alder with Basil, and Maple with Rosemary

(This Information Is Brought To You By The Meatman)
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