Type of Oak for smoking

I love to use whiskey barrel oak whatever kind that is. Being in Idaho that's about all I can get in chunk.

I wouldn't think Poison Oak would be a good idea. LOL

What about live oak. I ave some very old Live oaks at my house that I am constantly having to trim. Is Live oak a good smoke wood?

I woun't think so. I don't think it is either a hard wood or a true oak. Nor would I use tan oak. We have lots of both around here but I've never heard of either one being good for smoking meat. 

We don't have any Tan Oak around here, but I think that is an evergreen tree. No evergreen is good for smoking.

I think the rule of thumb to use is any oak that produces acorns or rather a nut or fruit depending on which camp you're in. The general rule of thumb for almost all woods suitable for smoking are fruit and nut trees that produce edible food product. Other than citrus. I don't think citrus would be good for smoking but having said that, I've never tried it myself. Maple would be another exception to the fruit and nut rule but we do consume the sap in great quantity. I don't think alder does either but I know it is used a lot for fish. At least lots of salmon in the Pacific Northwest.   

LIve oak can be used to smoke with as well as citrus woods

I'm sure you can but is it any good, that's the question.

Heck, I guess you could even use old pallets if you wanted to but I don't think it would taste very good. The wood they use for pallets can be almost anything as they aren't very fussy with cheap and available being the only two criteria that really matters. Sometimes you can find a few pieces of half way decent wood useful for some carpentry projects in sheet metal pallets. The runners are longer so they have less to choose from.  

Any idea of what kind of flavor these woods add to the taste when used for smoking? What kind of flavor do they add and what meats are they suitable for, fish, beef, pork, poultry or some of the more exotic things like you might find in Asia?

I don't know what makes an oak tree and oak but it seems to be all over the board more than most other kinds of tree. White red, black, live, tan etc. etc. And some look very than the others in bark and leaf. I think to be a true oak the tree has to produce acorns but I'm not botanist either.   

Post Oak is one of my favs to cook with makes a great brisket.

What to hell is post oak? All kinds of oaks seems to have all these different local names and I think some of them really aren't oaks at all. I'm gonna get mad in a minute and get a book.  

Go get your book because live oaks produce acorns and produce a pretty good smoke flavor. I think you can find a thread or two from Bmudd in which he used some orange wood chunks I sent to him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dick Foster 

I think the rule of thumb to use is any oak that produces acorns or rather a nut or fruit depending on which camp you're in. The general rule of thumb for almost all woods suitable for smoking are fruit and nut trees that produce edible food product. Other than citrus. I don't think citrus would be good for smoking but having said that, I've never tried it myself. Maple would be another exception to the fruit and nut rule but we do consume the sap in great quantity. I don't think alder does either but I know it is used a lot for fish. At least lots of salmon in the Pacific Northwest.   

There are only a few woods that you shouldn't use. Pine and Cedar are 2 of them.  I have used orange wood and its very good.

What did you use in on? Citrus isn't too hard to find around here either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dick Foster 

What did you use in on? Citrus isn't too hard to find around here either.

I have some but haven't used it yet but I'm gonna try it with some chicken and I want to try some with some pork chops or a loin I think it should be good with them

Please let us know.

Good info.  I will be using Red oak since it is readily available.