Wood selection for ribs

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sdnative13

Newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
3
10
So with the fourth fast upon us I was thinking of smoking up some ribs. My question is has anyone smoked ribs using a wood smoker with mesquite or hickory? I must also say that I'm rather new at this. I have smoked things in the past using the above mentioned woods and the smoke flavor is so overpowering? Is that typical and will you even be able to taste the meat or just the smoke? Any suggestions comments or directions is greatly appericated
 
mesquite and hickory are 2 of the stronger woods for smoking and WILL overpower ribs. IMHO ribs work better w/ fruit woods . cherry , apple , peach etc.

 Pecan is a good non fruit wood or ribs.
 
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too much smoke...impossible. leave your exhaust open it should be fine.
i hate to differ ,but you can have to much smoke on any slab of meat you smoke. it makes the meat bitter and all you taste is smoke. That is not the purpose of smoking.
 
Meateater
so i clicked on the link that you posted in your reply and it redirected me to a blank page. Any other suggestions
 
If mesquite and hickory are all you have, just don't use as much. If you can, mix the above mentioned woods with cherry or apple to mellow it out. It's all good my friend.
 
I like Cherry but have used a mix of cherry and hickory.
 
Hey, straight hickory will work just fine for ribs, providing you dont use too much. As far as mesquite, well, I dont like it for any cooking ( smoking or grilling ) that will last more than about one hour. What is a fairly sweet, smoky flavor up until that point seems to change to bitter and sour after that.

Given my drothers, my personal favorite is pecan. But that's just me.
 
I agree, Hickory can be used on ribs as long as you don't use to much. I have had great success using Hickory for various meats. However when I first started smoking I smoked some chicken thighs while I was doing a chuckie and some ribs and I used way to much Hickory and had to throw the thighs away. They were completely inedible and my wife was pissed at me for wasting food.

I have since gone to apple on ribs and other meats and they came out fantastic. I haven't had a chance to try cherry yet but from all the feedback on the site I can't wait to see how that comes out.

One other thing is to let your smoker settle down before loading it up. Another rookie mistake I made early on. I put the meat on right after I dumped my chimney of lit coals and closed her up and it was just to much white smoke early in the cook and it was overpowering.

Good Luck on the 4th!
 
I like Apple for ribs (but I'm sure that Pecan would be awesome -- just haven't found any yet).  I've used Hickory, too, though, and liked it.

I only use Mesquite on fast smokes like chicken and a hot-and-fast Brisket.
 
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