Favorite pellets for salmon

[Omnivore]

After many good reviews I'm going to buy a couple 20 pound bags of Lumberjack pellets from Amazon. One bag will specifically be for fish. My only experience so far is with Traeger signature blend from costco and I wasn't a huge fan. Anyone have any favorite woods for salmon? I bush the fillets with real maple syrup while smoking so maybe maple pellets?

 

[Bearcarver]

I like Hickory, but I think if you took a Poll, Alder would be the Clear Winner for Salmon.


Bear

 

[daveomak]

Alder....

 

[gmc2003]

Apple

Chris

 

[pc farmer]

Todd has a Italian blend that I use for fish. Very good

 

[tallbm]

After many good reviews I'm going to buy a couple 20 pound bags of Lumberjack pellets from Amazon. One bag will specifically be for fish. My only experience so far is with Traeger signature blend from costco and I wasn't a huge fan. Anyone have any favorite woods for salmon? I bush the fillets with real maple syrup while smoking so maybe maple pellets?

I agree with Bear and Dave. I use Alder for my salmon and would say that is what you will hear a lot of people suggetiong.

HOWEVER if having to buy online at Amazon only I wouldn't buy 100% Alder pellets from Lumberjack when you can get the Camp Chef Alder for way less... and I'm a big Lumberjack cheerleader too so check this out!

Camp Chef blends their pellet flavors with Alder. So when you buy Camp Chef Alder it is Alder + Alder so you get 100% Alder


Now you can save a little money when you order 2 bags of pellets on Amazon where you get this Camp Chef Alder and Lumberjack whatever.

If this plan sounds like too much of a hassle then I would say to buy 100% Maple Lumberjack pellets for your salmon.
Maple is my favorite middle of the road/mild wood, it is sooooo good and you can blend it with all of the other woods very easily for great blended flavor so it will never just sit around waiting to be used.

FINALLY, if you have a Dick's Sporting Goods near you then you can simply order Lumberjack pellets from them online and pick up at the store. That would be your best price and biggest variety to choose from.
See here at Dicks Online

With Dick's prices you can get you a 100% Alder for less than the Camp Chef Alder on Amazon. Also you get get any of the other bags for less than Amazon as well.

My recommendation would be:
-Bag 1: Alder or Maple
-Bag 2: Hickory (this is the king of smoking woods)

-Future Bag 3? - Depends on what meat you smoke most often. Apple would be at the top and you could blend Maple/Apple/Hickory very well or any 2 wood combo of those 3 for very nice blends. If doing lots of beef then it's a no brainer to me bag 3 would be 100% Mesquite.

Best of luck and I hope this info helps! :)

 

[cmayna]

alder followed by apple.

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

My fam likes alder or apple.

 

[Omnivore]

Thanks so much for the input everyone! I heeded tallbm 's advice and checked out Dick's. I ended up with 20 pounds of Camp Chef alder (I liked that it's actually 100% alder for a subtle wood) and a 20 pound bag of Lumberjack hickory. With $5.99 shipping (only one of the bags was 'ship to store' so I just had both shipped to the house), the total came to $34 - which is a bit less than Amazon would have charged.

I still want to get some maple and applewood but I better start burnin through the 20 pounders first.

Has anyone tried the Lumberjack pellets called "char-hickory" or char + other flavor? In theory a little charcoal flavor sounds ok (on something like tri-tip or chicken quarters), but I didn't want to buy a 20# bag to find out.

Thanks again for everyone's opinions. You guys are awesome.

 

[tallbm]

Thanks so much for the input everyone! I heeded tallbm 's advice and checked out Dick's. I ended up with 20 pounds of Camp Chef alder (I liked that it's actually 100% alder for a subtle wood) and a 20 pound bag of Lumberjack hickory. With $5.99 shipping (only one of the bags was 'ship to store' so I just had both shipped to the house), the total came to $34 - which is a bit less than Amazon would have charged.

I still want to get some maple and applewood but I better start burnin through the 20 pounders first.

Has anyone tried the Lumberjack pellets called "char-hickory" or char + other flavor? In theory a little charcoal flavor sounds ok (on something like tri-tip or chicken quarters), but I didn't want to buy a 20# bag to find out.

Thanks again for everyone's opinions. You guys are awesome.

Sounds like you are getting all set!

I have yet to try the char-hickory but would like to. I think I will simply buy some charcoal and break it up into little pieces and blend it in with my other pellets. I have Lumberjack Cherry, Pecan, Maple, and Mesquite all in 40 pound sizes. I have 40 pounds of Perfect Pellet Hickory (bought before I found lumberjack). I have 20 pound bags of lumberjack Apple, Chef's Choice Alder, and then 3 other random blend bags I bought before discovering that other brands blended their pellets and that Lumberjack did 100% of the woods.

I'm not real motivated to add another bag to my endless supply of pellets hahahaha so I think I'll just break up some charcoal and mix it in :)

I don't mind having all of these pellets. I create some pretty awesome blends!
My favorite bacon blend is 30% Hickory and 70% Apple. Works well on sausage.
I make my own competition blend with equal parts of Lumberjack Maple/Cherry/Hickory and it is great!

 

[texomakid]

Man I've really taken a liking to the Black Cherry pellet made by CookingPellets. I plan to try the Lumberjack brand soon. Has anyone tried a cherry wood pellet with salmon?

 

[cmayna]

Be careful and don't overpower the flavor of fish with a strong wood. I would think cherry might be a little too much for Salmon.

 

[Omnivore]

tallbm - I like your style! I might try blending in some charcoal just to see what that's like. Also that hickory / apple blend sounds great. Just for fun I think I want to smoke a bunch of salmon with a different wood each time and then do a blind taste test with all of them

 

[tallbm]

tallbm - I like your style! I might try blending in some charcoal just to see what that's like. Also that hickory / apple blend sounds great. Just for fun I think I want to smoke a bunch of salmon with a different wood each time and then do a blind taste test with all of them

Thanks!

Yeah I did something similar. I bought a variety pack of lumberjack pellets (7 one pound bags) and got to try all the different woods and see what I liked.
I did it on bacon and chicken. This is how I found which woods I liked more than others and was also able to make up some blends that came out awesome!

I think you are having the right idea to try things out and see what you like :)

 

[banderson7474]

I don't know about wood but I just tried this over the weekend and it was the best salmon I've had

 

[cmayna]

Huh? This is about pellets, not rubs......

 

[banderson7474]

Huh? This is about pellets, not rubs......

Was just showing a great tasting salmon rub since the post was also salmon related.