Howzit from South Africa. Wood search tip.

[Petur]

Been playing with smoking and smokers for awhile now. Tried all sorts had my share of failures, seen some good advice on this site. A quick tip to select your smoking wood. It can be a problem especially for us that live in places where we don't have hickory growing down the road.

Follow the basic guide lines. Hard wood, but not "heavy" fruit wood, speak to the locals that use the wood as a cooking fuel etc. Then if you found a couple of candidates....

If a wood smells OK in a fire and you want to try it, I buy a packet of plain pork bangers and chuck one or two in the smoker, and taste. Cheap and quick. STAY away from anything that can be poison.

 

[kruizer]

Welcome to SMF from Minnesota.

 

[bluewhisper]

Welcome to the board! Here in the USA the general rule is, fruit and nut woods are most popular. I think you have the right idea asking about cooking woods - even if they're not smoking with them, you can probably at least get advice on woods to avoid, and maybe the woods with the longest-lasting coals.

 

[deebee]

Been playing with smoking and smokers for awhile now. Tried all sorts had my share of failures, seen some good advice on this site. A quick tip to select your smoking wood. It can be a problem especially for us that live in places where we don't have hickory growing down the road.

Follow the basic guide lines. Hard wood, but not "heavy" fruit wood, speak to the locals that use the wood as a cooking fuel etc. Then if you found a couple of candidates....

If a wood smells OK in a fire and you want to try it, I buy a packet of plain pork bangers and chuck one or two in the smoker, and taste. Cheap and quick. STAY away from anything that can be poison.

I'm in Joburg, have you managed to find any chunks or logs that one can buy? curing the wood is not an option for me.
Apparently Acacia is good, although I do have crabapple, plum, mulberry and apricot in my garden