Oak Cubes from Wine Aging

[micker]

So a good friend of mine owns a winery. We were discussing smoking recently and he mentioned that he has a box of Oak Cubes that were used to Oak age a mead. In a nutshell, they soaked in a bourbon barrel filled with honey wine for a few months. They have been dried and have been sitting in a box in the winery for a few months.

He's going to bring some by this weekend for a canadian bacon smoke we're doing.

So, do you think its going to be overkill to smoke the whole batch of bacon with these or blend it with some fruitwood?

 

[earache_my_eye]

I'd probably smoke some of the wood by itself before adding meat....not sure what that "honey wine" will do in a smoker. Just so you don't wind up with a "burnt honey/sugar" taste on your smoke.....I don't know that that would happen for certain, but, a chunk or two of wood and some charcoal is much cheaper than lbs. of bacon.....

L8r,
Eric

 

[darrin]

I'd smoke a few chicken leg quarters with it first to see what it tastes like.

 

[micker]

Good call. I'll see what I can test it with and report back...

 

[micker]

The mead aged oak cubes were a success. Here they are before they went into the smoke

We used about a pound of them today on the canadian bacon