Yesterday I tried smoking with pecan chunks for the first time, and I love it. I got a whole chicken, then butterflied and brined it. I opened a bag of mesquite charcoal under the brand name El Gallito, the little rooster, from a little Mexican store nearby. (I love shopping in small ethnic groceries.) I thought it would be briquettes but it's lump, big pieces. I started the fire with split maple in the charcoal, then ran it on the pecan chunks with a little more maple at the very end.
The aroma is fantastic. This morning I'm still smelling it on this shirt I was wearing while smoking. Linda left a plate of bones on the kitchen counter, and this morning the kitchen smelled exactly like a smokehouse. I'm not sure how much of the flavor came from the mesquite so I'll try cooking something with that alone. And, I'll go get another bag of it.
Side note: Back in the 1990s I was working in the grounds crew of a small college. They were set to demolish a house that had a mature pecan tree in the yard, the only pecan I've ever seen here in central Ohio. They were only waiting for the power company to come and remove a wire running through the branches. This was before I started smoking, and I wanted the wood for the fireplace. But they smashed and trashed the tree with a bulldozer when I wasn't there, and I was furious. BTW they also did that with a mature black walnut tree.
Sun and record warmth today, snow tomorrow.
The aroma is fantastic. This morning I'm still smelling it on this shirt I was wearing while smoking. Linda left a plate of bones on the kitchen counter, and this morning the kitchen smelled exactly like a smokehouse. I'm not sure how much of the flavor came from the mesquite so I'll try cooking something with that alone. And, I'll go get another bag of it.
Side note: Back in the 1990s I was working in the grounds crew of a small college. They were set to demolish a house that had a mature pecan tree in the yard, the only pecan I've ever seen here in central Ohio. They were only waiting for the power company to come and remove a wire running through the branches. This was before I started smoking, and I wanted the wood for the fireplace. But they smashed and trashed the tree with a bulldozer when I wasn't there, and I was furious. BTW they also did that with a mature black walnut tree.
Sun and record warmth today, snow tomorrow.
