what wood do you use to smoke?

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I use apple, pecan, oak, hickory, mesquite, maple, charcoal, cherry.
sometimes blends of those and sometimes just a single variety , just like to try different methods.
I do the same. I have six of those you mentioned, I think I'm lacking maple. Since I use a WSM, I just need to keep one bag each of hardwood chunks from the big box stores on hand--it doesn't take up a lot of space.

I seem to go through apple, pecan and cherry the fastest, mesquite I use quite sparingly.
 
I am also a cherry & pecan fan. My favorite hands down when I can get it is pimenta wood. It grows locally and whenever a tree trimmer I know gets it he brings it to me.
 
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so... what wood does everyone use to smoke with - pellets, sticks, chunks, whatever... i've done some extensive reading online and everyone seems to like hickory, but i can't stand the smell of it when its burning or the taste it imparts to the meat. am i just weird?
Hi there and welcome!

I use pellets, my smoker is a highly modified MES40 with a PID controller.
Pellets allow me to mix/match, etc. and pair whatever wood I want with whatever food goes best with the wood flavor. This is a huge perk I get to enjoy because flavor is everything!

I enjoy hickory but not nearly in the amounts most people use it. I basically don't go over 65% Hickory in anything with the exception of doing 100% Hickory bacon.
I find that 100% Hickory on other food makes it tasted kind of like Bacon to me. If I'm making ribs, chicken, beef, etc. I want those flavors. If I want bacon flavor I'll smoke and eat bacon lol.

After lots of tinkering, here are my wood meat pairings for the best flavors I have made:

  • General go-to when not sure what to use - 65% Hickory and then Equal parts Maple and Cherry pellets
  • Favorite Mid Strength Flavor - 100% Maple pellets, not a fan of Oak because it's used way too much on everything in my area
  • Beef - 100% Mesquite pellets. Hands down, mesquite flavor with beef is the best meat/wood combo of all meat/wood combos out there!
  • Chicken or Turkey - 65% Hickory, equal parts Maple and Cherry pellets
  • Pork - 65% Hickory, equal parts Maple and Cherry pellets
  • Most Sausage - 75% Apple, 25% Hickory pellets
  • Bologna or Pastrami - 100% Maple
  • Bacon - my fave is 75% Apple, 25% Hickory pellets. HOWEVER I will do 100% Hickory on this one item if wanting pure hickory bacon
  • Salmon - 100% Alder pellets
  • Meatloaf - 25% Alder 75% Mesquite (I am using up an old bag of Alder/Mesquite blend pellets and I add more Mesquite)

Pecan wood pellets is one that I don't really care for. They are soo weak for some reason. I don't really use them on anything but may just blend them into stuff to get rid of the 40 pounds I have lol.
I have tried them plenty of ways but never find them to be better than anything else above.

As you can see I have lots of options and combos. I have really enjoyed figuring out wood and meat combos. I still pick up and try wood pellets every now and again but usually when I run low on another bag or blend that I am trying to get rid off. For example I have a bag that is a blend of Charcoal and Oak pellets and it's ok on the pork ribs I used but didn't wow me either.

Looking forward to trying Plumb and Almond wood pellets because I can get them locally. I just need to move thorugh about 40 pounds of pellets before I can add those to my collection hahaha.

I hope this info helps :)
 
I use fruit wood 99% of the time. I have a ton of cherry, apple and pear right now. Frankly I see very little flavor difference in those vs oak. Now if you venture into hickory or mesquite for sure I can tell. I am planning a load of hickory soon.
 
Mini splits of White & Red Oak.
 

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Back when I had a stick burner I mostly used Oak of any sort. Burned some Hickory and Mesquite too. Also tried a little Pecan with my Akorn.

Now that I have a pellet grill it's LumberJack Hickory mostly.
 
Hi there and welcome!

I use pellets, my smoker is a highly modified MES40 with a PID controller.
Pellets allow me to mix/match, etc. and pair whatever wood I want with whatever food goes best with the wood flavor. This is a huge perk I get to enjoy because flavor is everything!

I enjoy hickory but not nearly in the amounts most people use it. I basically don't go over 65% Hickory in anything with the exception of doing 100% Hickory bacon.
I find that 100% Hickory on other food makes it tasted kind of like Bacon to me. If I'm making ribs, chicken, beef, etc. I want those flavors. If I want bacon flavor I'll smoke and eat bacon lol.

After lots of tinkering, here are my wood meat pairings for the best flavors I have made:

  • General go-to when not sure what to use - 65% Hickory and then Equal parts Maple and Cherry pellets
  • Favorite Mid Strength Flavor - 100% Maple pellets, not a fan of Oak because it's used way too much on everything in my area
  • Beef - 100% Mesquite pellets. Hands down, mesquite flavor with beef is the best meat/wood combo of all meat/wood combos out there!
  • Chicken or Turkey - 65% Hickory, equal parts Maple and Cherry pellets
  • Pork - 65% Hickory, equal parts Maple and Cherry pellets
  • Most Sausage - 75% Apple, 25% Hickory pellets
  • Bologna or Pastrami - 100% Maple
  • Bacon - my fave is 75% Apple, 25% Hickory pellets. HOWEVER I will do 100% Hickory on this one item if wanting pure hickory bacon
  • Salmon - 100% Alder pellets
  • Meatloaf - 25% Alder 75% Mesquite (I am using up an old bag of Alder/Mesquite blend pellets and I add more Mesquite)

Pecan wood pellets is one that I don't really care for. They are soo weak for some reason. I don't really use them on anything but may just blend them into stuff to get rid of the 40 pounds I have lol.
I have tried them plenty of ways but never find them to be better than anything else above.

As you can see I have lots of options and combos. I have really enjoyed figuring out wood and meat combos. I still pick up and try wood pellets every now and again but usually when I run low on another bag or blend that I am trying to get rid off. For example I have a bag that is a blend of Charcoal and Oak pellets and it's ok on the pork ribs I used but didn't wow me either.

Looking forward to trying Plumb and Almond wood pellets because I can get them locally. I just need to move thorugh about 40 pounds of pellets before I can add those to my collection hahaha.

I hope this info helps :)
this is awesome! i never thought to use maple, i guess mostly because back in the 90's i bought some "maple syrup bacon" and it literally smelled like maple syrup in the house for weeks, and now when i see the word 'maple' it just brings back those memories. i did 25lbs of pastrami with mesquite/cherry in november, and everyone liked it - i just handed off a frozen pack to a friend, and am waiting to hear how it aged in the freezer - but the smoke flavor was very 'in your face'. not overpowering the coriander, but imo it could've been a bit more background.
 
I like hickory for Back bacon , Mostly mesquite for most meats,
or mesquite and Hickory together
will add in or only cherry or Black cherry for some great colour
If smoking desserts I will use fruit woods

But that is what I have played with so far

David
smoking desserts? i'm intrigued! what kind of desserts do you smoke?
 
smoking desserts? i'm intrigued! what kind of desserts do you smoke?

Hi netspyder
I have done a few desserts in the smoker
Pecan Pie thanks to the help from Jake TNJAKE TNJAKE , i have also done bacon cheese pineapple donuts, strawberry cake and the strawberry sauce also in the smoker, Toffee Apple cake, etc

DSC_2327.JPG DSC_2328.JPG DSC_2334.JPG



Do a search in the search button in the right upper corner for some desserts done by others also


David
 
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Depends. I cook on a WSM and an offset. On the offset I'm limited to what types of wood I can get locally. That usually falls into pecan or oak. The oak is just whatever the tree services happen to cut down, no usually a specific species like post oak. I really love both, but I'd say I use pecan the most often. On the WSM, I get a little more experimental. I've ordered wood from Fruitawood and I'll use apple, peach and cherry on pork. On beef I stick to oak and pecan. I do like hickory as well, but it's extremely rare that I get it.
 
this is awesome! i never thought to use maple, i guess mostly because back in the 90's i bought some "maple syrup bacon" and it literally smelled like maple syrup in the house for weeks, and now when i see the word 'maple' it just brings back those memories. i did 25lbs of pastrami with mesquite/cherry in november, and everyone liked it - i just handed off a frozen pack to a friend, and am waiting to hear how it aged in the freezer - but the smoke flavor was very 'in your face'. not overpowering the coriander, but imo it could've been a bit more background.
Glad you found the info helpful!

Yeah, I like Maple quite a bit. In my researching for various sandwich meats I've made it always seems that Maple is the original or most common used.

Also I really liked the Maple flavor when I had first started trying to find Mesquite pellets and the Louisiana Grills brand did like 30% Mesquite but the rest was Maple. I really liked the Maple flavor and explored from there as I also continued to look for 100% Mesquite.

Glad I discovered how much I like it and Maple quickly became my replacement for anything/everything Oak is used on.
 
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