big10fan
Fire Starter
Apple is definitely my favorite, but hard to come by. Have had good results with Oak. Have a few Ash trees on my property and will try them soon. Probably with something small in case it doesn't turn out.
Cottonwood and "poplar", which is a common name for aspen, are used successfully in BBQ. Neither are the best cooking woods but can be used.Willow is listed as a wood that can be used to smoke on this site but another site says not to use it. Here is what it says...
"And, under no circumstances should you grill or smoke over woods such as cottonwood, willow, pine, or poplar." Link below.
http://www.fiery-foods.com/smoking-...uite-and-other-woods-for-grilling-and-smoking
Awesome screen name. I climbed Kilimanjaro a few years back and I told all the porters that my name was Mzungu. The name stuck. They loved calling me that every time they saw me.I can verify that guava, mango, avocado, and acacia are great. Avocado is my current fave, but I think that's because I can't get my hands on acacia locally. Another thread talked about coffee. I'll have to try that one too as I'm surrounded by it.
BBQMzungu
Cottonwood and "poplar", which is a common name for aspen, are used successfully in BBQ. Neither are the best cooking woods but can be used.
The origin of the BBQ wood list is found here-
http://www.eaglequest.com/~bbq/faq2/8.html#8.1
Every BBQ forum and website uses it or some version of it, some sites have even done updates and additions.
I also take issue with a couple of statements at fiery-foods.com-
Alder is also found in the northeast and used for smoking
Oak may be used in Europe, but in many parts of Texas it is the wood of choice and considered by many to be synonomous with Texas BBQ.
True enough, but I don't know if many on here would recognize a White(European)Poplar, my point being that most people call Aspens "poplar".Not all Poplars are Aspens ;)
True enough, but I don't know if many on here would recognize a White(European)Poplar, my point being that most people call Aspens "poplar".
I've wondered that for a while too. I've burned it in campfires plenty myself, and it has a bad smell to it. I'll go for pine over quakies any day of the week because quakies stink when they burn.Now I have to wonder if the Aspens that grow natively in high elevations around here are any good for smoking. I've used it for campfires, but never for any kind of cooking at all. I can get a decent supply of the stuff.
The problem isn't getting them to call me mzungu (basically "white foreigner" for those not traveled in East Africa). The problem is getting them to call me anything else.Awesome screen name. I climbed Kilimanjaro a few years back and I told all the porters that my name was Mzungu. The name stuck. They loved calling me that every time they saw me.
I've wondered that for a while too. I've burned it in campfires plenty myself, and it has a bad smell to it. I'll go for pine over quakies any day of the week because quakies stink when they burn.
But a few years ago I was on a snow cave campout where it was -10* F once the sun went down, so I had no choice but to get right in the smoke to stay warm. It had a very acrid smell to it, but my clothes smelled like bacon for a while after. Really good smelling bacon, too.
So I've been wondering about that since then. I just don't want to go to the effort of a smoke to find out.
I've also been wondering the same thing about scrub oak and scrub maple. The lower elevations of the mountains I live in are covered in that stuff.
Jeez, that's a lot of work to get a half cord of that stuff. I don't think I've ever seen it thicker than 10" at the base.Never tried scrub maple, but I have just under a half a cord of Gambles (i.e. scrub) oak. So far, I really like it. I normally test new stuff out on hamburgers because it's cheap and quick. When I was deciding if I was going to go back and get more, all I had was some green stuff, so I used some well cured apple for the heat and to prevent billowing white smoke and threw some of the oak in with it and it worked great. Since then, I've obviously gone back and cut more of the stuff and tried some burgers with some straight (I found some cured) scrub oak and it was still excellent. I was making dinner for myself and my disabled cousin about a week ago, so I threw on a pot of beans in the morning, found a 2lb pork loin and dumped a hambone in a pot of green chile. I smoked the pork loin up to 150, let it rest for a while and my cousin and I almost finished the entire loin without anybody else helping. I'm thinking about trying my hand at beef ribs this weekend with it.