reviewer — August 14, 2007, 2:36 pm
Smoking with the right wood: Quick Guide
Can’t ever remember which woods are best for which meats? Here’s a quick reference guide to help you always pick the right wood chips for your smoker grill.
Beef and Venison
Pork
Poultry
Fish
Wild Turkey
Wild Game
Other
References
YardandPool.com
Smokinlicious.com
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Thanks for the opportunity to add our knowledge to your Quick Reference list of woods. Here are the recommendations:
Add walnut to beef/venison and Wild Turkey
Add Alder to pork
Add Peach to Pork and poultry
Add Pear to Poultry and Wild Game
Add Ash to fish
Add Pecan to cheese
Thanks Donna for your help! I’m glad you pointed peach out, I really want to try that on chicken now.
Looks like a comprehensive list.. I don’t have much to add as I haven’t even tried all the woods or meats on your list. Might be nice to see some commentary on each combination.
[...] been getting a lot of traffic for our quick guide to using the right wood in BBQ smoking. I think it’s important to point out a few things mentioned about the quick [...]
I started using wood to smoke some pork ribs. They were bitter. I then soaked the wood and mixed with charcoal, still a bitter taste but better (not worth eating). I’ve been told to start burning the wood ahead of time and when it is good and hot put in the firebox. Any recommendations? Thank you.
Hey jeff, what you’re experiencing is probably a build up of Creosote. That’s the thick black stuff that smoke leaves behind. There are a couple different things you can do to get rid of it.
1. Make sure your smoker is clean
2. Make sure you have a good airflow.
Whenever the smoke stops moving it gets heavy and starts to put Creosote on your meat.
You can test to see if there is Creosote being generated pretty easily. Take a glass of ice water and hold it over your vent for a minute. If you see black stuff starting to stick to it then your smoke is generating creosote.
Try removing some wood so you have less smoke production but try to maintain a temperature of about 225 degrees.
Good luck!
Oh yeah, the other thing is that you should probably be changing the wood every 45 minutes or so to keep it fresh and flavorful.