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smoking with green wood

B

Big Darb

Knows what a fatty is.
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I've always used nice, seasoned fruit woods & hickory for smoking. The other day I had a sugar maple come down and I want to try maple smoke. Do I have to wait for it to season or is it ok to smoke with green wood? I'd only be using a few chunks in my uds.
 
I might in a stick burner, not a UDS, but I'm sure someone will be along to say it works just fine. I've never burned green wood using the minion method with charcoal so I can't say from first hand experience. The reason I wouldn't is that it will struggle to light up more than seasoned wood, making thicker smoke. If it was a stick burner running a clean hot fire, I could see tossing on green wood and it would light up quick enough to not cause an issue.
 
I was always told by the oldtimers to use only seasoned wood, but I was watching BBQ Pitmasters on tv and Miron Mixon said he uses green peach wood cut the same day or the day before for his cooking. I guess he has won enough competitions to know if it works or not and he does it..
 
I've seen guys running stick burners on the old BBQ pit masters using green wood. Not sure about an USA.
 
yea i heard myron say he uses green wood as well as that other guy, cool smoke.

i know for my wood buring stove you shouldnt use green wood, so i dont know why green wood would be ok for smokin
 
I was always told the green wood was still wet and had sap still inside and it would cause the food to take on a acidic type of taste as the wood burnt. It would be a cool comparison for someone with a stickburner to try and post results then we would all know if it makes a big difference.
 
For the "smoldering" type smokers I probably wouldn't use green wood.

There are lots of folks who use green wood splits to cook with, but they know their application. There is even a restaurant in Texas named "Green Mequite". Guess what kind of wood they use? LOL
 
To answer your question, no. Use seasoned wood chunks in a UDS.

Cut that Maple into small chunks and it will be dry in no time. :thumb:
 
Bbq Bubba said:
To answer your question, no. Use seasoned wood chunks in a UDS.

Cut that Maple into small chunks and it will be dry in no time. :thumb:
Click to expand...

Bing bing bing bing.......You will ruin a lot of food if smoking with green wood.

Like others have said, if you buy one of the Myron Mixon smokers, use all the green sappy wood you want, otherwise use only super dry seasoned wood to be sure nothing preventable happens to your food.
 
Just a quick question,
Could you chunk up the maple and warm it in an oven for a few hours on a low temp to dry out the wood? And then be able to use it in the cooker?
jon
 
jonboy said:
Just a quick question,
Could you chunk up the maple and warm it in an oven for a few hours on a low temp to dry out the wood? And then be able to use it in the cooker?
jon
Click to expand...

jonboy, if you have an accurate food scale,weigh out several chunks of wood. Place them into a Microwave Oven, turn on and set for about 5 to 10 min. and re-weigh the chunks again, the difference in weight will give you a percentage of moisture loss. Repeat above step untill there is only a very small amount weight difference.

Then you are ready to get smoken.:thumb:
 
I highly doubt that Myron is using green wood exclusively. With that said, it's not unusual to see an occasional "green" log get thrown on a fire. But I don't think that there's any way a stick burner could run all green wood. Not only would it put out to much white smoke and cause the food to be bitter, but I don't think that you would get enough BTU's out of it to get a good temp.

As far as the OP, I agree with using only seasoned wood chunks in a WSM. The dryer the wood, the cleaner the smoldering smoke.
 
CarolinaQue said:
I highly doubt that Myron is using green wood exclusively. With that said, it's not unusual to see an occasional "green" log get thrown on a fire. But I don't think that there's any way a stick burner could run all green wood. Not only would it put out to much white smoke and cause the food to be bitter, but I don't think that you would get enough BTU's out of it to get a good temp.

As far as the OP, I agree with using only seasoned wood chunks in a WSM. The dryer the wood, the cleaner the smoldering smoke.
Click to expand...

Myron uses wood that still has a ton of sap, so I'm pretty sure It's good and green. Not saying you're full of bs, but at the same time not saying he is either..at least that's what he shows on tv... What you're saying does sound very logical, so maybe he is full of it on the shows.
 
Myron does use green wood, green peach wood exclusively. The general rule from what I have heard is Fruit wood should be green, hardwoods, Oak, Hickory, Pecan etc should be seasoned.

There is a reason fruitwood should be green/fresh. On the other hand, the best BBQ I have ever eaten, Pete Jones Skylight Inn in Ayden NC, he uses green Blackjack Oak, but I will admit that they use the burn barrel method, and I think that makes a difference as it is a little different from a stick burner offset or similar.
 
When I was a kid we had a huge permanent outdoor smoker. We always built the fire with seasoned wood and would throw on a round of green alder with the seasoned stuff for smoke once the fire was mature. So every year we cut fresh alder and next year that was what we used for the seasoned wood.

Doesn't Myron use a bag of charcoal to form a base of coals to keep his green peach wood burning? Not to mention lighter fluid.
 
Durzil said:
When I was a kid we had a huge permanent outdoor smoker. We always built the fire with seasoned wood and would throw on a round of green alder with the seasoned stuff for smoke once the fire was mature. So every year we cut fresh alder and next year that was what we used for the seasoned wood.

Doesn't Myron use a bag of charcoal to form a base of coals to keep his green peach wood burning? Not to mention lighter fluid.
Click to expand...


You are correct, he does use charcoal & lighter fluid to get his wood started, but does so, well over an hour to two hours before he puts the meat on.
 
I think the secret then, is to get a good bed of coals so the fire is hot enough to burn the wet wood. So this is either done by using a lot of charcoal or preburning the wood in a barrel and shoveling the coals into the fire box or cooking pit.

But how many here have been able to light even a camp fire with green wood and were able to keep it lit and producing enough heat with out any help from lighter fluid or other things?

If Myron is using charcoal as a base, then he really isn't using green wood as his heat source is he? His smoke flavoring maybe, but the entire process isn't solely based on green peach wood then.

Don't get me wrong, the man is a legend in his own right. But I think that there's more to the process and his success than just his green peach wood.
 
I've had great results using freshly cut maple chunks on my ProQ Excel (very similar to WSM) mixed into the charcoal as in the Minion Method. It works well seasoned too.
 
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