Let's talk wood.....

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MeatStreet

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Park...
And not in the high school sense. ;)

This weekend I became the proud owner of a Lang 60D, upgrading over my WSM. I'm psyched.

I was wondering about everyone's thought's about graduating from charcoal and chunks to wood:

1. This is the newbie in me asking - how is it that I could use "too much" fruitwood when smoking with charcoal? I was always told that too many chunks would mess up the taste, how is it that whole splits for a whole cook make it okay? Is it because charcoal puts off so much smoke flavor on it's own?


2. When you are cooking a mass of food (for friends or even in a competition), how do you pick which wood to use?

Part of the reason I bought the 60 was so I would have enough surface area to cook the four meats in competition. Previously, I just did cherry and pecan on my ribs and chicken. Do you just use hickory or oak, something that works with everything? Or does anyone mix it up.

3. Any tips on making the jump from charcoal to wood?

Thanks for all the the thoughts and advice!!!
 
1) Because wood chunks on top of charcoal smolder, which is a different flavor and combustion than a clean burning fire fueled by wood logs, so you don't need that much. You can certainly smolder logs in a stick burner and put out thick bad smoke and have the same effect on the meat, I'm sure.

2) I don't really care what wood I use, to a point. I'll use oak, hickory, or pecan or any combination thereof. I care more that it's properly seasoned and burns clean. The meat will come out tasty as long as the burn is good.

3) do a "dry run" with no meat on the smoker to learn how to run a fire, control temps, and find the hot spots in your cooker. Buy a moisture meter from amazon to help you figure out the moisture content of the splits you're using. After a bit you'll be able to do it by feel, but it's nice to have a real measurement from time to time. I like my splits in the 13-18% moisture range.
 
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1) I use almost half chunks and half charcoal in many of my cookers. No dirty smoke here. Most of that is wives tales. You can get dirty smoke from charcoal and chunks but that is if you let it smolder.

2) I use mostly cherry and hickory. Cherry because in have it readily available on the farm and hickory because I can get it cheap. The only variance in those woods for me is I use Oak and Sugar Maple when I want to have some time between adding splits.

3) Practice makes perfect. The biggest advice to start into make sure you have an excellent coal bed started and control temps with intake and fire management (how often and how large of splits you add). Leave the exhaust wide open.

I cook on Weber kettles, UDS, Humphreys Queb'd Pint, Shirley 24x60 trailer and Lang 60D. Just for reference.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Congrats on the Lang. You're going to love it.

I use mostly Oak and Hickory because it's cheap and easily available. I use cherry whenever I can get it. I think that's my favorite wood for all meats and can really taste the difference.

Occasionally I'll use some mesquite, pecan, apple, maple or other when I find some around or there is a clearance sale on a bag.

Other than that it's Smoke with what you have.
 
I bought a Lang earlier this year and love it. I also still cook on my WSM.

Wood choice on charcoal smokers matters more IMO. Less compounds get burned away making for very strong flavored smoke. Stick burners run real flame and burn away most VOCs during the combustion process.
 
Congratulations, keep in mind now that you have a stick burner burn sticks. Charcoal is OK to get things going and establish your coal bed. Burn the wood you have access to. A clean hot fire with plenty of airflow will produce the best results. So find a supplier of local BBQ hardwoods and don't worry about what pairs with what. Have fun and enjoy the process.
 
I use charcoal to start the fire. Then exclusively wood. One suggestion, make your split small so that you can easily manage the fire. Managing the fire is probably the biggest jump from charcoal. Remember, clear blue smoke.

As for wood it's a personal taste. I will use fruitwood for chicken, pork and fish. Stronger woods, hickory, red oak and mesquite for beef, pork and lamb

Enjoy
 
One thing I learned is to make your splits small. I'm used to tossing logs into my outdoor wood boiler. When I split up some cherry and hickory for my stick burner, I split them small, or should I say I thought they were small, lol. Ended up resplitting them. Wrist size seems like about the biggest my pit likes.
 
Like most in Texas, I use post oak for everything because its really mild. I toss in some mesquite on occasion. I'm not a fan of hickory at all and have no experience with pecan.

Maybe if I was doing a turkey or something I would try to use a fruit wood.

BBQ: Post Oak

Grilling: Mesquite
 
I prefer Oak on my beef and Maple on my Chicken. I mix it up with fruitwoods (Cherry, Apple, Pear, and Peach) and Hickory on pork. The fun part is experimenting and finding what you like best.
 
Thanks everyone for all of the advice.

I did a test fire build last night (was a great way to spend a cold Chicago Fall night) and learned a lot. Was a great and helpful experience.

Definitely realized that smaller splits work a lot better. Had too big logs and it took an extra hour to get up to temp.

The great thing about this is telling my wife "Honey, you know I need to practice, so I'm going to have to smoke a lot of meat over the next couple of weeks." :)
 
love my Lang 36 patio. I mostly use Australian Pine since it is the most plentiful wood available to me. Looking forward to using some Hickory my brought me back from her trip to Tennsisee.
 
BillN said:
Congratulations, keep in mind now that you have a stick burner burn sticks. Charcoal is OK to get things going and establish your coal bed. Burn the wood you have access to. A clean hot fire with plenty of airflow will produce the best results. So find a supplier of local BBQ hardwoods and don't worry about what pairs with what. Have fun and enjoy the process.
Click to expand...

Amen.
 
This is some great info. I've been contemplating this subject for quite some time as I am currently refurbishing and mod'ing my first stick burner (Bandera). Today I put some live oak I just finished splitting from Hurricane Irma in my shed with dehumidifier set to 35%, hoping it will be dry enough to burn in a month or so. Very curious to learn to barbecue with a real wood fire instead of charcoal and smoldering chunks.
 
I purchased my vertical stick burner this past April, and here are some of the things I learned. First of all just have fun with it. I tell my wife that smoking is great because you get to play with FIRE. Secondly find a wood source that's plentiful and within your budget. My father in law cut down a pecan tree and I have access to post oak from the hunting lease (both are within my budget, i.e. free). I also learned very quickly that my smoker enjoys hot n fast rather than low n slow. So, instead of fighting it to cook where it doesn't want to I adjusted my cooking. Finally, keep reading the forums. There's all kinds of insight and information available. Enjoy, stick burners are an experience unto themselves.
 
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