Wood Combos

[Shooter McGrillin]

Cooking some ribs for Father's Day this weekend and just got in a shipment from Fruitawood (beautiful wood and fast shipping, BTW). I added peach, apple, and cherry chunks to my stash of pecan and hickory chunks and assorted chips.

My wife thought the last cook with hickory was too strong on the smoke flavor. She has a pretty sensitive pallet. That's why I ordered all of the fruit wood.

I'll be adding the chunks to some lump charcoal in my Kamado Joe.

I'm rubbing 2 racks with SM cherry and 2 more racks are TBD. I'll be spritzing with half and half apple cider and apple juice.

My question is...what wood comb do I use? I'm incorporating both cherry and apple flavors, but I've heard peach is incredible. Are there any combos that work particularly well together?

Thanks in advance!

[jestridge]

i bet if you had a blind taste test you couldn't tell very much difference.

[bbqpigskin]

For pork, I use Oak and Apple.

[Boshizzle]

I'm an 80% oak 20% hickory BBQ cook.

[Shooter McGrillin]

How does oak compare to the hardwoods I have, like pecan?

[Boshizzle]

Pecan is a bit milder. But, oak burns hot. That's why I like it. Oak for heat and hickory for flavor.

[Puppyboy]

I have a supply of cherry and pecan.

Some cooks I stay with one wood, others I use combinations of the two.

[Saiko]

I'm with others in that I don't think you'll taste much difference between any of the fruit woods (peach, apple or cherry), they are all mild. I'd just go with any of those if the wifey doesn't like much smoke flavor.
Personally, I use a combo of hickory/fruit or red oak/fruit. You might want to sneak in little oak once and see if she can pick up the difference. It's not quite as strong as hickory IMO.

[Shooter McGrillin]

Good advice and I agree that we probably won't be able to taste much of a difference. I'm still fairly new at this though and want to get it right :)

I don't need the heat from oak since I'm burning lump, so I'm thinking about mixing the pecan (since it's a milder hardwood, and I have it) with one of the fruit woods.

How would y'all rank the fruit woods?

[aquablue22]

I suffer from that exact same problem, wife wise that is, so I have started using only fruits woods and have found them much milder and actually allow the flavors of the meat and rub to come out more. i use cherry and apple together a lot, afraid brought me back some peach wood and it is really good also. I got a supply of citrus, orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime that I use together, it's a little sharper. But since switching to fruit woods I have not been accused of trying to commit muddier by smoke flavor!

[ymmiT]

Plum is really good on ribs

[Wampus]

I combine a bit of oak with my fruitwood.

Don't know how MUCH wood you use, but you MAY try and use less of all of it. It took me a while to figure out that I was simply using too MUCH smoke period.

You may not be doing this, but I'm just throwing it out there. I used to put 6 chunks in with my charcoal and now I just use 2 or 3. Much better balance, at least IMHO.

[brother steve]

Don't forget about sassafras. it is a mild smoke with a great flavor, not overpowering.
Brother Steve

[Shooter McGrillin]

For shorter cooks, I've only been putting in 1 chunk. For cooks like ribs, I've been using 2 chunks. I guess she's just really sensitive to smoke.

Plum and sassafras...need to try those. Not sure I can buy the locally before this weekend, but I'll order some in my next online purchase.

[stephan]

I read here how the wife of some of the brethern don't like to much smoke, I had the same thing with my wife, so I now use mostly oak and fruit woods. I was wondering if anyone knows how to set up a poll just to see how much influence the wife has on our smoking habit.