The e-book version of the Trees of Eastern North America (Princeton Field Guides) also came in handy. Maple: This wood has a sweet, mild flavor that is well-suited for smoking pork, poultry, and vegetables. Scrap wood may have been treated with chemicals, such as wood that has been used for construction or landscaping, should not be used for smoking, as it may contain toxic chemicals that could be harmful to your health. Similarly, wood that has been contaminated with oil, paint, or other substances should not be used for smoking, as it may produce toxic fumes when burned. Adding a rub involves rubbing your meat with spices, herbs, or sauces before you smoke the meat to enhance its flavour.

Walnut– Walnut produces a much heavier, beautiful, smoky flavour that can become overpowering if you’re not careful but can also be just about the best-smoked meat if you get it right. We like to pair it with a milder wood like maple to help balance it a little. Traditionally the logs are burned down to embers before meat is added. The standard temperature aimed for is 225 °F, hot enough to generate smoke. In some cases, the recommended smoking temperature should be 275 °F, to ensure complete combustion and get the wood into the ‘burning bush’ stage. Chunks Any wood that you do not know for a certainty they have not been treated with a herbicide, pesticide, or fungicide. Extractives —The organic impurities that give wood its color, fragrance, and, in certain circumstances, resistance to rot, fungi, and insects.Other less commonly seen woods I’ve seen people smoke with, and seen for sale as smoking wood, include:

A sweet rub is an excellent choice for meats like ribs, as you can make a barbecue sauce to complement the meat nicely.

The Top 10 Best Wood for BBQ Smokers

The second fact, and the most important is that the smoke from softwood will give your food a pretty horrible taste, and some softwoods will even make the food toxic to eat. So how are hardwoods and softwoods defined? The simplest explanation I could find and that I’ll paraphrase and add to comes from Horizonwood.com: The following section will help you to identify smoking wood chunks and the trees they come from. With multiple photos of tree varieties, their leaves, bark, seeds, and flowers, and photos of smoking wood chunks created from said trees.

If you’re cooking multiple pieces of meat, ensure they’re evenly spaced and not touching each other. Then, close the lid to allow the smoke to circulate. Though different types of woods do burn differently, you need not worry about the subtlety of smoke combinations. Blonder says kiln-dried wood creates a larger smoke ring than air-dried wood and yields a smokier taste. After all I’ve read, experienced, and tested, here are my thoughts on wood smoke flavors and food pairings: However, whatever smoker you have, the basic principle is the same: the heat and smoke cook the food slowly, at a low temperature, giving it a smoky flavour and tender texture.

Lumpwood Charcoal

How a smoker works depends on the type of smoker you have. The main types of smokers are: a charcoal smoker, gas smoker, electric smoker, offset smoker, and pellet grill. Harry Soo: Harry Soo recommends looking for wood that is specifically designed for smoking and that has been harvested and processed in a responsible manner. He also suggests experimenting with different types of wood to find the flavor that you like best, and to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for using the wood. As an indication, see how many different tables, charts, and infographics people have put together on the topic, and how very different much of the information is: Smoking wood and food pairing charts. All that happens is that any moisture in the wood turns into steam and escapes, while some CO2 and methanol also escape. There isn’t a fire, and there isn’t much heat — yet.

Bark — Yellow-brown, to medium or dark gray, far lighter and ‘whiter’ than other species of ash. It has scaly ridges and deep furrows that form a diamond pattern between pointed ridges. Softwoods are coniferous trees that use cones to reproduce, so pine, cedar, fir, and redwood are all examples of softwood.As discussed in our article to the best woods for smoking ribs, If like me, you like a strong, pronounced smoky flavor on your BBQ ribs, these woods should be your top choices: Harry Soo, a well-known barbecue expert and owner of Slap Yo’ Daddy BBQ, talks about wood as follows: Here’s the thing about smoking meat – it is the best method for cooking tough cuts of meat that you want to be tender and juicy. However, it’s very time-consuming. Most of us don’t own a selection of trees we can prune and harvest smoking woods from, so we need to find a source elsewhere. Here are your options.