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What is good wood for smoking meat?

Started by Michaeljp86, May 26, 2006, 12:45:10 AM

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crtreedude

I kid you not - Cocobolo.  :o :o

They used to cut it up to burn with it was so full of oils. Now, cocobolo (rose wood) goes for 40 dollars a lb.

So, how did I end up here anyway?

UNCLEBUCK

It was just regular field corn cobs.  After the corn is picked from the field in the fall and put in the corn crib these bachelors had a corn cob sheller and you toss the cobs in the machine with the kernels on and out the other side comes a shelled corn cob with no kernels , the kernels fall down into a bucket and if you do this for 10 minutes you get a big pile of corn cobs and that is what they used in the smokehouse .  They made whiskey with the corn kernels  ;D
UNCLEBUCK    bridge burner/bridge mender

Woody Woodwrecker

      Here in Florida my favorite wood is oak. Now there are all sorts of oak trees and I think the one I use and like the best is called live oak. I is what is naturally growing among the palmettos and pines here. When fresh cut it has a sort of reddish or even purplish color in the heart which goes away after a few days. I always use a small bed of charcoal (best is hardwood) and put the small logs on top of that. The vent on my smoker has rusted in the perfect position to give me a nice 225 deg temperature when the heat evens out. When this oak burns it has a very sweet smell.  My usually method is to start smoking before the hot fire has settled down to set up the outside of the meat and hold the juices in. One secret I'll pass on is in my experience with oak, hickory, and almond is to debark the wood if at all possible. Sometimes I am lazy and don't do it, but the bark can give a bitter taste. I've always had my best results with the bark off. I've tried all sorts of rubs, seasonings, etc, but with the sweet oak I now usually put nothing at all on the meat. In California I've used almond but it does not burn as well and the taste is nowhere near as good as sweet oak. Hickory is okay but has a stronger flavor. Mesquite burns to hot for true barbeque and would be bitter if you left meat in mesquite smoke for hours. Of course Alder has a very delicate flavor and is used for smoking salmon in the Pacific Northwest.
           Some more of my smoking tips follow: Be careful using fruit trees- if the wood came from an orchard the trees may have been sprayed with insecticide. If you are serious about smoking meat invest in a good quality meat slicer. A good one will last forever and slicing meat very thin has the effect of releasing more flavor, making it appear more tender, and making it go further i.e. feed more people. When you are done slicing there will be a lot of crumbs, mix these in with low fat or no fat cream cheese for a very good dip. The flavor is so good you won't miss the fat. By the way, fat in meet is like a magnet for smoke, that more fat in you meat the more smoke it will collect. Try smoking some ground beef with high fat content on a screen or grid. Most of the fat will drain off but what is left will have a great smoke flavor. Now use that meat in your favorite chili recipe and you will be amazed.
If you want to smoke a large turkey and like moist breast meat the best way is to probably remove the breast when they are done and put the rest of the turkey back on to finish cooking. Try smoking with an apple or two in the cavity.
Get your kids involved. My kids love to take cubes of Swiss cheese and put them on skewers. Then they hold them over the smoke stack for a few minutes to get a nice smoky flavor. You can smoke many types of cheeses easily. One favorite at parties is smoked mozzarella tendrils. Elevate the cheese on something like a brick or beer can, etc. As the mozzarella melts it will have tendrils come down which your guests can pluck off and enjoy. Hmmmm, mozzarella reminds me of pizza which is great in the smoker. Build a hot fire in you smoke box. Cook your pizza on the cheap unglazed Mexican tiles. Don't waste money on a store bought pizza stone, they will crack if direct flame hits them. The Mexican pavers do sometimes, but they are only 99 cents!
One last tip because this is getting pretty long and has strayed from the original question- don't by your meat from Wal-Mart! The only meat Wal-Mart sells now that I would consider using is pork loin. If you try cooking Wal-Mart steak the way a steak should be cooked (on a very hot charcoal and oak fire directly above the coals)  and cook it say med rare, you will be disgusted when you slice it open and see that it is gray or black on the inside and have a very unappetizing texture and taste.  It's because of the preserving and packaging system Wal-Mart uses now. I actually spoke to someone at Wal-Mart headquarters about this and they admitted the steaks will come out gray. I won't get into why Wal-Mart does this and what it means for the community in this thread, (which I turned into a book) but the point is find yourself a good meat market.
   

SwampDonkey

I've heard from friends that they wouldn't buy meat from Wal-Mart either. Walmart in Canada doesn't sell meat in my area, unless it's bacon or hotdogs.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

gary

Thanks for the heads up about walmart. I was going too buy a couple t-bones there.

sprucebunny

The big supermarkets , here, sell WATER ADDED pork by Smithfield. Don't buy it !!!! First, you are paying more per pound for WATER and SALT . Second , it will drown your fire, and third, it dosen't taste real.

JMHO
MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

Norm

They also add a food coloring to make it look red. First time I bought wal mart meat I thought how nice bright red it was. Cut through it and it was brown on the inside. Yuck!

DanG

I like to use a combination of woods to smoke meat.  My primary fire will be oak, and I'll add chunks of pecan and cherry.

I don't buy meat at Wal-mart, either.  I was there a few days ago and noticed they had some big bags of frozen crawfish on sale.  The front of the bag said they were from some outfit in Lousiana.  On the back, in tiny little letters, it said "Product of China."
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

dundee

In New Zealand there are not a lot of species to chose from to smoke fish, I have finaly finished my cold smoke house which I gave it a trial run to check for any smoke leakage. I normally use a species called MANUKA commonly called Ti tree, I had a whack of wulnut shells which I thought I would try--the result was that the smell of the shells was OK, has anyone tried wulnut shells for smoking?, I'm gonna have a try and smoke a trout then offer it to my neighbour first  ;D

Very interesting posts you fella's have put up suggesting different woods for smoking----the grape prunings sound OK as well

Richard

Drew

Dundee,
We will use the hard shell of a nut, the bark or the wood.  Leaves don't work too good.

It's handy to remove the bark of a hickory and split it into fairly narrow pieces that will curl as it dries.  It stores easily and isn't as heavy as the wood. 
Tree Climber

dundee

Drew, are you saying that you use "any nut shell" for smoking?, never thought of that

Thanks
Richard

CALSAW

I think that apple and manzanita are the best, but then thats what I got.
Around here they are cutting down thousands of acres of beautiful apple orchards and putting in ugly vineyards. Mostly they just pile them up with a cat and burn them.
I was born and raised in an apple orchard so it makes me real sad to see the waste.
BTW I would recomend that people buy NOTHING at Walmart.
Lucas 827 w/ slabber

treecyclers

All that apple makes good smoking wood, and even better lumber!
It loves to twist, split, and check, but it's fantastic for jewelry boxes and little things!

Have chainsaw, will travel!
SD
I wake up in the morning, and hear the trees calling for me...come make us into lumber!

SwampDonkey

The government here gave money to alot of would be apple growers. As soon as the reality of work and marketing started the orchard got abandoned after $millions were spent. We only have a couple viable orchards in the area. The most northern one was in Centreville. Orchards north of here, just didn't do good. The better maintained orchards were from Woodstock southward. The new dwarf varieties aren't as good as the old homestead varieties. I got apples ready now in the yard and they rot on the tree in no time, lotsa railroad worm to.  If I gotta spray'm, I can't be bothered. Wish they didn't come along this summer and shove my good homestead apple tree over. ::)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

CALSAW

Orchard crops are alot of hard work and uncertainty. My area used to be famous for Gravenstien apples, we had a few big canneries and dryers all over. Railroad spur to the canneries. Land and labor were cheap. All gone now. A few old timers hang on, and a few are trying organic, but you can't compete with the $ from wine grapes. I want to try grafting some of my dads old Gravenstien onto dwarf rootstock, any comments?
Lucas 827 w/ slabber

Daren

Quote from: DanG on June 20, 2006, 10:30:53 AM
  On the back, in tiny little letters, it said "Product of China."

Funny ain't it. Most "Amish" furniture around here has the same sticker. I am typing on a "made in China" computer. I bought the chair I am setting in...if I fell out of it and looked underneath I bet there would be one of those stickers. I HAVE A NEW IDEA !!! I am going to start a factory that prints little stickers that say "made in China" , oh wait I can just buy them cheaper from China. I would buy label stickers from China, but I would for sure stay away from the Chinese crawfish :D
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

SwampDonkey

We buy Gravenstien here at the local orchards in the fall. Good apple to foam and froth in the sauce pan. I still miss the old New Brunswicker variety, nothing comes close. We bought some that were suppose to be grafted onto dwarf stock. They ain't nothing like the old ones we had in the orchard. These new ones are hard and small and lack the red venation in the flesh.  We got took. ::)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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