Here you can find answers to questions about how the board works. Use the links or search box below to find your way around.
The following woods can be used for smoking:
Acacia - flavor similar to mesquite but not quite as heavy.
Alder - Good with fish, pork, poultry, and light-meat game birds.
Almond - A sweet smoke flavor. Good with all meats.
Apple - Mild. Good with poultry (turns skin dark brown) and pork. Cheese too.
Apricot - Good on white or pink meats, including chicken, turkey, pork and fish. Milder and sweeter than hickory.
Ash - Good with fish and red meats. Flavor similar to maple.
Beech - Flavor similar to Maple.
Birch - Flavor similar to maple (remove the resinous bark). Good with pork and poultry.
Cherry - Mild and fruity. Good with poultry, pork and beef. Cheese too.
Cottonwood - Subtle flavor. Mix with chunks of other woods (hickory, oak, pecan) for more flavor.
Crabapple - Similar to apple.
Grapefruit - Mild. Good with beef, pork, fish and poultry.
Grapevines - Tart, rich and fruity. Good with poultry, red meats, game and lamb.
Hickory - Commonly used wood for smoking. Sweet to strong, heavy flavor. Good with pork, ham and beef.
Lemon - Mild. Good with beef, pork, fish and poultry.
Lilac - Good with seafood and lamb.
Maple - Good with pork, poultry, cheese, and small game birds. Cheese too.
Mesquite - Strong flavor. Good with beef, fish, chicken, and game.
Mulberry - Like apple.
Nectarine - Good on white or pink meats, including chicken, turkey, pork and fish. Milder and sweeter than hickory.
Oak - Heavy smoke flavor. Good with red meat, pork, fish and game.
Orange - Mild. Good with beef, pork, fish and poultry.
Peach - Good on white or pink meats, including chicken, turkey, pork and fish. Milder and sweeter than hickory.
Pear - Like apple. Excellent with chicken and pork.
Pecan - Similar to hickory. Good with poultry, beef, pork and cheese.
Plum - Good on white or pink meats, including chicken, turkey, pork and fish. Milder and sweeter than hickory.
Walnut - ENGLISH and BLACK - Very heavy smoke flavor can be bitter if used alone. Good with red meats and game.
Other wooods - Bay, Carrotwood, Kiawe, Madrone, Manzanita, Guava, Olive, Ornamental Pear, Ornamental Cherry, Butternut, Fig, Gum, Chestnut, hackberry, Pimiento, Persimmon, and Willow. The following woods are not suitable for smoking: Softwoods or evergreen woods (Pine, Fir, Spruce, Redwood, Cedar, Cypress, etc.), Elm, Eucalyptus, Sassafras, Sycamore, Liquid Amber (Sweetgum), Chokecherry, green Cottonwood., Railroad ties, and power poles. (Nobody has ever commented on the last 2 so far.) :-)
Using the smoking wood:
First, don't use chips, they're just a flash in the pan (an old muzzleloading term) then gone and virtually no flavor has been put onto the meat. Use chunked wood. I buy the wood that I can't cut locally, like hickory and mesquite so I'm at the mercy of what's in the bag. But when I cut my own I either cut rounds up to 5" round and not more than 2" thick. Smaller diameter wood gets cut into sticks maybe 6" long. I lay mine on top of the fire and get roughly 1+ hour of smoke. Other folks cut their wood differently and put the wood throughout the lump to get continuous random smoke. It all works. Do what you think is best. Now, should you soak the wood? I don't. Is it wrong to? No. Both ways work. I want the most smoke when the meat is most receptive to it and that's when it's first put on and for a short time thereafter, so I do nothing to slow down smoke production during that critical time period. Again, others do it differently and it works. Try different things and use what works best for you.