Wood selection

wildblue

Well-known member
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On one of the facebook groups, I saw someone say that all wood just tastes the same to them. As you can see, I disagree

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Hickory is starting to replace pecan as my 'go to' wood, but they all have their place I think. Alder for seafood, mesquite for my steaks, pork I tend to alternate between pecan and hickory - I really like putting hickory in the hopper and using a fruit wood in the smoke tube for butts, ribs usually just get hickory. I know a lot of people swear by oak for everything, I just don't get a lot of use out of it. Poultry is usually apple or cherry. I do mix it up though, depending on what I'm going for.

How about you? Do you have a favorite? Can you tell the difference? Do you have a tube that you give it a little extra with sometimes?

Side note - at the risk of being out of line (Kind of good admin Mike, feel free to edit if I am) but I'll plug bbqpelletsonline.com here. Seth was super helpful and me and a couple guys ended up buying a pallet of pellets from him. Got them at like $7.30 a bag - which is better than the Rual King price and we got to pick what we wanted. 40# bags would have been even cheaper, but the other guys wanted all 20# He usually posts to the FB groups with group buy info - I can probably find his latest if anyone is interested. Or maybe even send him an invite to here?
 
I know there are plenty of people that can taste all the different types of wood. I for one can tell the difference but, not to the point where I can say oh this was cooked with Red oak and this with White oak.

I've been happy with the Rec Tec ultimate mix myself, but probably going to try the Perfect Mix blend Rec Tec sent me when I bought my Bull today when I cook more ribeyes.

Side note - at the risk of being out of line (Kind of good admin Mike, feel free to edit if I am) but I'll plug bbqpelletsonline.com here.

Not out of line at all. We're all here for one thing and that's because we love our Rec Tec grills. I'm not one of those people that pretend no other websites exist and you can't possibly link to them.

If there is good info or good people elsewhere, tell us. Share that info with us. Heck yeah, even invite them here! :)
 
I'm the same - I'm not sure I could eat something and say "That was apple" or "that was cherry" ... but I can sure tell the difference between a fruit wood and hickory.

Do you know what their 'perfect mix' is? Lumber Jack has the competition blend and ultimate blend which I think is oak-hickory-cherry and maple-hickory-cherry... I think.

I
 
Wildblue, I couldn't agree more with the above statements of yours, and have had the same positive experience with Seth and the group buy. I don't know of a better deal on LJ pellets than from BBqPelletsOnline.com.

I do switch out the 100% woods from LJ, and use them on the meats you listed. I can tastes the differences in hickory, apple, mesquite and pecan. I also use a mix of cherry and apple for chicken, but I really like the pecan for chicken, too. I also like pecan on eye of round and chuck roast. Steaks and burgers always get mesquite. Although good, my next whole packer will be cooked with something other than 100% mesquite. Pork gets 100% Hickory, but sometimes a hickory and cherry mix.

Since getting the 100% woods, I typically don't use the smoke tube anymore. I simply adjust my cook/smoke times for the smoke intensity preferred. I have not opened my bags of LJ blends yet. I may need to dust off the tube for those.

I also like the Rec Tec ultimate blend. Those give a nice flavor to pork, especially. They burn really clean, and produce very little ash compared to 100% LJ, which includes the bark (in the 100% woods only) for max flavor.
 
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Interesting - I had not noticed that the 100% generate more ash. I may pay more attention to that. I originally thought I'd use the LJ 100% to make my own blends, but I've typically been just filling the hopper with one and using the amazntube if I want to add another flavor.

RecTec threw on a bag of their blend when my 680 arrived. I remember it being perfectly fine, but it was just used for my first couple smokes. I'd be curious to try it again and see if I notice any difference. I'm also curious if they actually make that, or if they have someone else manufacture it and they just brand it. LJ seems to be pretty solid - I've been really happy with theirs.

Thanks for your response. I think we're pretty close in what flavors go with what meats, but you've given me a couple other things to think about and try.
 
Has anyone tried the charcoal flavored pellets?? I like the idea for shorter cooks (burgers and maybe steaks). I’ve never tried them but tempted.
 
Thanks, that's pretty interesting. Wondering now if calls to other companies are in order?
 

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