# Wood for bbq



## Audi Driver P.E. (May 17, 2016)

I've used a lot of hickory.  Some apple.  Some cherry.  Even some maple and alder.

Anyone ever use madrone or myrtle wood for BBQ or smoking meats?  Thinking I might try some.


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## FLBuff PE (May 17, 2016)

Creosote.

But to answer the question, no I have not used madrone or myrtle wood.


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## PE-ness (May 17, 2016)

Did someone say wood?


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## Audi Driver P.E. (May 17, 2016)

FLBuff PE said:


> Creosote.


What about it?


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## DuckFlats (May 17, 2016)

Citrus is a nice change. It's tough to get a hold of, but it gives off a good flavor. I have never been a big fan of cherry.


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## bradlelf (May 18, 2016)

Never used it; I typically use a blend of maple, apple and hickory ... alder for fish.


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## Road Guy (Oct 14, 2018)

Is this our BBQ thread?

It Was a cold snowy day so might as well throw on a little Q! 







Color is almost perfect


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## Master slacker (Oct 15, 2018)

I have some left over PT deck boards taking up room in the garage right now.  This seems like a good way to put them to use!


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## Supe (Oct 15, 2018)

Master slacker said:


> I have some left over PT deck boards taking up room in the garage right now.  This seems like a good way to put them to use!


"Is that hickory?"

"No, formaldehyde!"


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## Audi Driver P.E. (Oct 15, 2018)

Road Guy said:


> Is this our BBQ thread?


Duh!


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## MA_PE (Oct 15, 2018)

Road Guy said:


> Is this our BBQ thread?
> 
> It Was a cold snowy day so might as well throw on a little Q!
> 
> ...


I give. up  what is it?  Badger?


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## Road Guy (Oct 15, 2018)

BBQ is the process of slow cooking a pig until it is 140^ - this is a pork loin, well part of it anyways....


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## FLBuff PE (Oct 16, 2018)

Supe said:


> "Is that hickory?"
> 
> "No, formaldehyde!"


I'm not a fan of the formaldehyde treated wood...it's a bit sharp for my taste. I prefer creosote treated wood for my smoker.


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## MA_PE (Oct 17, 2018)

Road Guy said:


> BBQ is the process of slow cooking a pig until it is 140^ - this is a pork loin, well part of it anyways....


We northerners don't eat pork that's "pink"  We don't want to get Trichinosis.

from: https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/infections/parasitic-infections/trichinosis

Trichinosis is prevented by thoroughly cooking meats, especially pork and pork products, to a temperature *higher than 160° F* (71° C), until they are brown throughout. Alternatively, larvae can be killed in domestic pork that is less than 6 inches thick by freezing the pork at -15° F (-5° C) for 20 days. Freezing is not recommended for meat from wild animals because they may be infected with Trichinella species that are not killed by low temperatures.

Smoking, salting, or microwave cooking does not reliably kill the larvae.


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## Road Guy (Oct 17, 2018)

The pink doesn't indicate that the meat is "raw" like in hamburger or steak, its how the meat is cooked through the smoking process that turns the outer edges that color..

I normally cook mine to around 150 and then let it sit before cutting and you get an extra 5 degrees out of it, but too much more than that it dry's out.. I've been feeding folks like this my whole life and no one has gotten sick, but maybe you yanks have a weaker immune system...

even when we smoke a turkey to 180 degrees it still a pink color &amp; about the best tasting turkey you can find..


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## goodal (Nov 19, 2018)

We are responsible for the turkey and ham this year again.  We have smoked them both in the past and gotten mixed results.  The wife is going to spatchcock (sp?) the turkey to try to get the cooking time down and leave the skin crunchy.  I think we are going to use the wood from some barren peach trees i cut down this year.  Fingers are crossed.


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## Jbone27 PE (Nov 19, 2018)

I was just reading up smoking turkeys. They actually suggest using fruit trees in the ones I saw. Bet it will turn out great.

I'm using mesquite cause that's just what I always use. Also going to brine it with some salt and spices and try injecting cajun seasoning in it. I'll probably get in trouble for making it too spicy for the kids but it looked to good not to try. 

Now...what to drink while I sit up all night tending the smoker??


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## DoctorWho-PE (Nov 19, 2018)

We are having Cajun smoked turkey this year, in addition to the traditional roasted bird.


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## Road Guy (Nov 19, 2018)

so are you using the peach trees for all of the wood (fuel) or just for some flavoring mixed in with the charcoal  / pellets?  I have never used 100% 'wood' in smoking, but I think that's what the actual BBQ places do - but they have those "huge" smokers...


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## Jbone27 PE (Nov 19, 2018)

Road Guy said:


> so are you using the peach trees for all of the wood (fuel) or just for some flavoring mixed in with the charcoal  / pellets?  I have never used 100% 'wood' in smoking, but I think that's what the actual BBQ places do - but they have those "huge" smokers...


Yeah I always have about 5 or 6 coals burning to keep the temp up.


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## Audi Driver P.E. (Nov 19, 2018)

Jbone27 PE said:


> I was just reading up smoking turkeys. They actually suggest using fruit trees in the ones I saw. Bet it will turn out great.
> 
> I'm using mesquite cause that's just what I always use. Also going to brine it with some salt and spices and try injecting cajun seasoning in it. I'll probably get in trouble for making it too spicy for the kids but it looked to good not to try.
> 
> Now...what to drink while I sit up all night tending the smoker??


Hickory is the best I've found for chicken and I would imagine that Turkey is similar (never really tried turkey for some reason). Apple and cherry make it too sweet for my taste


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## jeb6294 (Nov 20, 2018)

My smoker is electric, but has the wood tray/feeder for adding wood chips.  We've got a big specialty grocery here, Jungle Jim's, and they've got a pretty decent selection of wood chips.  Got hickory when I did ribs and apple for the bacon explosion and the turkey.  I'd heard hickory was too much for poultry and fruit trees were recommended.  Nice thing with the electric is that you only need to use chips to make smoke, electric element provides the heat.


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## Supe (Nov 20, 2018)

Bacon explosion?


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## JayKay PE (Nov 20, 2018)

Ugh, I love smoked meat, but dreading what type of wood my uncle is going to use this year...Last year he smoked the turkey with walnut, I think, but didn't use any other wood, so the turkey just tasted odd/weird.


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## knight1fox3 (Nov 20, 2018)

Supe said:


> *Turkey *Bacon explosion?


Fixt. :thumbs:


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## Supe (Nov 20, 2018)

knight1fox3 said:


> Fixt. :thumbs:


That's just a description of what happens after you eat turkey facon, not an entree.


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## FLBuff PE (Nov 20, 2018)

knight1fox3 said:


> Fixt. :thumbs:


No.


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## goodal (Nov 21, 2018)

Get the fire started with a charcoal chimney then use the wood for smoke.  I have an Oklahoma Joes with the fire box, charcoal and propane barrels.  Best $300 ever spent at Lowes.


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## jeb6294 (Nov 21, 2018)

There are different variations out there, but the jist is

Bacon Explosion:


Make a bacon weave, I think mine was 8x8 or 9x9

Mix up 2lb of meat, I did half beef and half sausage, with another 1/2lb of cooked bacon crumbles

Put the giant ball-o-meat in a 1-gal Ziploc bag and then roll it out (you're making a perfect square of meat about 1/2in thick)

Cut the bag down both sides and then I put a layer of Colby-jack slices before rolling it up so it's like a giant swiss roll made of meat

Throw some BBQ dry rub on it and plop the giant meat swiss roll down on your bacon weave and wrap it up so it's all sealed up in bacon

Throw it in the smoker until internal temp is ~150-155

Brush some BBQ sauce on it and keep cooking until it's up to 165


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## jeb6294 (Nov 26, 2018)

Sweet baby Jesus...Kroger had brisket on sale for $1.99/lb the other day so I grabbed a couple.  Got some strange looks when I dumped 30lb of meat on the conveyor at the register.

I've been diligent in my YouTube smoking research, see Aaron Franklin and HowToBBQRight, and decided to do brisket and burnt ends.  Quick anatomy lesson for those who don't know, brisket is one hunk made of two parts, the flat (leaner) and the point (fattier), with a seam of fat splitting the two.  You can throw a whole brisket in the smoker or you can do what I did which is separate the flat and the point.  The flat gets smoked per the usual while the point gets basted and goes back in a pan.  After a few more hours, the point gets cubed, basted again and back in the smoker for a bit.  You end up with ~1"x1" cubes of beef that melt in your mouth.


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## Supe (Nov 26, 2018)

I'm not sure there is any BBQ that beats burnt ends done right.


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## Jbone27 PE (Nov 26, 2018)

jeb6294 said:


> Sweet baby Jesus...Kroger had brisket on sale for $1.99/lb the other day so I grabbed a couple.  Got some strange looks when I dumped 30lb of meat on the conveyor at the register.
> 
> I've been diligent in my YouTube smoking research, see Aaron Franklin and HowToBBQRight, and decided to do brisket and burnt ends.  Quick anatomy lesson for those who don't know, brisket is one hunk made of two parts, the flat (leaner) and the point (fattier), with a seam of fat splitting the two.  You can throw a whole brisket in the smoker or you can do what I did which is separate the flat and the point.  The flat gets smoked per the usual while the point gets basted and goes back in a pan.  After a few more hours, the point gets cubed, basted again and back in the smoker for a bit.  You end up with ~1"x1" cubes of beef that melt in your mouth.


I may have to try that one. Doing a brisket for Family Christmas this year.

My thanksgiving turkey turned out awesome. Brined for about 36 hours then injected with a butter, broth, seasoning mix. Covered with canola oil and a light rub. Smoked it for 11 hours up to 165 degrees on the breast. It tasted great but not much to look at. I'll have to slow down the browning process next time by covering with foil.


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## willsee (Nov 26, 2018)

Smoke brisket twice

Both times came out awful


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## Supe (Nov 26, 2018)

I don't have the temp control to do a good brisket with my smoker.  Some day I'll buy a big green egg and do it right.  I end up too hot going into the stall period and it comes out dry.


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## Road Guy (Nov 26, 2018)

This year I coated the dark meat on the turkey with some heavy pepper (steak seasoning pepper) I am not really a fan of the dark meat but this really gave it a spicy taste and for once there was not a single piece of dark meat left for leftovers - which mean more leftover breast for turkey sammiches...

We did a smaller bird around 15 lbs - still took around 10 hours in the smoker - but it was excellent!
 

I also put 2 whole chickens in there to smoke which well use for white bean chilli and other stews throughout the winter -


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## jeb6294 (Nov 26, 2018)

My flat was a bit overdone, but that was my fault.  I wasn't paying attention and by the time I remembered to check the internal temp, it was already over 200.  Still tastes good, just a bit too tender.  I'm sure the diehards don't approve, but one of the reasons I really like my electric smoker is because it has that digital temp...just set it and forget it.

I gotta say, so far turkey has been my least favorite.  It came out good, but just seems like more work than the other stuff I've done.


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## kevo_55 (Nov 26, 2018)

Overdone or not, I'm jelous Jeb!!

My cholesterol just jumped looking at that picture though.


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## jeb6294 (Nov 27, 2018)

kevo_55 said:


> Overdone or not, I'm jelous Jeb!!
> 
> My cholesterol just jumped looking at that picture though.


Best part is that it's health food for my wife and I...all keto friendly. The dry rub I make myself so it's nothing but seasonings and a bit of sugar free sweetener in place of brown sugar and I found some sugar free BBQ sauce at our local specialty grocery that is a-ma-zing.


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## Supe (Nov 27, 2018)

What do they sweeten that one with?  Looks like it has a ton of 5 star reviews.


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## jeb6294 (Nov 28, 2018)

This stuff tastes good enough that I would use it even if I wasn't looking for something sugar free.  The only sweetener in its list of ingredients is sucralose, aka Splenda.  It has 2 grams of carbs per serving, which I'm guessing comes from a bit of cornstarch.

Since we're (sort of) on the subject, the food industry sucks.  Before coming up with my own rub, I was looking for something at the same store where I got the BBQ sauce.  There were quite a few that said they had 0g carbs, but when I looked at the label, the 1st or 2nd ingredient would be sugar.  WTF?!?!  When you looked closer, they'd use a serving size of 1 gram, or sometimes even less than that.  Apparently they are allowed to round down so if the amount per serving is &lt;1g, then they are allowed to list it as 0g/0%.  Who the [email protected]#$ is going to use 1 gram of rub on a rack of ribs?  They're allowed to cheat the system so people can't see that their rub is basically sugar and sodium.


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## goodal (Nov 29, 2018)

Spatchcocked turkey was perfect.  Cooked in 2.5 hrs.  Skin was crunchy, not rubber and everything was juicy.  The only way to go.  We've done brisket a couple times and both were awsome.  Sounds like we got lucky.


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## knight1fox3 (Nov 29, 2018)

Supe said:


> I'm not sure there is any BBQ that beats burnt ends done right.


Do these come in the turkey variety? :dunno:


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## Ble_PE (Nov 29, 2018)

knight1fox3 said:


> Do these come in the turkey variety? :dunno:


:withstupid: :banhim:


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## Supe (Nov 29, 2018)

knight1fox3 said:


> Do these come in the turkey variety? :dunno:


I suggest you find your nearest confessional and beg for forgiveness.


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## jeb6294 (Nov 30, 2018)

Supe said:


> I'm not sure there is any BBQ that beats burnt ends done right.


We had a few leftovers that I took to work (they even reheat good...had everyone there drooling).  Normally the wife doesn't say anything when I take leftovers to work for lunch, but when she went to get something for dinner and the burnt ends were already gone, she was piiiissed.  Made me take her out to dinner instead.


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## Audi Driver P.E. (Nov 30, 2018)

Ble_PE said:


> :withstupid: :banhim:


Agreed!


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