Outdoor Cooking with The Smoker King

Hi Guy's, I've been busy building a smoker and I will post some picks tomorrow. I've been wondering about what wood to use. You can buy the flavoring chips at Canadian tire, which is great, but what wood should I use for the main fire. We don't have Mesquite,hickery here. What we do have is cherry, Apple, Alder and lots of sugar maple. We also have oak, yellow and white birch, beech and ash which I have been told not to use any of the later. Stick to the cherry, apple or sugar maple. What do you all think? Love the site. My first project is going to be a brisket. I can't wait. My mouth is watering everytime I look at the site and see all the pics!!!

In my little opinion you can't go wrong with any fruit woods. Apple is my current favorite right now.

Welcome to the forum Maritimer! It's great to have you here!

To your question, you have some really good options there for your brisket, but I think you may get as many different opinions as you have wood choices listed. My personal preference for brisket would be cherry or apple as well. I have used alder a time or two here in Minnesota, but honestly I'm not that fond of it. That's much more likely to be a regional thing with me however, as I grew up in Texas eating BBQ cooked over mesquite and oak almost exclusively.

First let me be the latest to welcome you to the FORUM. We are certainly glad that you have joined us here. Wood choices are usually regional. Thus people come to use what is available. Do not put the oak in the do not use section. Many, many people use oak in conjunction with whatever other wood they are using or just oak by itself. Some of the other woods on your do not use list I am not familiar with. Experiment and have fun doing it. Where I live hickory is king but oak, cherry, apple, peach and grape wood are also popular. I like to use some of the milder flavoring fruit woods on chicken and turkey myself. But when I smoke butts I use hickory. I have a neighbor from Michigan who only smokes fish and uses nothing but alder, which does not even grow here. I look forward to pics of your cooker and pics of your upcoming cooks.

If you still have questions Maritimer maybe this lilst will help you out.

Wood Information Center

There are quite a few lists like this one online, this is just one suggestion for you to read through and to have as a reference. It should give you a good starting point anyway.

Hello, welcome to the forum, I like to use Oak it is abundent here in Florida. A regional wood I use here is citrus, it is also available in abundance. Look forward to your pictures. Bob

Hi Guy's,
Thanks for all the advice, Sorry I didn't get my pics posted yet, Haven't had time, but hopefully I'll get them tomarrow.
I went to my fav butcher that I visit now and again and found out he closed his doors!!!!! So......now I have to go to the superstore or sobey's Don't know if they can get briskets or not. I'll have to do some searching.

Pecan if you can get it.

Well, Its a bit harder to find a brisket than I thought. Actually......its damn hard I cant find one anywhere, short of lobing the head off one of dads cattle while he's in Florida, I don't think he would like that to much, Then I'd have to share!!! Well, here's my pics of the smoker. Its not too pretty but does work well. I put one fire into it to season it. It took me about a year to scrounge up the materials that I needed and a few weeks putting it together in my spare time at nights. I figure I have about a hundred bucks into it not including my time.....nobody counts their time do they? I think i'll repaint it with a gloss heat paint instead of the flat black heat paint.

We have oak here in NovaScotia also Bob, I like the idea of the citrus though. I think I'll ask Maw and Paw to bring some back for me when they return from Florida