The use of smoking wood is not only popular today. Previously, it played an important role for preservation, but its defining flavors have made it a truly popular method. When we talk about smoking, we distinguish between cold and hot smoking. Hot smoke has spread in barbecue technology and is most often done using smoking wood.
We are talking about raw materials that differ in size. There are shavings, chips, stumps and pellets. These allow for flavoring on different devices.
We use smoking wood chips in gas grills. Smoking is usually done with dry wood, but in the case of chips, soaking in water is essential, because otherwise it would catch fire and burn due to the open flame and oxygen-rich environment. For other raw materials, it is especially important that it is dry. We can encounter shavings and sawdust during cold smoking. Beech wood is best suited for this. Its aromatic flavor is very popular with cheeses, hams and sausages. Pellets, as the name suggests, are used in pellet grills. They are also a fuel and flavoring agent. A smoking wood stump is an essential accessory for smokers. It determines the final result in terms of taste and color during BBQs.
In addition to oak and beech, fruit trees are also suitable and popular.
For more characteristic meats, it is recommended to use walnut, beech, cherry, and grape trees, due to their more characteristic taste. It is important that too much smoking wood gives the meat an unpleasant taste, just as improperly dried stumps are not suitable for this purpose.
Use only and exclusively uncontaminated wood. Remove moss from it if it is present on the bark. We can only use wood from home cutting after several years of drying.
Wine and whiskey barrels are popular as firewood. They are truly special. If you buy wine barrels yourself, it is worth being careful. In the past, the inside of the barrels was coated with a tar-like substance. This makes them completely unsuitable for food use. It is therefore worth purchasing smoking wood from a reliable source. In the case of barbecue, smoking is important in the first hours. In such cases, it is worth placing the logs in the smoker right from the very beginning. Some types of smokers require different amounts of smoking wood. Metal grills require less, while ceramic grills require more logs. But a lot can also depend on the amount of meat cooked in them.
The following examples show what kind of wood can be used for what kind of meat.
- Alder – pork, poultry, fish.
- Apple – pork, poultry, fish, lamb, game.
- Cherry – beef, pork, poultry, lamb, game.
- Hickory – beef, pork, poultry, game, cheese.
- Mesquite – beef, pork.
- Mulberry – pork, poultry, fish, lamb, game.
- Oak – beef, pork, poultry, fish, lamb, game.
- Orange – pork, poultry.
- Peach – pork, poultry, game.
- Pear – pork, poultry, game.
- Pecan – beef, pork, poultry.
- Plum – pork, poultry, fish.
- Hazel – beef, pork.
In terms of incense wood, we can experiment with other types, or even try a mixture of them.
A practical tip is to keep grilled meats at room temperature before cooking, while for bbq meats it is especially beneficial to start cooking them cold. The reason for this is that the smoke penetrates the meat most intensively until it warms up. It is also worth considering the size of the meat so that the end result is not bitter or very smoky.
Using incense wood is essential for bbq cooking. After all, it is one of the most important seasonings, which we cannot adequately replace in any other way. We cannot achieve a perfect end result with smoky bbq sauces. Although these often contain natural smoke aromas. The smoke that penetrates the fibers gives it a completely different taste.
