Go to smoking woods

[BigLazy23]

Looking to place an order for smoking woods.  I know it is subjective, but what is everyone's go to woods for various meats?  My wife isn't a big seafood fan (I love her anyway), so we do a lot of poultry and beef.  Peach and hickory seem like can't miss woods, but what else?  I've seen bourbon barrel chunks discussed a lot but haven't seen a lot of feedback.

[tony b]

I'm partial to apple and cherry, in addition to peach for fruit woods. Hard wood is usually hickory, pecan, or oak, some mesquite, bourbon and alder. Check out Fruita woods.

[LarryR]

I order from Smokinlicious or another spot that escapes me at the moment. My go-to woods are, pecan, cherry, red wine oak cask staves, red oak (tri-tip) and a little apple. Hickory and mesquite are a bit strong for our liking.

[5698k]

Charcoalstore.com. I like peach, hickory, mesquite, and bourbon oak barrel, in no particular order<br />

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Robert

[dstr8]

Another satisfied customer of SmokinLicious!   

 

Love pecan for chicken and pork; light and sweet. 

Any fruit wood when I want more flavor for pork and fowl.

Red oak for Santa Maria style tri-tip and other beef cuts; not as sweet as pecan and not as big as hickory but has its own unique flavor impart...has a certain "roastiness" to it.

Alder and only alder for all things salmon.

Hickory when I want big smoky flavor for pork and beef.

 

I use more pecan and red oak than anything else outside of the years I go salmon fishing in Alaska

[Syzygies]

Apple goes with anything. I only use other woods for a stronger flavor. Apple is the "least disliked" smoking wood, and yet enormously appealing.

[Smokydave]

I've ordered two or three times from Fruita Wood now and will not go back to anyone else.  Shipping is free and fast.

 

http://www.fruitawoodchunks.com/

[BigLazy23]

Thanks all, appreciate the suggestions.  Just placed an order with Fruita Wood for apple, cherry, peach, and pecan.  Based on feedback I was planning to buy some red oak as well but have Ozark Oak and Rockwood at home so will plan to try the Fruita Woods noted before expanding the selection.

[tony b]

Their red oak staves rock for doing steaks "Santa Monica" style. You will be happy with them.

[Ducaticraig]

Tony b,

What is Santa Monica style?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tony b]

My bad, it's actually referred to as "Santa Maria" style. It's tri-tip steak, rubbed with a nice garlic, lemon pepper rub, roasted and quick seared over red oak. There is even a specific Santa Maria style grill - with a chain drive to raise/lower the cast iron grate to control the cooking temperature. The KK does as good, if not better job, using the main grill and lower sear grill on a reverse sear cook. Look for the recipe at amazing ribs.com. I'd post the link to it, but can't with the new forum software and it's too long an address to type in manually! 

[normstar]

I've cooked many Tri-tips in my day and I've been to Santa Maria many times. So in my opinion, I think the best way to cook a Tri-Tip on the KK is direct heat the entire time. Either on the lower grate (not sear) or the main grate. Medium direct heat, not a raging fire. This 30-40 minutes on direct heat gives it a nice hard crust, kinda like bark, that is a signature of real Santa Maria style BBQ Tri-tip.

I've done a reverse sear several times but can never develop a good crust in 3-4 minutes per side.

[BigLazy23]

So how does everyone store their wood? Received the shipment of Fruita Wood today. Talked to the boss and burying tubs in the backyard is out of the question.

[tony b]

I have a second fridge in the garage (mostly for beer!), but I've been putting my fruit woods in the veggie bins. Fruita doesn't say to cold store the hard woods (oak, hickory, etc.), just the fruit woods.

 

Thanks for the tip, Normstar. Will do my next one direct on the middle/lower grate. What temp? Somewhere in the 350-400F range?

[normstar]

Tony, sure that sounds good. You want a nice "sizzle" on the meat but not too much. I think 350 would be ideal, and over a 30-40 minute period (depending on how big your tip is), it will develop a nice crust.

I think turning it every 8-10 minutes or so would be a good idea, but with the even cooking of our KK's it may not be necessary to turn it more than once.

[tony b]

Great advice, normstar. Last tri-tip, I was going for just good sear marks and a medium center, not trying to develop a crust. I have to remember that this is a different cut of beef from the usual steak cuts and needs roasting, not just high temp grilling. Thanks again!

[EGGARY]

Normstar,

How do you cook your Tri Tips? Med. Rare? Medium ?

30-40 minutes on lower grill would be a little long, no ?

[normstar]

Egg! You don't really want to cook a Tri-tip past medium-rare. Medium might be ok if it's well marbled, by typically Tri-tips are so lean that anything past Med-Rare will dry them out.<br />

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That comes from a friend of mine who owns a huge meat provisioning company that sells to fine restaurants.<br />

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Lastly, yes 30-40 mins on the lower grill is too long. I've tried reverse sears and such, but my favorite is direct medium heat the entire time. Or most of the time... You get a beautiful crust that develops and it's so darn tasty! If I was cooking a single Tri-tip, I would use the basket splitter and if the crust got too dark or thick I would just move it over to the indirect side until it hit 125 or so.<br />

[EGGARY]

Personally I like it Med. Rare to Rare.

[normstar]

Cooked a Tri-tip last night! Here are two pics I took of the cook, middle grate over a hot basket of mesquite. KK was hot at 500 degrees and it cooked in just 25 minutes! That is fast for a 3lb Tri-tip.<br />

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