John Neuser
TVWBB Fan
I will apologize for the length of this post up front.
History: I'm an 80 year old guy who has been smoking for.....maybe.....25 years. Still an amateur. I smoke maybe 2-3 times a year. Always happy with my cooks but I'm not giving up my day job, if I had one. I've smoked butts, ribs, chicken, sausage, bacon, jerkey, cheese, salmon, trout etc. I think and, the family thinks, I make great briskets. Anyway, I've always used Weber wood chunks, apple, cherry, pecan, hickory, etc. I've also used seasoned apple from a tree I took down from my property. I'm getting ready to do another brisket. I thought I'd like to try post oak.
Now in the past , all the chunks I've used had zero aroma/fragrance out of the container. Note, I've only used Weber wood chunks. A week and a half ago I visited my daughter and got some red oak which I cut into chunks. Observation: again, none of these woods had any inherent aroma including the 12 month old red oak.
I've always wanted to try smoking with post oak. So, last week, I ordered 10# of said wood from Fruitawood. It arrived today. When I opened the box I was hit with the fragrance of this wood. OMG. Every piece, I mean, every piece in the box was so fragrant. Now I'm a little nervous to try it.
Now I'm thinking I should plane some of the wood to get shavings, add some heat and get a sense of what the smoke smells like. Have any of you tried this? Am I over thinking it? Does the very aromatic flavor of the post oak translate into a more smokier taste than a chunk of off-the-shelf hickory or some other oak?
I'm all for trying a test piece of meat but I really do not want to test on an $80 full packer for a family get together. Comment/thoughts/suggestions are always appreciated. Thank you so much.
History: I'm an 80 year old guy who has been smoking for.....maybe.....25 years. Still an amateur. I smoke maybe 2-3 times a year. Always happy with my cooks but I'm not giving up my day job, if I had one. I've smoked butts, ribs, chicken, sausage, bacon, jerkey, cheese, salmon, trout etc. I think and, the family thinks, I make great briskets. Anyway, I've always used Weber wood chunks, apple, cherry, pecan, hickory, etc. I've also used seasoned apple from a tree I took down from my property. I'm getting ready to do another brisket. I thought I'd like to try post oak.
Now in the past , all the chunks I've used had zero aroma/fragrance out of the container. Note, I've only used Weber wood chunks. A week and a half ago I visited my daughter and got some red oak which I cut into chunks. Observation: again, none of these woods had any inherent aroma including the 12 month old red oak.
I've always wanted to try smoking with post oak. So, last week, I ordered 10# of said wood from Fruitawood. It arrived today. When I opened the box I was hit with the fragrance of this wood. OMG. Every piece, I mean, every piece in the box was so fragrant. Now I'm a little nervous to try it.
Now I'm thinking I should plane some of the wood to get shavings, add some heat and get a sense of what the smoke smells like. Have any of you tried this? Am I over thinking it? Does the very aromatic flavor of the post oak translate into a more smokier taste than a chunk of off-the-shelf hickory or some other oak?
I'm all for trying a test piece of meat but I really do not want to test on an $80 full packer for a family get together. Comment/thoughts/suggestions are always appreciated. Thank you so much.