Here are some useful tips for meat smoking wood and charcoal cooking for you to take your meat smoking game to the next level.
In our last blog post we shared some hot tips to get you smokin'. READ: Meat Smoking 101: A Beginners Guide to Smokin' it Up! This week's post is covering the different types of wood. Smokers and barbecuers are actually talking more about the type of wood used than they are about the meat cuts!
Wood Smoking Chart
Use this wood smoking chart to source recommended wood for your smokin' food.
Poisonous Wood
It's really important to note that some woods are potentially poisonous. These include but are not limited to:
- Pine
- Fir
- Spruce
- Redwood
- Cedar
- Cypress
- Elm
- Eucalyptus
- Sassafras
- Sycamore
- Liquid Amber
Australian Wood
Australia has some excellent native wood perfect for smoking food. These include:
• Ironbark• Apple• Oak• Manuka• Cherry• Chestnut• Macadamia• Black wattle• Peach• Nectarine• Pecan
Meat Smoking SHOULD Dos
Jay Beaumont, from the Australasian Barbecue Alliance shares some key SHOULD DOs in his blog feature which are also listed below:
- For hardwoods like gum or boxes, strip the bark from the wood and dry it out so there is no moisture in the wood. Make sure your wood is seasoned well. Seasoned is a term used to describe the drying out process of the wood.
- Most fruit and nut woods can be half seasoned, but should not be used freshly cut. You can also soak fruit woods as they can burn quite quickly.
- Get your fire pit to a good middle ground. It shouldn't be smouldering nor raging, but rather somewhere in between.
- If wood is green, try split it to help with the seasoning process.
- Clean out your firebox after each use.
