Which Wood to use

[fishhunter]

Tomorrow I'm going to put another brisket, a pork shoulder butt and some pork country style ribs in the smoker. I plan to cook them between 200 and 220 degrees.

I'm just wondering what flavor of wood has the group found that works the best for different types of meat ( Pork, Cow ETC ).

[KyNola]

Hickory for me!

[Wildcat]

I like all the woods. I generally lean to apple for most things as a general all around medium. For beef I like oak, hickory, and mesquite. For pork and chicken I like the more mellow woods like apple, cherry, etc.

[Beekeeper]

I used Hickory on the ribs I did last weekend, and they were awesome.  This weekend, I'm going to smoke some cheese, and I plan to use Apple, mostly for a sweeter, more subtle flavor.

In the past, I have smoked pork and beef, and used hickory or pecan, and both yield good flavor.  For a "go to standard", I agree with Kynola............hickory is hard to beat!

[tskeeter]

I like a lighter smoke flavor, so my choices are apple for most things, including cheese, nuts and poultry, alder for salmon, and hickory for pork shoulder.

[devo]

Hickory for me!

X2
All I have is hickory and will not buy anything else. You just need to know how much to apply and your good to go. The only one that turned me off from smoked meats was Mesquite. Dam near died from the strong smoke taste.

[STLstyle]

Go to is hickory.  Use apple often and oak sometimes too.

[Grouperman941]

I would pick apple, because I like it on both pork and beef.

[fishhunter]

Thanks for the information. The next question is how long do y'all smoke the meat. I know that the more meat in the smoker the longer you need to smoke it, but there comes a point where the meat can be smoked to long.

Any ideas or help on this ???

[Wildcat]

Smoked too long - perhaps for some. It is more of the food reaching a point where it can no longer absorb anymore smoke. Generally, IMHO smoking a large butt for anymore than 4 hours is a waste of wood. Some on here go longer. Some go with less, but I believe the average for a large chunk of meat is 4 hours. Read what others have done. Some things like fish, chicken, cheese, etc. you will not want to use so much smoke on.

[BAM1]

Hickory for beef and pork at same time.  Hickory, pecan, or apple for pork. JMHO