Yoder Smokers Community Forum

I was originally going to post this as a reply to the post "Shoulder" but I decided to make it a separate posting, as it is more about wood than shoulder. Just curious what other Yoder owners like to smoke with in terms of type of wood. Doesn't really matter whether it's on a stick-burner or pellet grill--smoke flavor should be same for both.


I can tell a little bit of difference in some woods but definitely not all of them...

I love cherry in the mix for the nice pink smoke ring it contributes.

I can tell hickory and mesquite over other woods because of their distinctive flavor profiles. I have a harder time distinguishing between the other woods I've used so far. My favorite mix, so far, is pecan and cherry. Pecan seems to lend a nutty flavor, just a bit milder than hickory, which I like for most of the things I smoke. As i said above, I always add some cherry for the color. I've also used some Jack Daniels whiskey barrel chips and pellets and I thought they were good too, but too expensive to make them a staple. Oak is very reliable and gives nice, clean smoke and no harsh, off tastes in my experience. If I'm not mistaken, most of the BBQ'rs Delight pellets are about 70% oak as a base and the rest (30%) the specified, flavored wood. Traeger pellets use Alder wood for the base. I prefer oak and I also understand it burns hotter and more consistently than alder.

I'd love to buy exclusively BBQ'rs Delight pellets but the shipping to me is so expensive, they're just not really affordable for me and the last time I checked, there were no dealers locally. There was a distributor looking into them, but they would not sell them to me for less than full retail...So, still looking... I've used a blend a number of times that I've been pretty happy with from CookinPellets.com called Perfect Mix that's a blend of Hickory, Apple, Cherry and Hard Maple. Definitely lighter than 100% hickory and enough cherry to get the pink coloring I like.

The Yoder folks have done some testing, I believe, so perhaps they can weigh in here too.

Hope the shoulder came out great!

TJ

All testing at Yoder is done using BBQr's Delight Hickory. It is the baseline. Personally, I use a 50/50 mix of BBQr's Delight Pecan and Cherry. It is the best overall that I have found, and I have tried most of the other flavors. Tried a few different brands, cheap, expensive, pure species (not a blend), etc. Nothing I have tried comes close the accuracy, consistency and performance as BBQr's Delight.

What wood I use all depends on what mood I'm in that day, and what I'm cooking. However, the woods I use and I always try to have on hand are oak, pecan, hickory, peach, and apple. Those are the woods I use no matter the cooker; stick, pellet or charcoal with wood chunks.

I like apple and pecan. Apple because it is abundant here and pecan because it has such a great flavor/smell. A great smoking combo. I will need to try some other nut woods more prevalent in the NW to see if I can keep it local and get a similar result.

I have always been a hickory fan myself. However, now that I have the pellet cooker I am starting to use Oak and blends of Oak/Hickory/Cherry and Maple/Hickory/Cherry. I have not done enough cooks with each to determine what I like best though.

I prefer apple or hickory or a blend of the two for almost everything I smoke with the exception of brisket where I generally use mesquite.

cherry for pork, pecan for chicken/turkey and oak/hickory for beef seems to be what I have been going with lately.