Best smoking wood?

[Lanier_Lurker]

i butcher hogs in the winter and i always smoke sausage with sasafrass and i use hickory on the hams and bacon but the sasafrass is realy good for sausage

I have wondered for a long time how good sassafras would be for smoking.  Sounds like it might be pretty good!

[Tom]

There is an abundance of Red Bay (persea borbonia) in the southeast being killed by the new Laurel wilt.   What a bananza of firewood and cooking wood if it weren't transported out of the area.  It's fragrance as a firewood will brighten a house and it adds the flavor of the Bay Leaf to meats cooked over its coals.

Urban properties are littered with the leaves and limbs from suddenly killed Red Bay.  The woods and right-of-ways are full of standing dead trees.  Not only would it be a bonanza for an individual, looking for a small amount of wood, there might be a business there for an entrepreneur.

[gary]

They will work better green for smoking. You have to soak your wood if it is dry.

[scgargoyle]

The BBQ site I frequent says the drier the better? I use what is called the 'Minion' method, which is to put a bunch of charcoal, and a few chunks of dry wood in your fire basket, then dump about 10 lit coals on it, and begin smoking immediately. In a vertical drum smoker, this will burn upwards of 20 hours at a low 225 degrees or so. You would think using unlit charcoal would leave a nasty taste, but it doesn't- maybe all the stuff they put in briquettes gets burned up? I worry about what is out-gassing from commercial charcoal, though, and may switch over to lump. At the extremely low burn rate, the wood lasts just fine- in fact, so far I've always had unburned wood left over! It's important that the smoker have very little intake air- a leaky smoker will run away temperature-wise. Mine has 3 intakes, but 2 are sealed for low temp smoking.

[zopi]

I have acquired a nice supply of apple, cherry, and hickory just through doing some
freebie tree work for a neighbor who needs it.

[Ironmower]

Well i think i got it now, (posting pics that is) Heres my grille-b-smoker I made. nuttin fancy.

 

Havin some wings and 'taters-n-onions
I apologize that it took me so long, postin a pic.

[scgargoyle]

Maybe I'll get my courage up and try posting a picture of my new smoker. It's made from a stainless steel 55 gallon drum. It's smoking a Boston butt right now, which I started around 6 AM.

[Ironmower]

Scared to ask. What makes it a "Boston" butt? 

[Tom]

It's political affiliation.  :D

[zopi]

Maybe I'll get my courage up and try posting a picture of my new smoker. It's made from a stainless steel 55 gallon drum. It's smoking a Boston butt right now, which I started around 6 AM.

Are you on BBQ Brethren? Fellow on there built a nice SS UDS..

Mine is a Big Green Keg...and thanks to the Nor'easter is about half full of water...

[zopi]

Scared to ask. What makes it a "Boston" butt? 

When a ham is removed whole from a hog carcass there are four parts to it..trotter, shank, picnic, and butt...the top of the ham is the butt, and a trim cut of that is the Boston butt.

Has nothing to do with politics..that sort of butt involves a different kind of ass.

[Ironmower]

OK... But why is the top of the butt called boston???? I must be missin sumtin! Why not cape cod butt? ;)

[Mooseherder]

* From Wikopedia
American cuts of pork.  It is said that in pre-revolutionary New England and into the Revolutionary War, some pork cuts (not those highly valued, or "high on the hog," like loin and ham) were packed into casks or barrels (also known as "butts") for storage and shipment.[2] The way the hog shoulder was cut in the Boston area became known in other regions as "Boston butt".

[scgargoyle]

Yes- I'm a member of the Brethren. There's a thread for my build, too- 'Ultimate Drum Smoker'. I did manage to get a picture of it into my album here, but forgot how to put it in the thread. I gave up trying to post pics here long ago.....
The butt came out great- smoker ran at 225 all day without a hitch, and  no added fuel. I threw on 4 lbs of homemade andouille sausage, too.

[zopi]

A couple of folks got to annoying me with whining about posting pictures on there..so I quit posting..other things to do with that time..I read there quite a bit though..

I love that SS smoker..I'm keeping my eye out for a barrel...

I built one out of a open top drum I scavenged..best pit I have ever cooked in..that sucker sits at 225 until hell freezes over...

I am on a curing kick right now..I have a picnic in brine for christmas ham, I'll pop it out and put the dry rub to it in a couple weeks...and I'm making a couple chunks of salt beef to make SOS with..haven't had decent SOS in awhile...
we quit buying corned beef and bacon..I started making buckboard bacon from butts, and
I screwed up and made corned beef one week...now the wife insists on homemade..oh well, I prefer it made from London broil anyway..

She already won't eat bratwurst if I don't make it...

i'm wanting to mess with some dry salume..just don't have time to mess with it..

[Ironmower]

* From Wikopedia
American cuts of pork.  It is said that in pre-revolutionary New England and into the Revolutionary War, some pork cuts (not those highly valued, or "high on the hog," like loin and ham) were packed into casks or barrels (also known as "butts") for storage and shipment.[2] The way the hog shoulder was cut in the Boston area became known in other regions as "Boston butt".

Thanks, that makes sense.