If you are new to smoking food you have no doubt read up on your subject on the internet and my guess is that you are probably feeling a little overwhelmed at the complexity and conflicting opinions that abound. One of the areas of greatest discussion is that surrounding your choice of smoker wood chips.
If in America for instance, most folks will swear that the original and best is hickory but that’s fine and dandy if you have an abundant supply. The world outside of America however doesn’t have thriving woods full of hickory yet the rest of the world still smokes food and does it to a mighty fine standard.
In the United Kingdom the wood of choice is Oak, in Scandinavia it is Birch and many Japanese are convinced that you have to use Cherry wood. So who is right? Or does it simply just not matter?
Well it does matter and they are all right to a greater of lesser extent. The first rule which all the folks mentioned above have adhered to admirably is that your wood must be hardwood but after that I think that they are all getting a little too fussy and probably half of them would not be able to tell the difference between hickory and oak in a taste test.
Now I’m not saying that the different wood don’t impart different flavors because for sure they do, all I’m saying is don’t get hung up on it. The smoky taste and aroma is only one part of the flavor mix. Most smoked meat will have been marinated or rubbed with a variety of herbs and spices, there may well be a mop or glaze and let’s not forget the flavor inherent in the raw meat itself.
So the basic rule of thumb is hard woods are good and soft woods are to be avoided because they will add a bitter pitchy or sooty flavor together with a dark coloration to everything you smoke. Worst of all though is a soft coniferous wood will coat the inside of your smoker with a sticky black tar, it gets everywhere and clogs up the adjustment to your draft vents and even the lid.
I have to say that I still have my own favorite barbecue wood chips for cooking different meats and fish but to the novice, let us not over-complicate thinks and stick to the difference between hard and soft wood.
One other question that’s common when discussing wood is whether you need a heavy smoke to get the flavor into the food or to put it another way, does heavy smoke lead to a more smoky end result?
My belief is that this is not the case and the factor that really affects the amount of smoky flavor is the length of time that the food is exposed to smoke. Having said that, most agree that the addition of more smoke after about 5 or 6 hours has little effect and that cooking for longer periods of time is more about tenderization than flavor.
When wood is burned there are many aromatic gases given off that contribute to the flavor of the food and these gases are invisible. Don’t get wrapped up in thinking that you have to see the smoke to believe it’s having an effect. In fact I firmly believe that the best smoke is the blue wispy kind that you can barely see.
Food for thought?