Smoke Wood for Brisket over Butt

BubbaBBQ

Doing a packer brisket and a butt for a gathering on Sunday night.  Usually I do oak wood for brisket and hickory for butts.  But I've never done pork and beef together in one cook.  Suggestions on which wood to use, or what combo of wood chunks?

Thanks for the help!

Eggpharmer

Oak, hickory or pecan are good on both of those cuts. 

My top choice would probably be oak.

EggHead_Bubba

Oak and hickory for both will work fine together. When I smoke pork I use cherry with hickory but not for brisket.

Carolina Q

I recently got my hands on a bunch of white oak and love it. I've used it on steaks, butts, pork loins and chicken so far. No large cuts of beef yet, and I don't care for brisket so no help there. It was excellent on my last pork butt!

To me, it's actually a fairly mild smoke as compared with hickory or mesquite. Since I got it, I haven't used any other wood - and I haven't cooked anything without smoking. 

Ozzie_Isaac

I really like oak too.  Used to use a lot of hickory and cherry, but slowly turning to mostly oak.

SGH

Oak is a universal or all around great wood. Most people at least like its profile even if it's not their absolute favorite. Hickory when used correctly is great as well. If you keep a clean fire you can't wrong with either or a combination of both. You can mix woods up with great results. At times I use a 3 way mix of oak, pecan and cherry. I use the oak as the coal base, the pecan as the sustainer and the cherry for the smoke ring. The 3 way combination is great especially on beef primals. As far as which to use on your brisket. If it were me I would go with oak but that is just my preference between the 2. Most of my life we used pecan and oak because that's what we had available. Just acquired a taste for them after years of use. If you like both oak and hickory, then you probably can't go wrong with either. 

BubbaBBQ

Wow.  Thanks for the great feedback.  I've often said that if they could somehow bottle the smell of hickory smoke, I'd wear it as cologne.  But I think for the ease of everything- -and how well the brisket in the past turned out with oak- that I will just use oak for the whole cook.  I want the brisket to be the star- -and the pulled pork is there mainly to give folks an alternative, and also it is so forgiving and easy to cook- -it will be great no matter what.

Ladeback69

I like using Cherry, Apple and Pecan when smoking either pork or beef, but the cherry to me helps with the smoke ring and flavor I want in the beef.  Apple is a good choice for pork, but I don't think I would use two fruit woods together.  I like @SGH's idea of oak, pecan and cherry.  That would be a good combination.  What type of lump are you using.  I use Rockwood and I believe it is mostly from oak, at least they say it is from Missouri hard wood trees and we have a lot of oak trees.  Also don't use a lot.  I use about 3 fist size pieces when I cook, 4 at the most.  Good luck and enjoy.  I like cooking brisket and pork together, it makes for a nice aroma. 

BubbaBBQ

I was all over rockwood until I started following BigGreenCraig on twitter, and he recommended Carbon Del Sur-- so I am trying a bag of that.  It's fine, but haven't noticed it yet to be life changing or anything.  But this cook will probably exhaust this bag- -then I'll go back to Rockwood.  Agree on not using alot- 4 chunks at most.  

cazzy

BubbaBBQ said:

I was all over rockwood until I started following BigGreenCraig on twitter, and he recommended Carbon Del Sur-- so I am trying a bag of that.  It's fine, but haven't noticed it yet to be life changing or anything.  But this cook will probably exhaust this bag- -then I'll go back to Rockwood.  Agree on not using alot- 4 chunks at most.  

Dont believe everything you read...that is sh!tty lump.  Stick with Rockwood, you won't find anything cleaner.

theyolksonyou

cazzy said:

BubbaBBQ said:

I was all over rockwood until I started following BigGreenCraig on twitter, and he recommended Carbon Del Sur-- so I am trying a bag of that.  It's fine, but haven't noticed it yet to be life changing or anything.  But this cook will probably exhaust this bag- -then I'll go back to Rockwood.  Agree on not using alot- 4 chunks at most.  

Dont believe everything you read...that is sh!tty lump.  Stick with Rockwood, you won't find anything cleaner.

The best part about this is "don't believe everything you read" as I.... Read. 

Rockwood is the goto though. 

Edit. Hate when I'm a smarta$$ and then misspell something.  

BubbaBBQ

One thing that was promised/advertised is that there are all usable, uniform chunks- and I've found that to be the case- but that's about it as far as ringing endorsements go.  Back to Rockwood next time for sure.

No one I could find around northern Atlanta carried post oak or white oak chunks.  Only thing I could get was Acadian Oak- -which they said was northeastern US and was the same as white.  So, here goes nothing.

I'll try and post some pics of the cook and the results since this has turned into a decently active little thread.  Preciate the help!

Acn

I use Acadian Oak from here:  http://www.mainegrillingwoods.com/

It works really well for brisket/beef ribs and is one of two non-fruit/nut woods my wife likes.

Steve753

I like red oak for beef. I have used it for steaks and burgers, and it tastes terrific.

nolaegghead

Oak is fine.  Really anything is fine with pork and beef.  Depends on your personal taste.  I like oak for beef, usually use a lighter fruit wood for pork, but oak works for both.

As far as lump brands go, the hype about certain brands and distaste for others is one of the great exaggerations on this forum.  They're really more alike than people make them out to be.  You'd think all your food tastes like an ashtray if you use Cowboy.  Not true. 

KenfromMI

Pecan and cherry together are excellent for beef and pork. 

BubbaBBQ

Cook was pretty uneventful- except that all the meat was finished roughly in 12 hours, instead of the 18-20 that I had planned on.  So I had a lot of holding in coolers, and even had to put in a warm oven to keep them out of the danger zone.  As usual, guests thought everything tasted good to great- and I was a little disappointed.  Could have done a better job trimming the brisket- as you can tell by the pics.  Plus- I think it got done so fast because the temp had to be hotter closer to the stone than up in the dome where the Stoker pit probe was (near the butts)?  Not as much rendering as I would have liked.  Oh well- -always able to try again (and now we get brisket chili from the leftovers).