I tend to cook briskets and pork butts at the same time in my offset stick burner. I love pecan or post oak, but must settle on a supplier up here in NE PA and these seem to be the most prevalent choices that are native to the area. Hickory is another one, but I don't think I'd use that for brisket.

Any of the knowledgeable Outdoors board cookers have an opinion on these three woods?

Thanks!

Cant lose with Red Oak. Read up on Franklins method if you haven't. They exclusively use Red Oak on brisket if memory serves.

Edit: I was wrong, as pointed out below. Franklins uses post oak, not red. Should have looked it up and not trusted my memory.

Franklin uses post oak, as do most central Texas BBQ joints.

If you're doing beef, do oak. Save the cherry for fish, poultry, or pork. No experience with either oak species though as I too use post oak. Would probably go with the white myself.

Thanks for the replies so far. I did just learn that post oak is a form of white oak and we have a different species of white oak here.

I wish I could get post oak up here in PA, but it's just not feasible.

Hickory and Oak mix is great for both pork and beef IMO.

Yep, there is not much post oak up here (I'm in MD). I have been running white oak in my stick burner for the last dozen years when cooking briskets. I occasionally throw one or two pieces of hickory on fire to change things up a bit, but never use it straight.

If you aren't too far away from southeastern PA, you should check out Hearne Hardwoods in Oxford, PA. It's a haul for me, but I get up there when I need serious quantities of hardwoods to fuel my woodworking addiction. They usually have great selection of just about everything. Very nice people too.

Bourbon soaked oak.

Was going to say Pecan. Can you nor get it up there?

I use mix of pecan and oak for everything. Depending on meat I adjust the ratio.

Bourbon soaked oak.

NY...

I live in East Tennessee....and I've used Red Oak, Hickory, and Cherry. I've never used Post Oak, so I can't compare it to Red Oak. That said, I am sold on Red Oak and use it exclusively in my smoker. I get a great smoke ring, and rich smoked flavor, and no bitter taste.

One caveat...I use a Weber Smoky Mountain...which uses Charcoal as the heating source and supplement it with wood for smoke.

Thanks for all the replies.

Regarding pecan, I love it, but it is very much a southern tree.

To the poster from MD, Oxford is 3 1/2 hours for me, if I could get pecan wood there for a reasonable price I would consider borrowing my neighbor's flat trailer to make it worth my while.

Since I posted the question, I found a source across the river in NY that told me he'd give me a 'wheelbarrow full' of kiln dried white oak to give it a try. I'll be trying it out Memorial Day weekend and see how I like it. Pretty cool, said he wants my business if I like the wood. We'll see if he's too expensive after I try it.

I use cherry, apple, apricot and oak. Fruit wood is hard to beat for pork. We don't have red oak up here in Oregon but it burns slow and steady. I like it for regulating the burn rate of the fire. Fruit wood burns hotter and faster. If I use fruit wood exclusively, I'm always dealing with more temperature fluctuations in the smoker.

I chop off as much bark as I can regardless of the type of wood as I think the bark adds a bit of a bitter, harsh flavor to the meat.

I'd love to get some pecan up here! And mesquite for chicken.

Don't know if you have it, but peach is very good with brisket. As said, it is hard to control your heat using it alone, I would normally use it until I wrapped it, then switch to mesquite or hickory for controlled heat. Not to hijack, but my brother moved to Arizona for a couple years. He said they have mesquite there, but no one uses it to cook with, says it tastes horrid. Didn't believe them, did some ribs, said they were right, it all tasted like horse p***. Any time he came home, he would head to the pasture to cut some "decent" mesquite. Anybody ever heard of this?

Post oak is the best for brisket IMO. However, some of the best brisket Ive ever had was smoked with hickory. Also hickory is my preferred wood choice for pork butt as I like to only do salt and pepper rub and use the wood for flavor. Its really a matter of preference. So youre just going to have to do three consecutive brisket weekends it sounds like to experiment.

You're in hickory country. Don't be afraid to use it. I've used both it and pecan quite a bit. I've got a good supply of native & local, pecan, red oak, live oak, and post oak I use most of the time, but when I was getting started, I used store bought hickory chunks, and my briskets turned out just as good. It's good stuff, as are any of the oaks.

Red oak is outstanding for brisket.

Hickory is great, too.

Don't be afraid to mix both

NY Ag said:

---

Thanks for the replies so far. I did just learn that post oak is a form of white oak and we have a different species of white oak here.

I wish I could get post oak up here in PA, but it's just not feasible.

---

I work overseas on a rotation basis and just flew into the country with 200lbs of mesquite wood in my suitcases. The ticket counter back in the states and the customs folks here in-country were perplexed, to say the least.

Both the white (which is what a post oak is) and red oak should be great. If you make sure it's dried abd mist of the bark is removed it shouldn't matter much. Also if you burn it in a fire pit/barrel first, and shovel it in to cooker box, it also doesn't matter as much.

I worked for a BBQ joint in HS. He used hickory as did everybody else in town. This was in Amarillo so of course they would have to transport any wood other than mesquite and hickory was what they all chose to use.

Love post oak and pecan, though pecan is pricy right now.

I have cooked for several hundred people a year for the last 10 years or so in MI. I use red and black oak, cherry, hickory, maple, and ash indiscriminately. I do agree with the bark removal comment--get as much of that off as you can.

I usually get a chuckle out of people asking me what wood I cook with, because literally all of those might be on my trailer at once. I usually just smirk and say, "railroad ties and landscape timbers." The number of people in the world who could actually tell the difference between any of those woods is astonishingly small.

Hickory and pecan are in the same family and very similar woods in terms of burn, flavor and what not. Don't be afraid to use hickory in place of pecan, you'll end up with a great product.

I'd go red/white oak and hickory if I were you.

Cherry and pecan are my go to smoking woods. Goes great with just about any meat(beef, pork). Not too strong.

Perhaps just use whatever you have on hand because you probably can't tell the difference.

Will Hunt said:

---

Bourbon soaked oak.

---

To hell with soaking oak with bourbon....I prefer to be bourbon soaked while cooking!