It’s usually wood common to the region. Here in Texas it’s oak, hickory, and pecan with mesquite down south where pretty much the only trees are mesquite.
Then there’s cherry, apple, pallet, whoa backup, pallet?
Yes pallet.
In Milford, Ct. at The Place they use it for lobster, clams, corn and other things.
I saw it on Man Fire Food and Roger Mooking raved about the smoky flavor.
Call me crazy but no pallet for me.
Oak for me.
No pallet for me either… Aren’t they mostly pine? Make your food taste like turpentine, yuck!!!
If you find the good pallets they are oak. They are not tossed but recycled . To stack used brick for example.
To many pine trees out this way. All our pallets are pine. They use Alder out here to smoke fish, but I’m not a fan for the most part. No hickory. Scrub oaks and pear trees abound but I don’t see anyone using them for the most part. I can’t bbq at my apt. which is cruel irony these days.
I use Premium Cookin Pellets perfect mix- Hickory, Cherry, Apple and Hard Maple
It is $41 .00 for 40 lbs from Amazon Prime.
Usually order 3 bags each time, then stored in containers purchased from Home Depot that are moisture-humidity proof.
Instead fo ordering different kinds, this works perfect for my Mac 1 General Pellet Smoker.
Are you sure they cook with pallet wood or just heat the water? Up in new England they often use local wood to heat fresh sea water and cook the lobsters and steamers in that. Its done outdoors
The shellfish don’t get any smoke so it really doesnt matter what the heat source is.
If I showed up and a place was cooking food directly over pallet wood, I’d probably not eat there.
Then again, I have been using whisky barrel chips for a while now and love cooking steaks over them. The steaks come out with almost a dry aged taste…really cool stuff.
As for wood my lineup is…
Hickory, of course…ribs, shoulders, brisket, salmon, ducks (some say it is too strong but I love hickory duck)
Mesquite that I put into a 15/85 or 90/10 mix…burgers
Cherry= bluefin tuna belly, chicken, sometimes shoulder
Apple= fish, chicken
Whisky oak= steaks
Pecan= ribs and usually some mesquite in that mix
I have pecan, apple, cherry, hickory and alder in my cabinet, but I find myself going back to pecan over and over, especially for pork. I sometimes mix in some cherry or apple with the pecan as well. For beef I like hickory or a hickory-cherry blend. I bought the alder to smoke fish but I haven’t gotten around to experimenting with it yet!
Is it not a big hussle to have different kind of wood for smoking different food?
when I do smoke, I use a whole butt or brisket which takes between 12-18 hours
Pork Spareribs takes 5-6 hours
I follow the recipe from Amazing Ribs for brisket
I use the lowest set point recommended, never follow his Texas Crunch technique by wrapping the brisket with foil to expedite the process. Between good quality brisket and the slow smoked brisket, it comes out very8 very tender…
I do smoke bluefish when they are available but my son has to catch them at particular time at the bay. That takes 2-4 hours after drying them with a fanned brining.
Steve Rachlin’s Pork Loin with bourbon whiskey, brown sugar and mustard is another popular demand which takes much shorter time. When I smoke pork loin I usually follow his recipe for double smoked potatoes and smoke fruit.
So, I would have difficulty having all those different variety of pellets.
I just like the perfect mix of hickory based apple, hard maple and cherry.
I buy 3 bags of 40 pounds each time I order. To me that makes sense.
They boil the lobsters and finish over the pallets that goes from zero to roaring in ten minutes, clams, and corn plus other things are all cooked over the pallets.
I’m with you, I’m not touching pallet food.
My smoker takes chips, not pellets, so it’s really no problem to stock a few different kinds - I can buy them just about anywhere.
Generally fruitwood: ornamental pear, wild cherry, apple, some oak, some birch. Things I take down on the lot in the spring.
Ornamental pear is great, and you can usually find split trees after big wind storms around here.
I’ve done mesquite in the past, but it’s not my favorite.
I run a simple can smoker, and I don’t mess with pellets.
Nor pallets, either. That sounds like a pain, since you’d have to take the nails out. And I don’t recall seeing too many hardwood pallets around here free for the taking.
Well somebody around here is rustling pallets…
Does anybody in the video look familiar, like maybe Vic Rallo ?
Think about any type of liquid that can get on the wood if damaged. I see people ram forklifts though stuff all the time (luckyily they are not not liquid containers in my line of work)
And what about pulling pallets off the truck. Not every building has a loading dock so drivers often drop them off in parking lots which have oil and transfluid all over. This idea is gross. Also, all of ours here in the northeast are pine.
I’ll have to say beyond a nice smoke ring, good job.
Thanks. I’ve been smoking the top round lately instead of brisket, and have been very pleased with the results.
Top round (London broil) is running $ 2.00 a lb on special by us, whereas it’s impossible to find brisket for under $ 6.99 per lb and clod for under $ 4.99 per lb.
I can get a 2-3 lb top round smoked in about an hour and quarter whereas the brisket takes eleven and the clod four hours.
The top round is juicy, is easier to slice thinly, has great beefy flavour, and when smoked right it is really tender.
The rest of the pan is pork back ribs and Italian sausage.
It’s not Texas, but it’ll do.
I’m going all in on the Thursday special bbq pastrami Reuben at Roegels in Houston. Check out the Yelp photos for some bbq porn.
I remember when brisket, fajitas, spare ribs, and fill in the blank were cheaper cuts of meat but not any more.
I was introduced to Italian sausage imported from upstate New York back in the 80’s. We put it on a charcoal grill with peppers and onions wrapped in packaged flour tortillas and Pace picante sauce.
Now I’m surrounded by Tex-Mex places, taquerias, and taco trucks so I have my pick of fresh flour tortillas and salsa.
I’ve smoked with mesquite, hickory and oak and so far I like oak the best.
I smoked two pork shoulders over a mixture of pecan and apple this weekend - good flavor, but overall I think I prefer pure pecan or pecan and cherry for pork.
