Debate about wood types got me thinking after talking to an old timer

I was at a comp last weekend in Kansas City and got into it with this guy named Frank who's been running a stick burner for 30 years. He said using only hickory is lazy and that you're missing out on flavor blending with fruit woods like apple or cherry. I've always been a hickory purist but he showed me a brisket he did with a 70/30 mix of hickory and peach wood and honestly it was incredible. So which side do you fall on - stick to one wood or mix it up for different profiles? Has anyone else had their mind changed by a random conversation like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat_park12d ago

HAPPENS all the time with old timers at comps. Frank's got 30 years of fire tending so he's learned that mixing woods is like balancing flavors in a stew, not just dumping one thing in. I was the same way for years, stubborn about hickory only, but it's a bigger pattern in life where we get stuck in our ways until someone shows us a better way by DOING it. Same thing happened to me with salt rubs versus sugar based ones, kept using the same old blend until a guy from Memphis showed me how a little brown sugar changes everything. Now I keep a bag of peach and cherry chunks in my truck just to mix it up when the mood hits. Frank's right, you can get lost in the purist trap and miss out on all the good stuff happening right in front of you.

the_william12d ago

Wait, does nobody else think there's something to be said for sticking with one wood and really learning how it behaves? I've been running hickory for about eight years now (not as long as Frank, I know), and I feel like switching up woods is a shortcut sometimes. You can get a really specific, deep smoke flavor when you know exactly how your wood burns at different temps and with different cuts of meat, and mixing in fruit woods kind of muddies that up for me. I'm not saying Frank's brisket wasn't good, but there's a difference between "incredible for one cook" and "consistent every time" if you know what I mean. I've had my mind changed plenty by old timers, but this is one where I think there's two right answers depending on what you're after.