Oak and hickory are the safe all rounders. Use oak or mesquite for beef, hickory, apple or cherry for pork, apple, cherry or pecan for poultry, and alder for fish. Mild fruit woods suit short cooks and light meats; strong woods suit big cuts that cook for hours.
The chart
Woods from mildest to strongest, and the meats each one suits.
| Wood | Beef | Pork | Poultry | Fish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AlderMild | ● | ●● | ||
| AppleMild | ●● | ●● | ● | |
| CherryMild | ● | ●● | ●● | |
| MapleMild | ●● | ● | ||
| PecanMedium | ● | ●● | ●● | |
| OakMedium | ●● | ● | ● | |
| HickoryStrong | ● | ●● | ● | |
| MesquiteVery strong | ●● |
●● Classic pairing● GoodBlank: better woods exist
Mild to strong: match the wood to the cook
- Mild fruit woods (apple, cherry, alder, maple) give a sweet, light smoke. They suit chicken, fish and pork, and you can use them freely without bitterness. Cherry turns the outside a deep mahogany.
- Medium woods (pecan, oak) give a fuller smoke that works on almost anything. Oak is the classic for Texas brisket.
- Strong woods (hickory, mesquite) give the classic bold barbecue smoke. Use them on big cuts like pork shoulder and brisket, and go easy: too much turns bitter. Mesquite burns hot and fast and is best for short beef cooks or mixed with oak.
Mixing works too: a strong wood for depth with a fruit wood for sweetness, like hickory and apple on ribs.
Chips, chunks, splits or pellets?
The size of the wood depends on the cooker, not the meat.
Gas grills (in a smoker box), electric smokers, short cooks on a kettle. They burn in 20 to 30 minutes.
Kettles, kamados and charcoal smokers. Two to four chunks on the coals smoke for an hour or more.
Offset smokers, where the wood is the fire. Add one every 45 minutes or so.
Pellet grills, and smoke tubes on any grill. Buy cooking pellets, not heating pellets.
Soaking chips is optional: wet wood steams before it smokes, which delays the smoke rather than adding to it.
Burn it clean
Good wood smoke is thin and faint blue. Thick white smoke means the wood is smoldering without enough air, and it makes food bitter. Give the fire air, or add the wood to hotter coals.
Use seasoned hardwood only: wood dried for six months or more, with cracks in the ends. Never softwoods like pine, spruce or fir, whose resin makes acrid smoke, and never treated, painted or moldy wood.
Smokers that burn real wood
More in types of smokers and our best smokers.
Questions people ask
- What is the best wood for brisket?
- Oak, the Texas standard: steady, medium smoke that will not overpower a long cook. Hickory or pecan also work, or a mix of oak with a little mesquite.
- What is the best wood for ribs?
- Hickory, often mixed with apple or cherry for sweetness and color.
- What is the best wood for chicken?
- Apple, cherry or pecan. Poultry takes on smoke fast, so mild woods keep it from tasting bitter.
- Can you smoke with wood from your yard?
- If it is a known hardwood or fruit wood, untreated, and dried for six months or more. Green wood smokes heavily and tastes harsh.
- How much wood do I need?
- Less than you think on a charcoal smoker: two to four chunks for a few hours. Smoke flavor builds mostly in the first hours of a cook, while the meat is cool.