Proper Smoking for Ultimate Flavor
July 9, 2022
We’ve all heard people talk about specific wines and how they pair with certain meats, cheeses and other dishes. The rule of thumb is: red wines go with red meats and whites go with fish and poultry. Smoking meat with the right chips is just as easy to understand. And the results can be amazing. Especially with today’s wood chips containing fruit essence, rich flavors, and exotic combinations.
Some Basics
Whether you’re using an electric smoker, a charcoal smoker, or a pellet grill, there are chips that will work with your unit. When you smoke something, you’re adding flavor to the meat through the wood product you use. Your overall choices include pellets, woodchips, and sawdust.
Pellets are one of the most accessible choices. Best of all, they’re compatible with electric, gas, and charcoal grills and come in a wide range of flavors.
Woodchips also work with electric, gas and charcoal grills. By soaking wood chips for 30 minutes before using them, you’ll add flavor and moisture.
Sawdust can be used for hot and cold smoking in electric and gas smokers. It’s best for smoking fish and sausages.
Coastal tip: Be sure to use chips that are compatible with your grill to avoid damaging your unit or ruining a choice cut of meat.
Choosing Your Wood
Each type of wood gives the meats you smoke a distinctive flavor. Some of the more common types are apple, cherry, hickory, mesquite, and more.
Apple adds a sweet, mildly fruity flavor to beef, pork, poultry, and seafood.
Hickory is a very strong and pungent wood that can leave some meat with a bitter taste. But if you like that on your beef, pork, poultry, or lamb, then you’re in luck.
Cherry can be mild, depending on the age of the wood. It can also add a light color to your beef, pork, poultry, and seafood.
Oak is one of our favorites thanks to the rich flavor and coloring it leaves behind on beef, pork, poultry, seafood, lamb, and wild game.
Coastal tip: Oak is especially good with turkey.
Pecan is mild and easy to use with beef, pork, poultry, and lamb.
Want to do some smoking this weekend? Stop by your nearby Coastal Farm & Ranch for everything you need to quench your family’s meat tooth, including chips, Traeger grills, and Smokehouse Big Chief or Little Chief front load electric smokers.
Pair Accordingly for Pure Smoking Bliss
Depending on what you’re smoking, choose the wood that best accents its flavor cues. Have questions? The smoking experts at Coastal can point you in the right direction and send you home with everything you need.
Coastal is Your Meat Smoking Headquarters
Want to do some smoking this weekend? Stop by your nearby Coastal Farm & Ranch for everything you need to quench your family’s meat tooth, including the perfect wood chips, Traeger grills, and Smokehouse Big Chief or Little Chief front load electric smokers.