I did some clearance work for my father-in-law behind his garage, part of which were a few Hazel saplings. The trees weren't at all chunky - more "tall and thin". Think 25-30 foot saplings
I kept a few pieces just in case but I've been reluctant to try it as I don't see much, if any, mention of Hazel wood being used for smoking
Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan - near Clare (dead center of lower peninsula).
Occupation:
Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
I've read numerous accounts of hazel & filbert being fine, just never used them myself.
My best suggestion based on what I like to do- buy a couple chickens or packs of chicken pieces like legs, season them only with salt and use them to test out your new woods. Chicken is a great carrier of flavors and you can really taste the differences in smoke with chicken compared to most other meats IMO. Plus, chicken is cheap so if it's not so good you're not out much cash.
nut woods can be very good for smoking. I would recommend a trial run, similar to what Huskee described. Chicken is a great test bed for this. I would recommend peeling the bark off if possible, and letting the wood age a bit to dry it out some. two - three months might be all you need if they are "sapling" sized.
Jerod, interesting question! Averages for the two main supermarkets here
Brisket £8 / $11.4 per kg
Pork Shoulder £3.50 / $5 per kg budget, £5 / $7.15 better cuts
by "budget" what we get is what looks like trimmings left over from when they've butchered the larger shoulder joints - the meat is held together in an elasticated plastic net and pretty much "unrolls" and falls apart when you cut that, so you need to tie it up tight to cook it. Tastes fine though
Whole chicken £2.50 / $3.50 per kg
Rack Ribs £7 / $10 per kg
Don't know how that compares price wise but you'd probably laugh at the sizes on offer. The average supermarket rib rack here is under 1lb. There are only ever a few to choose from as demand isn't that great, and most are usually pretty weedy looking specimens. Most Pork Shoulder joints are in the 3lb region, although there are larger (and smaller) to be had. It's pretty much all squarely aimed at the "family of four Sunday Roast" sized market. The larger cuts and bulk packs that you can buy in your neck of the woods pretty much don't exist for the mass market here
We do have bulk outlets here so I'm not saying I couldn't find better sources: just that I haven't really gone down researching that road yet - although I did check UK Costco online and they weren't any better than the supermarkets meat depts tbh, pretty disappointing
To be fair it's not a showstopper as all my stuff to date has just been for myself and the family. I'm not yet in the territory of inviting the whole street round
What I'll probably do is pop in and have a chat with our local butcher when I get a day off in the week and he's not too busy and establish what he could do
nut woods can be very good for smoking. I would recommend a trial run, similar to what Huskee described. Chicken is a great test bed for this. I would recommend peeling the bark off if possible, and letting the wood age a bit to dry it out some. two - three months might be all you need if they are "sapling" sized.
That's a good idea. A chicken it is!
The wood's been drying out in my workshop, but it's probably a bit young and "green" yet - I think I've had it six or seven weeks. I'll peel it as you suggest and give it a go in a month or so. I'll let you know.....
Bake you wood chunks or toss them in your smoker on the food racks. I do this and it takes a few hours or a day of baking them at 225 or whatever you feel like running and wolah! Kiln-dried wood in a matter of hours.
John "JR"
Minnesota/ United States of America
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The Hazel (Filbert) wood is completely fine. Nice "sweet" smell, been using it for most of this season and still got a good stash left
And have just heard that my brother and sister in law are having some branches removed from an apple and a cherry that are outgrowing their garden, so looks like I have plenty of smoke wood stocks to last for the forseeable
Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan - near Clare (dead center of lower peninsula).
Occupation:
Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
The Hazel (Filbert) wood is completely fine. Nice "sweet" smell, been using it for most of this season and still got a good stash left
And have just heard that my brother and sister in law are having some branches removed from an apple and a cherry that are outgrowing their garden, so looks like I have plenty of smoke wood stocks to last for the forseeable
Great! I forgot about this thread. I'm glad you reported back!
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