Apple, Hickory or Mesquite...

[Kennymac]

Well the Eagles did it, what a game that was! And the brisket was perfect, maybe the best I've ever had! I went on the Egg at 6pm Saturday night, temps hovered around 220° to 235° throughout the evening. I finally went to bed around midnight as I seemed to have stabilized the temp around 230°. Woke up at 4 and the temp was right there at 230° still, but when the alarm went off at 7 the temp had plummeted to 195°. I coaxed the fire back to the 230 range again, then pulled the brisket off when it hit 165° and wrapped it in butchers paper. At 12:45pm the brisket hit 200°, I pulled it and wrapped it in a towel and into my coleman cooler it went. Sliced it up around 4:30 and it was super moist and totally delicious! Man, everyone was blown away! Compliments abound.

Thanks again for all the advice, this forum and site is great!

[Huskee]

What wood(s) did you go with?

[Kennymac]

Went with the hickory. Had a nice bit of smokiness without being too overbearing. Actually everything went well with the brisket, the rub had some nice heat but wasn't overpowering either. Awesome leftovers!

[texastweeter]

I use mesquite and or oak for beef, hickory for pork, pecan for chicken, and fruit for fish, veggies, pasta, and cheese.

[Frozen Smoke]

Brisket looks great! I'm a big user of oak. I burn splits and that's what is mostly available in my area. Red or white is equally plentiful. I feel fortunate because oak is such a great all around wood for bbq. It burns hot and long which is perfect for stick burning. It has a moderate smoke flavor. You can't over do it with oak unless you are burning a dirty fire all day long.

I scour craigslist all the time looking for other woods and often run across some apple tree that somebody wants removed and I'm happy to do it for the wood.

No hickory or mesquite available in my area unless I buy a bag of chunks from Home Depot. Did that once and burned the whole bag along with some oak in my stick burner and could tell no difference. I think the chunks get old, dry and stale sitting in the store and lose all their goodie.

[EdF]

If they're crossing state lines, they may have to be kiln-dried to prevent spreading bugs (at least they do here). And that's not going to help the flavor either.

[Frozen Smoke]

EdF you are right but it's county not state lines here. They are not really looking for guys like me with a smoker but the firewood suppliers and logging truckers are monitored. I had to cook for a customers employee's appreciation party a few years back. It was located at a state park so I could not bring my own wood in. To my surprise their camp fire bundles they sell were red oak! I couldn't believe it usually it's pine, birch and other soft woods.
So I bought about 8 bundles from them to do the cook. Man was it ever green!1 They must had cut it just a week before. I had my splitting maul with me so I spent about 3 hours splitting it into small and tiny sliver splits. The only way I could get a fire going. It was a all day struggle but I got it done.

One of those things you walk away from and chalk it up to a learning experience and know you can do it if you have to.

[EdF]

Man, that's horrible!

[DWCowles]

Your brisket looks great! Hickory is hard to beat on brisket. I like to used a mixture of oak and hickory. Of course that’s the only two splits that I have.

[Steve R.]

Of those 3 choices, if I could only have 1, I would go with hickory.

[Mr. Bones]

Great lookin brisket, amigo!
Glad it turned out so very nicely fer ya!
I'll use Hickory, and or Mesquite on a brisket, beef ribs, or a chuckie...

[Bob's BBQ]

That is an awesome looking brisket. Nice work!