Ribs and Pecan

[Reds Fan 5]

Baby back ribs. 26” kettle, SnS, KBB, pecan chunks, MMD, Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce, 4.5 hrs, 235-240 degrees throughout cook. Family declared it one of my best all time cooks.

Ribs from butcher counter at local grocery. Meatiest baby backs I’ve ever purchased.

The main purpose of this post is to note the pecan wood. First time using it for a low n slow cook (used chips for a kiss of smoke on a hot n fast pork tenderloin last week). We loved it. Subtle but sweet smoke. For our palates it brought out the sweetness in the MMD. Pecan definitely in the wood rotation now.

Curious about others’ experiences with the pecan.

[Troutman]

Pecan, really any fruit wood works well with pork. Used to use applewood but switched lately to a mix of cherry and hickory. Your ribs look good !!

[Reds Fan 5]

Troutman Thanks! Apple is my usual go-to for pork. Haven’t tried cherry.

[Dadof3Illinois]

I really like pecan, oak and hickory. The nut wood seems to give me that nice reddish amber color without overpowering the meat with too much smoke.

[hubmacfan]

Pecan is my go-to. It's the only wood that I can identify its smoke by smell!

[Rod]

Big fan of pecan. Good looking ribs.

[OmegaDog12]

My "go to" is a mixture of pecan and cherry. The smell and taste is out of this world and the neighbors seem to always "just happen to come by" when they smell this combo

[Spinaker]

Pecan is a great smoking wood. I wish it grew up here, I would use it a lot more often. It is tough to justify the cost to have it shipped here.

[Anton32828]

I really like pecan. A tasso recipe that I tried recommended pecan chunks, so that was the first smoking wood that I bought at the big-box store. I've tried apple wood and hickory since then. I like the apple wood. The hickory seems much stronger, so I doubt I'll use it "straight," but will use up the bag a chunk at a time to mix with the other woods. For my tastes, pecan is consistently the winner.

Note: I'm using charcoal (KBB) in an upright bullet smoker, a WSM 18-inch.

[Bkhuna]

Pecan has become my wood of choice for pork. My wife was never a fan of hickory and of late, it gives my indigestion. So I switched to pecan and like it better. Hard to over smoke with it.

[AverageJoe]

And now. Thanks to you. I am going to thaw some ribs.

[Thunder77]

I love pecan smoke, especially for poultry. It gives the skin a beautiful color!

[klflowers]

Apple and cherry have been my staple; recently tried some peach. Honestly I can't say I taste much of a difference between the fruit woods. I haven't tried pecan; going to have to try it out.

[texastweeter]

As Thunder77 said, I use pecan exclusively on all feathered things. For all thing swine, I use hickory. Different strokes.

[jfmorris]

Pecan is a favorite of mine. I used to have a large, mature pecan tree in my backyard at another house, and I always gathered and saved all the dead wood and sticks it would drop. I've not bought any pecan chunks in a long time, but will have to remember to bring it back into the rotation. Lately I've just been using hickory (or oak from my wood pile).