I have found that sometimes Hickory chips can be a little strong (sometimes). As a "green/free" alternative, I pickup the husks from Shag Bark Hickory trees. The husks are up to 1/4" thick. I found this out by accident when we were camping at a local campground near Mohican State Park in Ohio. I wanted something to grill with and had left the chips at home. The property has a large stand of Shag Bark Hickory trees and the nuts had been falling (it was fall of course). I picked the green husks up, left the nuts for the squirrels. I mashed them up with a hammer, soaked in water an bit and used them just as I would have used Hickory wood chips. They provided a nice, mild Hickory flavor, were free and don't harm the trees to use. I pick them up in the fall and stick them in the freezer (seems to help with preventing them from drying out too much).

Hickory can be very harsh and strong as you say. I don't smoke with it much, but when I do, I do a light smoke.

Hickory is the preferred wood in this part of the world along with blackjack oak. If you are looking for something less smoky try pecan or cherry

What I was trying to suggest is for folks to try this. The husks provide a nice mild full bodied hickory flavor. I took a bond on, standing rib roast and cut it into steaks. Then I butterflied the steaks back to the still attached bone and cooked that over hickory nut husks...............I do our ribs this way as well as strip steaks.

If you can get them, Grape vines are good for smoking meat. My neighbor has a small vinyard and he prunes every year and I get the trimmings and put them in a box for next year and use them. I still mostly use hickory though.

Lots of BBQ places advertise hickory smoked. I have a preference for white oak. It smells nice burning and is not harsh like hickory. Mesquite still remains my favorite though. Sometime hard to find here, in the east.

Hickory Smoking Wood Chips Alternative | Good Sam Community

SWMO
Explorer
Jul 23, 2014
fla-gypsy wrote:
No smoked meat should ever have a harsh taste from smoke regardless of wood when done correctly. It is not about how much smoke you can put to it. The proper amount of smoke is just a steady thin blue smoke.

That is true and home smokers can easily over smoke. Most BBQ places that don't add wood, but instead use wood to produce both the heat and the smoke get the smoke from wood being consumed in flame. This doesn't produce a heavy smoke, but a light steady smoke.
I rarely smoke past the 2 or 3 hour mark in my small smokers. I have a problem producing a light smoke in any of my smokers, with one exception, so I counter by using time to control the application.
2012Coleman
Explorer II
Jul 23, 2014
Seems useless to soak wood chips in water. When you smoke meat, most of the smoke flavor penetrates the meat early in the cook. Use chunks instead. For lighter smoke, use a fruit wood. Hickory is far from harsh. If you want to know anything about smoking or grilling, This web site is da bomb
SWMO
Explorer
Jul 23, 2014
Actually soaking or not soaking depends on the heat source. If you're putting chips or chunks in an environment that doesn't provide O2 it doesn't matter.Most smokers don't need the wood soaked, but grills do.
2012Coleman
Explorer II
Jul 24, 2014
SWMO wrote:
Actually soaking or not soaking depends on the heat source. If you're putting chips or chunks in an environment that doesn't provide O2 it doesn't matter.Most smokers don't need the wood soaked, but grills do.
If the environment doesn't provide O2, I'm pretty sure there won't be any fire either - so I guess your right - it would not matter, but I'm not sure where you would be grilling - in space?
SWMO
Explorer
Jul 24, 2014
2012Coleman wrote:
SWMO wrote:
Actually soaking or not soaking depends on the heat source. If you're putting chips or chunks in an environment that doesn't provide O2 it doesn't matter.Most smokers don't need the wood soaked, but grills do.
If the environment doesn't provide O2, I'm pretty sure there won't be any fire either - so I guess your right - it would not matter, but I'm not sure where you would be grilling - in space?

Most smokers have a low O2 while grills don't, two different animals. Even on a grill when fat ignites putting the lid on generally puts down the flame by lowering the O2, which then has to share space with the smoke. Charcoal is made in a very low O2 environment, so O2 available for heat by burning is not set in stone.
Gjac
Explorer III
Jul 29, 2014
I use oak because it is readily available to me. I do not soak the wood to smoke in a smoker but do soak when I use oak planks in my grill to cook trout , salmon, or blue fish. Even with soaking over night the oak planks burn from underneath and around the edges and some times need water to reduce flames. Closing the lid won't do it.

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