Just got my first smoker

[*michaelsean*]

(12-18-2020, 12:09 PM)MileHighGrowler Wrote: There are a lot of people obsessed with only using post oak because it's what Aaron Franklin uses.  But I think you'd be hard pressed to notice a difference between post oak, white oak and even red oak.  So I definitely wouldn't worry about which oak variety.  Cherry is fantastic with beef as well.  I've enjoyed peach and apple with pork and pecan with poultry.  Hickory instead of oak is fun to play with.  Basically, I've never used a wood I didn't like, some of them are just different.  

I've seen people use the 3-2-1 where they do the "1" on direct flame, and then it's a lot shorter than an hour.  I just put it back on the smoker at 225-250 and the sauce gets all smoky and sticky.  It's amazing.  

You'll learn your smoker and your methods that work the best.  I think that's the most fun of it all; you get to make it your own.  The "rules" are just guidelines.  But we're all using different equipment and honestly even just the meat is different from one smoke to another.  End of the day, it's a relaxing way to spend a day and I haven't met a soul yet who isn't excited to eat some smoked food at my house!  I did an oven roasted turkey and smoked turkey this year and last year, and the smoked was devoured and I was eating leftover oven-roasted for the next 2 weeks 

I think I’d be hard pressed to know the difference in any wood right now except maybe one may leave a heavier smoke flavor than another.

I get what you say about how there are so many variables between different equipment, the meat you happen to have that day and many other things. I of course now know who Franklin is. He cooks over 100 briskets a day and there is no way they are all the same on the same day let alone day to day.

The other thing is I’m not (I don’t think) going to be a meat snob.(Probably an unfair characterization) Yes if I see a prime brisket for a ridiculous price I’m going to try it once, but for me one of the cool things about barbecue is taking the cheap parts of the animal that aren’t great and through time and technique turning them into something magnificent. If I can buy a 15 lb select brisket for $30 and make it something great then that’s an accomplishment in my book.