An important factor to learn in cooking flavorful meats in your Weber grill smoker is the kind of wood that you should use to generate the smoke that will lend the flavor to your recipe.
Each wood species has its own distinctive aroma and flavor due to the amounts sugar, proteins and other compound that make up its molecular structure. That is why as they burn, the smoke from different species emits different aromas and lend distinctive flavor to the meat. Wood for Weber grill smokers are grouped into two general categories:

Strong Flavored Species

Walnut emits a smoke with an overpowering flavor that is why it is recommended that it be used together with other milder flavored species. Oak emits a strong mellow smoke and works well with most meats. Mesquite is a strong flavored species and is popular for barbeque, sausages, lamb, beef and venison. The most popular wood for smoking in a Weber grill is Hickory. It imparts a strong assertive flavor to lamb and beef.

Mild Flavored Species

Two smoking wood that work well with light meats like poultry, pork and sausage is Maple and Birch which impart a sweet-flavored smoke. Another similar wood that gives off a flavor typical of nutty trees is Pecan which has a very mellow flavor. Ash is a fast burning wood with a mellow flavor that is why ash chips and sawdust should be well soaked in water before using them so that they would emit a good quantity of smoke in your Weber grill. An abundant species in the Pacific Northwest is Alder, which can be used for smoking almost any type of meat. It is traditionally used in preparing smoked salmon.

Flavor of Fruit Woods

The wood of fruit trees tend to impart to the meats the same kind of light to mellow sweet flavor that are as enticing as the fruits that they bear. Some of the more popular fruit woods used are: Apple, Apricot, Cherry, Peach, Pear and Plum.

What Wood Species to Avoid

If there are wood species that work well with meats in your Weber grill, there are also wood species that you have to avoid because of the turpentine-like taste that their smoke could impart. Most these are the oily soft wood variety such as Cedar, Cyprus, Elm, Eucalyptus, Fir and Sycamore.

The next time you use your Weber grill give your smoking wood equal importance as the spices that you will put in your meat because these could make or break your cooking.

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