The Best Wood For Smoking Brisket According To A Pro

When it comes to smoking meat, there are lots of elements to consider to ensure you get the best possible results. It's easy to focus on your smoker, how you prepare your brisket, the temperature you smoke the meat at, and how long you leave it in for. But one of the biggest factors that affects the flavor of your smoked brisket is easily overlooked and that is what wood you use to smoke it. To get an expert's insight into what wood is best for smoking brisket, Chowhound spoke exclusively with Derek Piva. 

Piva is the executive chef at The Restaurant at Tu Tu' Tun Lodge in Oregon, near the California border. With experience in Michelin-starred establishments and having worked around the world on farm-to-table cuisine, he knows a thing or two about smoking meat. According to Piva, there's not one simple answer to choosing the perfect wood for smoking brisket, and it's a more complex matter dependent on what you want to get out of the process.

While there is a degree to which the wood you use for smoking comes down to personal choice, having a strong place to start your journey from is a huge help. For best results, Derek Piva recommends "post oak or hickory for a traditional Texas-style brisket." The big benefit here, according to Piva, is that hickory and post oak "both impart a smoky depth without overpowering the meat."

Hickory and post oak are both great choices for smoking brisket and other cuts of fairly robust meats. If you're cooking beef or lamb, then these are the ones to reach for. Those meats can stand up to the intense smokiness that these woods create, but you should be cautious with using hickory especially for more delicate meats, seafood, or vegetables, as the natural flavors of those ingredients might be lost behind the deep, smoky flavor. Both hickory and oak wood chips are available to purchase on Amazon if you want to experiment.

For subtler complexity, or to uplift different types of meats and ingredients, it can be good to switch to a variety of wood that focuses less on that traditional intense, smoky flavor. Derek Piva suggests that "fruitwoods like apple or cherry are also great if you prefer a slightly sweeter smoke." Both apple and cherry wood give mild, sweet flavors that can be more versatile than post oak and hickory.

Cherry and apple are great choices if you're cooking meat like chicken, pork, or even seafood. While these woods will still work for lamb and beef, those more robust meats will highlight the nuance of these smokes less and be harder to really make shine. It should be noted that apple wood and cherry wood might discolor some meats, like chicken, but this isn't detrimental to the flavor. Both apple and cherry wood chips can also be purchased on Amazon.

When it comes to any sort of cooking, there are some changes that will make a world of difference to the end result, and some that only an expert would notice. Unless you are a true aficionado of smoked meat, you probably won't be able to tell the difference between some similar woods. However, you are more likely to notice if the wrong wood has been used, leaving either very little smoky flavor, or an overpoweringly intense smokiness. When it comes to which wood you use to smoke meat, it does make a difference. 

The key is to make sure that you're using the right broader category of wood. After you've got that mastered, start experimenting with different types of wood, or even creating blends by adding some chippings of a different fruitwood to the mix to see what flavor combinations work best for your palate. And of course, make sure you are avoiding this crucial mistake you're probably making when smoking brisket. There are also a number of ways you can create the flavor of smoked meat without a smoker.