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preservation Smoking source wood, brainstorming/researching

T

TheWalkingPepper

So previous experiments have taught me that smoking peppers kinda ruins some of the flavors. Like the difference in baccatums can disappear, at least to me, under high heat. That's why when I dehydrate I use 90 degrees and I've really liked the improvement over going 120. But when the humility kicks into high gear you can't powder the ones at 90F very fine and end up with small flakes or large grained powders (which is ok with me). So I got bored and had too many freaking peppers and I decided to just give it a whirl. I grabbed a typical electric smoker with a base heating element and soaked up some mesquite and threw on some hot lemons, some aji colorado, that aji angol I kept from last year (it's nearly indistinguishable in flavor from the colorados), and what ever one of those red peppers are I got from PuckerButt are and smoked them all up for an hour and finished in the dehydrator for a week.

The red ones I did not like. The flavor was not improved. If you want smoke and heat in a chili then what I have is great... I guess. I don't like it.
 
The hot lemons, wow. I have found myself proven wrong by myself. Definitely a good combo there.
 
So I was wondering what other woods people use with what variety.

I have a giant pile of flavors I can try including apple, peach, orange, cherry, mesquite, oak, hickory, and pecan, and I'm sure it's easy to find more if I want them.
 
Specifically I'm curious about wood source and variety/species.
 
I LOVE mesquite but it's very strong. Excellent for brisket, pork butts, and swordfish (which is grilled hot and fast, so a strong wood gives it good flavor without overpowering).
 
I've ruined chicken with too much hickory, which is another strong wood.
 
I would definitely recommend fruit woods, if you want something a bit stronger pecan is similar to hickory but not as powerful.
 
This is a GREAT resource: http://www.deejayssmokepit.net/Downloads_files/SmokingFlavorChart.pdf
 
Eucalyptus woods such as redgum or any of the box gums are amazing though not sure if they are available much outside Oz
 
I like grapevine if you're looking for something different but my go to is usually cherry. You can even buy wood staves online from wine barrels which are very nice also for smoking.
 
In Mexico they use pecan (chipotles) so give it a shot.
 
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