Contents
- 1 The 11 Best Wood Chips For Smoking Salmon
- 1.1 1# Weber Cubic Meter Stephen Products – Amazon’s Choice
- 1.2 2# Western BBQ Smoking Wood Chips – Amazon’s Choice
- 1.3 3# Jack Daniels Wood BBQ Smoking Chips – Amazon’s Choice
- 1.4 4# Camerons Products Smoking Chips – Amazon’s Choice
- 1.5 5# Oklahoma Joe’s Cherry Wood Smoker Chips – Amazon’s Choice
- 1.6 6# Western Premium BBQ Products Peach BBQ Smoking Chips – Amazon’s Choice
- 1.7 7# Camerons Products Alder Wood Smoker Chips
- 1.8 8# Zorestar Wood Chips for Smokers
- 1.9 9# Camerons Oak Cherry Hickory and Alder Wood Smoking Chips
- 1.10 10# Bangerz Sunz Wood Chips for Smoking Variety Pack
- 1.11 11# Weber Hickory Wood Chunks – Amazon’s Choice
- 2 General Rules For Choosing Wood Chips Used For Smoking
If you have a smoker, then you probably wondered what is the best wood chips for smoking? To smoke any food, for example, meat or fish, you need to use specially designed wood chips. It should be borne in mind that the final taste parameters of the dish largely depend on the quality of the initial raw material. Accordingly, the choice and purchase of wood chunks for smoking should be approached with the utmost care and responsibility.
The 11 Best Wood Chips For Smoking Salmon
The main advantages of smoked delicacies are considered to be the delicate taste and special aroma of such dishes. The decisive role in the acquisition of such qualities by the prepared product belongs to smoke, which acts as a source of heat. The type of wood used has a huge influence on the gastronomic characteristics of ready-made meals. This review presents 11 best wood chunks for smoking from the best manufacturers.
1# Weber Cubic Meter Stephen Products – Amazon’s Choice
Add sophistication to your grilled dish with the aroma of special smoked wood chips. Soak the wood chips in water and place them over the coals in the designated smoker in your Weber grill. Pecan chips have a pungent flavor. Ideal for smoking pork, lamb, poultry. Soak wood chips in water, place them on coals or in the special compartment of a gas grill. Use for smoking fish, meat, cheese, and vegetables. To obtain a good lasting woody aroma, soak the wood chips for half an hour, then squeeze it lightly with your hands to remove excess moisture and pour it evenly over the coals.
You can soak the chips in a simple foil tray by pouring cold water over them. Some gourmets soak wood chips in wine, beer, or apple cider to achieve a distinctive smell. Before you start cooking, throw one handful of the soaked wood chips over the coals on each side, and the smoke should start almost immediately. Then put the lid on the grill and adjust the ventilation holes. The smoke from one handful of wood chips lasts about an hour, so if you cook larger pieces, you will need to add a new handful of dried wood chips on each side every hour, along with a fresh batch of charcoal. If you want a bright and rich smoked flavour using the direct cooking method, add wet chips 5-10 minutes before the end of cooking.
2# Western BBQ Smoking Wood Chips – Amazon’s Choice
It is known that the type of wood, when smoked, is of great importance for imparting taste and aroma to products. Each type of wood is a new interesting flavour. If you love everything new and feel free to experiment in cooking, this mini-set of 4 pieces of wood chips is what you need. Without having to buy a whole bag of wood, you can try any of the 4 types: apple, mesquite, hickory, and cherry. Especially creative people can even make their own mixtures to get unique aromas and flavors. Each type is packed in a separate disposable bag. Just soak wood chips in water before use.
3# Jack Daniels Wood BBQ Smoking Chips – Amazon’s Choice
Jack Daniels natural wood chips will give your homemade smoked meats a unique flavor. It is suitable for both smokehouses and gas and electric grills. This is made from oak wood that has been used for the aging of the famous whiskey for many years. Scented wood chips are used to add flavor to grilled food. The slow cooking method is best for this purpose when large chips are smoldering on the coals, enveloping the food in an amazing smoke. The life of the famous Jack Daniels whiskey takes place in oak barrels. Wood and drink enter into a complex relationship, changing under the influence of each other. The color and smell of the drink are forever absorbed into the oak wood. Chips for smoking Jack Daniel’s are made from the planks of oak barrels that once harbored a strong drink. The smoldering chips soaked in whiskey will fill the meat with an extraordinary aroma that will lift your spirits and whet your appetite.
4# Camerons Products Smoking Chips – Amazon’s Choice
These chips are delivered in a handy jar. One package is enough for about 30 smokes. These wood chips for smoking are used for a special effect on the fire when all kinds of seafood are to be smoked. Gives a special taste to an already cooked product. Chips are made from natural, untreated wood that has been kiln-dried. It ignites quickly and provides a rich smoky aroma.
5# Oklahoma Joe’s Cherry Wood Smoker Chips – Amazon’s Choice
Use Oklahoma Joe’s wood chips to add a zesty cherry flavor to your food. Simply place the wood shavings in the smoking box or directly on the wire shelf and combine them with pork and red meat for optimal results. Perfect for smoking poultry, beef, pork, vegetables, and cheese. When using on charcoal grills, pre-soak the chips in water for 20-30 minutes, then place them in a smoking box or wrap them in foil and punch holes in the smoke. When used with the Char-Broil and Saber gas infrared grills, you can place the chips directly on the cooking grate, or use the Char-Broil chip box. For best smoking results, we recommend cooking with the grill lid closed.
6# Western Premium BBQ Products Peach BBQ Smoking Chips – Amazon’s Choice
Smoking set from Western for those who love dishes prepared with natural wood shavings. If you like dishes with real unsurpassed smoke, and even with the smell of a real peach, you should pay attention to this smoking set from a renowned manufacturer. Your dishes will acquire a new taste that parasites you and your friends with its sophistication. Use the smoker for all types of meat and fish dishes.
7# Camerons Products Alder Wood Smoker Chips
These chips are produced only from selected raw materials to obtain a high-quality end product. All wood that is used to make chips is dried naturally at a temperature not exceeding 20 degrees Celsius. The manufacturer guarantees the quality of his product, you will get excellent results using Cameron’s chips. Alder chips provide a rich smoky flavor and pair perfectly with poultry, meat and fish!
8# Zorestar Wood Chips for Smokers
Use special wood chips to add a sophisticated flavor to your dishes. To obtain a good lasting woody aroma, soak the wood chips for half an hour, then squeeze it lightly with your hands to remove excess moisture and pour it evenly over the coals. Chips are ideal for grilling or smokers. I offer you this set of six-packs of wood chips that will last you for a long time. You will get apple, cherry, oak and alder wood chips for smoking.
9# Camerons Oak Cherry Hickory and Alder Wood Smoking Chips
If you can’t decide which flavor to choose wood chips, then there is a great offer for you. This set consists of four packs of wood chips for smoking which have different flavors. You will receive hickory, cherry, oak, and alder. The manufacturer uses only natural wood that has been kiln-dried. You can be sure of the quality of our products!
10# Bangerz Sunz Wood Chips for Smoking Variety Pack
If you love smoked meat, fish, then you just need to purchase this set of chips. Here you can choose from 4 packs of wood chips with different flavors such as apple, cherry, hickory, and mesquite. They will fill your food with rich flavor and aroma and make your meat more tender. They are made from 100% natural solid wood and have no harmful fillers.
11# Weber Hickory Wood Chunks – Amazon’s Choice
Chips for smoking add exquisite taste and aroma to dishes. The smell of hickory is universal. It is good for beef, pork, poultry. Soak wood chips in water for 20 minutes before use. On gas grills, use it in a smoking container, and on charcoal grills, use it directly on the coals. Hickory chips are suitable for use with all Weber grills.
General Rules For Choosing Wood Chips Used For Smoking
When choosing wood chips, you will need the following basic guidelines:
- Carefully inspect the wood, it should not show traces of mold, rotting, traces of woodworking insects and pests.
- The presence of bark on wood chips is unacceptable, it is a source of resin release that spoils the taste of products, and also contaminates the walls of the smoking apparatus.
- The influence of humidity on wood chips is great. If it is overdried, then the likelihood of its ignition will increase, and an open flame when smoking is unacceptable. And vice versa, too wet wood smolders badly, emitting more steam than smoke, and the difference between boiled and smoked product, you see, is great. The optimum moisture content is 70%.
- Use chips of approximately the same size (2-4 cm in length).
The composition of the smoke depends entirely on the physicochemical properties, structure, and size of the wood used. It is believed that the optimal temperature for smouldering and the release of aromatic substances by wood chips is in the range of 300-400 degrees Celsius. It is these conditions that are created when it is placed on a metal surface heated from below by an open fire. The temperature of the smoke itself is much lower, and as it rises upward, it has time to cool down even more. For proper smoking, the smoke should have a temperature of the order of 60-110 degrees Celsius with the hot method and no more than 30 degrees Celsius with the cold method, which is achieved by changing the length of the path from the smoke generator to the products.
Chips are made from deciduous or fruit trees or berry bushes. Juniper berries, bay leaves, nettles, sage leaves, or onion peels are often mixed with wood chips to make the smoke aroma more expressive. However, many home-grown and professional culinary specialists do not limit their imagination to this. An excellent result is provided by the addition of anise seeds, a peculiar aroma of allspice and caraway seeds.
How Does Wood Chips Affect the Color Of the Finished Product?
Not everyone knows that the color of the smoked meat depends on the choice of wood species for chips, which makes the dish more appetizing. Let’s consider the basic rules on how to choose wood chips in order to get the required color when smoking. The more intense it is, the more it will be associated with the great taste of the prepared delicacy.
Recommendations for the selection of wood chips for acquiring the desired shade of meat or fish:
- If you want a product with a uniform golden yellow color, use beech, lime chips or maple.
- Lemon color provides smoke from the
- A beautiful yellow-brown color can be obtained using alder or oak chips.
- Pear will give an interesting reddish hue to the smoked product.
However, for certain products, the color will be determined by their chemical composition along with the chips used. In particular, the fatter the meat or fish, the more intense the color will be, plus they will acquire a pronounced sheen of the shell. If the product is wet, the final color will have a grayish tint. Oxygen contributes to intensive coloring, therefore, in the area where the air flow is stronger, the pieces will be colored more actively.
The positive effect of smoking, in addition to imparting a characteristic taste and aroma, is the hardening of the product surface, accompanied by the formation of an appetizing shell with a characteristic color, from light, almost yellow, to dark brown.
Best Wood Chips For Smoking Salmon
For salmon and other fish and seafood, I suggest using wood chips:
- Apple
- Cherry
- Alder
- Black currant
- Pear
- Plum
- Beech
- Cherry
- Rowan
- Rosemary
- Peach
- Grape
- Eucalyptus
- Juniper (with the addition of any other wood chips)
Best Wood Chips For Smoking Chicken
For smoking chicken, I advise you to use the following chips:
- Currant
- Cherry
- Rowan
- Apricot
- Oak
- Peach
- Eucalyptus
- Juniper (with the addition of any other wood chips)
Best Wood Chunks For Smoking Turkey
Beech chips are good for lamb and turkey.
Conclusion
The color, taste, and aroma of a smoked product depend on many factors, including the quality of wood chips and wood species. In this article, I examined the main types of wood chips and the products to which they are most suitable for smoking. The best options are 1# Weber Cubic Meter Stephen Products – Amazon’s Choice, 2# Western BBQ Smoking Wood Chips – Amazon’s Choice, and 3# Jack Daniels Wood BBQ Smoking Chips – Amazon’s Choice.
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