Your favorite smoking wood to use

hickory is the standard

but i try to match the wood to the dish if i have options

pecan for most meat.

apple for bacon

Depends on what I am smoking and how much smoke flavor I want. Apple, cherry and hickory or a mixture of apple/hickory or cherry/hickory is what I typically use for pork and chicken.

Oak, post oak, or sugar maple is my go to for beef.

Need to try pecan sometime, just haven't had good access to it without buying it.

I typically stay away from mesquite unless I really want an overpowering smoke flavor.

Pecan

Peach or apple, but also depends on what I'm cooking.

pecan or hickory

Currently, it's peach because I am cutting down 2 peach trees on my property. They are ancient in peach tree terms. Otherwise, I use Oak or pecan, again because I cut I myself, and it's what I've got. Sometimes at the lease in the hill country of Texas, we clean up mesquite or the fall and we cut them up, so I'll use that.

Mesquite for Brisket. Pecan for everything else.

quote:

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If someone were to put three pieces of brisket in front of you that were all smoked with different wood, would you be able to tell the difference?

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assuming they were cooked and seasoned the exact same; I think most people could tell the difference between Pecan, cherry, apple, ect to Oak, hickory and Mesquite. The latter has a much heavier smoke flavor, particularly mesquite

but picking out individual woods no way.

maybe on some pork ribs