Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Why I Don't Burn Hickory...

those "Southern Prides" work fantastic... they burn clean... try some green Ozark mountain Hickory from up around Hot Springs, AR... i don't think you'll be disappointed...

I tried it with green willow. Bitter! Now I peel green alder and let it dry for smoking salmon, tho it's smoked only enough for the taste, then it's canned in jars. I don't do real bbq (or smoking) with wood, only the above.

Actually, I start it with briquets, then put alder wood on it, "smoke" for an hour or so, then "can" - yeah, I know- that's real Half-Assed.

Alder is about the only thing going up here for smoking (we are speaking fish here) , unless one buys chips of various species in the stores. Alder is free, and does well enough.

Alder for fish. I use mesquite for chicken, pork, and beef.

Mesquite comes in a bag from the store.

My woodpile used to look the same. I burned hickory for many years both Pignut and Shagbark and it always got bark beetles. I the winter, I keep about a weeks worth in the basement so I was always concerned about the beetles getting in the house. My solution was to never bring any inside until after we had a few hard frosts. In the spring, I made sure it was all gone before the weather really started to warm up outside. I always kept a close eye for any sign of an infestation. I managed to avoid trouble. In all, I cut and burned about 20 big hickories over about a 15 year period.

One thing that I noticed is that the beetles prefer wood that is green. They will quickly infest newly cut hickory. As you split and let the wood dry the beetles will live out their life cycle and then move on. They don't seem to touch wood after it has been fully seasoned.

I still burn wood but have run out of hickories that need to go. They were the best firewood I have had but I don't miss splitting my big yard trees by hand.

I thought you had to go out and cut it. What will they think of next????

It worked well. Much easier to use, pork tasted great.

Green Hickory does leave a lot of creosote in your grill or stove. We used to have a handle mill here. They had a pile from lathe cut offs. You could get the 2 x2 cut off blocks of dry wood. I loaded a long wheel base bed full one time and used it at deer camp instead of charcoal for cooking for a couple of years. I wish the mill was still there. We cooked some good food on hickory block coals.