Apple Wood

Having smoked foods on various woods and coals, I have settled on straight apple wood for my FAT 50. Have had no complaints yet.

I have thought about using some lump or charcoal as a base, but then I thought to myself 'that's just one more thing you have to worry about.

I'm not saying Apple is the best. But I definitely will not use mesquite and I have a distributor just a couple of miles away.

I use oak and / or hickory for a base and then throw some apple or cherry chunks on top 2-3 times during the cook for flavor.

I use lump as a base and add the amount of wood I want for flavor

Matt
Phat Jacks BBQ

Some times I use lump to get logs started but like using oak for coals then add some pecan. If no pecan I have no problem using all oak. I would love to try Apple but don't where to get it from here. Travis made these smokers for stick burning and it loves the sticks the best. Also for me it's must easier to add a split log into the cook then it is to add charcoal just the way the fire box is and that baby love some logs

Mine is a pure stick burner.

My Big 40 really enjoys the Apple wood and so do I. Fine blue smoke. I like to start with a base of lump usually Royal Oak or Big Green Egg lump lit by a weed burner then toss on a split or two of apple. Apple wood is plentiful around here so is crabapple which is much the same as apple. Burns clean. Nice blue smoke.

Hey Jeff, do you sometimes find that the BGE lump is sometimes just small pieces in the bag? I have seen at a few competitions people dump the lump from the bag and just small pieces come out.

No... not really most of the chunks are huge. Maybe a few smaller pieces but way bigger than Royal Oak lump. When using RO lump most of it ends up in the bottom of the firebox. I have also used Fire King lump... not too bad, mostly medium sized pieces & cheaper than the BGE for me anyway. The BGE lump is what i like best because of the larger chunks and burns slower than the other two.
First two - three hours of cook time i only need to add small splits for smoke but after a while i need to toss on bigger splits to replenish the bed coals.

Have you ever noticed that after 4-5 hours of cooking that the firebox and cook chamber really retains heat. Ya know ya look at your gauges and your humming along nicely at 225-250 but look in the fire box and ya only got whats left of a split basically a few coals. Just enough that when ya add another split it pops right off ?
Funny... i guess that just "cookin" but man i love how this cooker works.