The Texas BBQ Forum

I think you were basically looking at the difference between good and good. Properly cured, either your white oak or a hickory would be entirely suitable for smoking. In fact, I would expect a white oak to burn much cleaner and with less resinous smoke than say the Postoak or red oak stuff we have down here in Texas.

If it burns with a sharp kind of sweet odor, then you're probably looking at Hickory; oak typically has a non-sweet odor that I can only describe as rustic and pleasant. Hard to describe the difference, it's more of a muscle memory thing.

I’m not very good at ID’ing wood but how seasoned is it? You don’t want to use it yet if it’s green. Knock a couple of sticks together and see if you get kind of a hollow sound.


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Or spend $20 on a moisture meter and test it, along with any other wood you ever buy for cooking.

https://www.amazon.com/Dr-meter-Digital ... 107&sr=1-7

Should be able to tell oak from hickory by the smell