Back in Cal all the time! They are 70% alder, but you know that never bothered me. Their Maple scored the highest on the pellet taste taste!
WOOD SMOKE TESTING 101
for Pelletheads Cooking University
2010 Session
These are the results of our wood smoke testing. The tester was Kristin Meredith. Date of testing August 2010. The cooks were BM, Jimsbarbeque and Stone Dude, all Pelletheads.
I. THE PROCEDURE
We tested four (4) different pellets: Black Walnut by BBQr’s Delight; The Other Outdoor Store’s 100% Cherry; Bear Mountain Maple; and Cookingpellets.com 100% Hickory. We also used one gas grill for control purposes. The taste testing was a blind system with the testers not knowing which of the five samples they tested was cooked on what wood. They were told that all samples had been cooked on wood pellets to see if they could distinguish between the smoked samples and the gas grilled sample.
We had nine (9) judges. Five (5) were KCBS Certified Barbeque Judges (CBJ) and competition cooks. Six (6) were pelletheads. Two were “civilians.â€
We tested four sample products: Fish (dover sole); hamburger patties; chicken (breasts, boneless and skinless); and ribs (St. Louis style). The meats were not marinaded or brined. No rubs or sauces were used. Simple seasoning of salt and pepper was added.
The pits used were: the Louisiana Whole Hog by Danson,; the Memphis Pro by Hearthland; the Two Star General by MAK; the Traeger Jr. by Traeger; and a gas grill. The longest cook was the ribs at about 6 hours. We tried to give the samples as much “smoke time†as possible without overcooking them.
The samples were each placed in a styrofoam container with a number. The judges were asked to take a piece of the sample. They were to then asked to taste the sample and answer the questions set forth below. This procedure was repeated five times for each of the four samples.
II. THE QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Do you taste smoke in this sample?
Yes_____ No______
2. If so, can you identify what flavor wood the smoke is from? (list the flavor you taste)
3. Is the smoke taste:
Pleasant ___
Unpleasant ____
No opinion ____
4. Is the smoke taste:
Mild ___
Medium ___
Strong ___
No flavor ___
5. Rank the sample (1 highest to 5 lowest
III. SELECTED COMMENTS
The following are a few comments and observations based on the results, which are set forth in Section IV below:
Fish – the least favorite wood flavor on the fish was hickory; the most favorite wood flavor was maple. Maple also was ranked as the strongest smoke flavor and cherry the mildest. The gas grill was also one of the least liked, but surprisingly 7 out of 9 of the testers said they tasted smoke in the sample. No one was able to correctly identify any of the woods cooked on.
Hamburger – again, the maple pellets fared well in this category. Once again, the testers tasted smoke in the gas grill burger, but that is not surprising since he gas grill did impart a nice char on the burgers. Cherry was again the mildest with Hickory being ranked one of the stronger in smoke. Maple was selected as the most favorite on the burger and Hickory the least favorite. Two testers correctly identified Cherry and one correctly identified Hickory.
Chicken – all four pellets did well in imparting a smoke flavor to the chicken with all 9 testers saying they tasted smoke with the Black Walnut. Black Walnut was also the flavor select as the most favorite, and Cherry was liked the least on chicken. Both Black Walnut and Hickory had a high percent of medium smoke flavor responses. One person correctly identified Black Walnut, one correctly identified Cherry and two correctly identified Hickory.
Ribs – again, all four woods did a good job of importing smoke flavor, although Maple was viewed as the most pleasant with 9 votes. In the ribs, the difference between the wood pellets and the gas grill was very pronounced with the gas grill consistently being ranked as no flavor. Eight of the 9 testers rated the gas grilled ribs as last. Maple and Cherry were the best liked on the ribs. Two testers correctly identified Hickory.
General comments – although all the wood pellets did a good job of imparting smoke to a variety of meats, there did seem to be a correlation between certain meats/fish and certain pellets with some types of wood obviously paring better with some meats than others.
III. THE RESULTS
