That special smoky flavor is one of the most sought-after features of great BBQ food. While the charcoal in a charcoal grill will impart at least some smokiness, adding wood chips or chunks with smoking in mind will greatly impact your meal's flavor and aroma. Shop the wide assortment of wood chips, chunks, logs and grilling pellets at Ace to impart mouthwatering flavor to every meal.
Wood Chips, Wood Chunks and Smoker Pellets
Depending on which smoking or cooking method you prefer, there's a range of wood sizes to choose from.
- Wood Chips for Smoking: As they burn quickly and strongly, hardwood chips are better for adding a burst of smoky flavor toward the end of cooking. Use wood chips for foods like fish or thin steaks quickly.
- Wood Chunks: Offering a good combination of high heat and long burning times, wood chunks make smoking easy and can be mixed with charcoal on the grill.
- Grilling Pellets: Smoking pellets are an economical and convenient way of adding consistent smoke to your grill. Made from compressed sawdust, hardwood pellets produce plenty of flavorsome smoke as they smolder.
If you’re looking for a long, slow cook to infuse as much flavor as possible into your dish, a cooking log may be the answer. As the name suggests, cooking logs are most suited to longer cooking rather than straight smoking, and they still add smoky notes as they burn.
Common Types of Smoker Pellets and Wood Chips
The type of wood used for your BBQ wood chips, chunks and smoker pellets makes a big difference in the intensity of the food's final flavor. There are many different BBQ wood chunks for smoking available, but here are five of the most popular:
- Cherry wood adds a light and sweet flavor rather than a heavy smoke. Its delicate nature makes it one of the most versatile smoking woods, and it's a good match for meats and veggies of all kinds. It is ideal as a base wood, mixed with small amounts of stronger aromatic woods to build a balanced smokiness.
- Pecan wood lies near the center of the smokiness spectrum. Its flavor is light enough for pork but can also stand up to heavier meats like beef or wild game. Pecan-smoking wood chips can add a rich, sweet and nutty flavor to your meal.
- Applewood is one of the mildest smoking woods. It’s ideal for long, slow, cold smoking, which allows its delicate flavor to penetrate the meat. Applewood is also great for smoking lighter foods such as fish or zucchini.
- Hickory wood chips for smoking produce a sweet, bacon-like flavor and are a good all-around choice for when you want to add a definite smoky hit to substantial foods. The sweet yet tangy flavor notes of hickory smoking chips add help make it one of the most popular wood chips for smoking.
- Mesquite wood is a natural choice if you want to create an intense smokiness. However, use it carefully, as it can easily overpower other flavors if you burn too much for too long.
You will find wood chips and hardwood pellets made from these woods and more, as well as ready-made wood chunk blends, which easily create a well-rounded flavor profile for different kinds of food. And if you want to ring the changes, we also stock wood chips and chunks with added whiskey, sugar and other flavorings for impressive BBQ results.
Shop Hardwood Pellets and Wood Chips for Smoking Near You
Careful use of smoke adds a new dimension to your food, whether you're cooking it on a BBQ or preserving it in a hot or cold BBQ smoker. Shop our range of smoking chips near you to explore the flavor possibilities available from brands like Weber, Traeger, Big Green Egg, and more.
Then, expand your cooking arsenal to stay ready for anything with additional grills and smokers like pellet grills and pizza ovens, as well as a host of BBQ rubs to take outdoor cooking to the next level.
