BBQ Woods

Real wood, cut and kiln-dried for the fire — not a chemical binder in sight. Dried chunks of a single timber species, sized to smoulder in a smoker box, foil pouch or over hot coals for genuine wood smoke, not the acrid burn-off of pressed briquettes.

Match the wood to the meat. Apple and cherry run sweet and mild, for pork, poultry and seafood, cherry adding mahogany colour to the bark. Hickory is the classic BBQ standard for beef, pork and chicken. Mesquite is the heavy-hitter, made for brisket and beef ribs. Pecan sits in between, nutty and mellow, equally at home under lamb or pork.

Start with Western BBQ Products' Hickory Chips — kiln-dried, moisture-tested — or Jack Daniel's charred oak chips, cut from real ex-bourbon barrels for a smoke with a whisper of the barrel itself.

Properly dried wood burns down to roughly 2% ash, against 18–28% for chemically-bound briquettes — less residue, more actual smoke doing the work. Soak for a slower burn, or scatter it dry for a fast, sharp hit. Real wood, doing real work.

Explore more: our pork and brisket collections.