Oak vs. Longan/Lychee wood

[Tony E]

Hello all,

My name is Tony and I'm new on these boards. I have a question regarding oak vs longan/lychee wood for smoking, if anyone out there has had any experience with these types of wood it would be tremendous.

I am a small-time pit master from rural Austin and have been tasked with setting up a central Texas styled BBQ restaurant in Taiwan. The majority of the BBQ will be beef based with your usual angus briskets/beef ribs/etc. And since I am still in Texas I will not be able to experiment with local woods (and the restaurant will use an all-wood rotisserie pit, not sure if it will be SP/Oyler/OH/etc. Meat smoking in that region of Asia typically use longan or lychee wood, as they're both fruit woods, plentiful, and economical. I usually smoke with red oak/post oak and basically all the basic woods from the oak family here in Texas, but importing them will be out of the question (monetary restrictions).

So has anyone ever done long cooks with longan/lychee before that could help me with some insights?

PS*** I have tasted pork ribs and other none beef items (short cooked)smoked with longan before, and while they give off a slightly sweet aroma, I cannot fully judge how the wood will smoke for long cooks such as the brisket.

Any inputs will be greatly appreciated

 

[daninnewjersey]

You might want to search for a member named Phratsy. He's in Jamaica and from what I remember he uses lychee a lot.....

 

[Mikebeme]

You might also want to try Guava wood, I've seen Hawaiian smokers using it and I know Taiwan has a lot of it.

 

[Gulfbeachman]

Can you even get this longan/lychee wood around here in Austin to try some cooks? If not maybe call some of the local Asian restaurants and ask them.

Having lived in Japan, I know that you will also find that the Taiwan people will love BBQ, Texas style (or others). It is something that they will be curious about and come back or more.

Good luck with this project.