Is Mesquite wood with mesquite lump too much for pork butts?

[Rancho5]

I use mesquite lump because, hey, we live in New Mexico. I love the mesquite flavor and I often throw on a few mesquite chunks for short cooks.

I will, however, be doing two pork butts for a party soon and I'd like to do what regularly people like. Is a long cook using mesquite lump AND mesquite wood too much or should I just go with the lump and call it good?

Opinions needed please. Yes, we will be saucing.

[5698k]

If you're guests are locals, the mesquite would be fine. Typically though, pork lends itself to a fruitwood, my fav is peach. I wouldn't recommend mixing fruit chunks with mesquite lump though.

[BEER-N-BBQ by Larry]

I tried it a few times years ago. I though it made the food taste bitter when smoking with it.

[smoker08]

I agree that if cooking for locals it might be ok. My suggestion is if you only do one butt it might be ok. I sure wouldn't do 2 or more that way the first time. That way if you don't like it you won't be out that much. My real reccomendation would be if you like mesquite to only use mesquite lump and NO chunks the first time. That way you can always step it up the the next time. I also agree that pork butt really likes fruit wood though. I would not mix mesquite lump with fruit wood. Start with a small (cheap) hunk of butt first so if the flavor is too strong you're not out much.

[Toe]

Mesquite lump is fine, but if you want to use wood, I'd stick with mild to moderate varieties. If you want to experiment with mesquite wood, do it when you're not serving a party.

[Pennywise]

Since mesquite tends to lean towards a spicy smoke, a happy medium fruit wood is grape. It leans toward a more spicy fruit wood with all the same qualities of pecan, peach, etc.

 

I still use apple as my staple for pork butts. I just never had it better than with apple.