Smoking hardwood wood scrapes


 
D

David Woody

New member
Does anyone have any experiences with using other hardwoods for smoking meat? I know you should definitely not use any pine or conifers. I have a small wood working shop which I am usually building custom furniture. I use a lot of american black walnut and due to the cost usually try to use even the scrapes, but eventually I get this big barrel of scrapes pieces and have eventually had to just burn the knots or bark rough edges. So has anyone tried to smoke meat with walnut, or other furniture grade hardwood lumber such as maple, beech, birch, poplar or even teak, mahogany, ebony, rosewood, bubinga, purpleheart and pear. I am aware that a lot of pine is treated with arsenic but do they treat any of these hardwoods. I am constantly monitoring my lumber supply for moisture content and all of my hardwoods have been kindle dried, but do they add anything to the lumber?
I have used some oak, pecan & apple wood scrapes because I know the source of the lumber and have asked them. Since I did not know for sure the source, I have been very hesitant to use because I did not know for sure.
David
 
Dave,
As far as the fruit and nut bearings woods they are all able to be used. Though I would question the Black Walnut. Only because I remember reading somewhere that it might leave a bitter taste. As far as the other woods, thats a tough call. Those are some expensive woods. I remember paying a lot of money once for a few scraps of ebony to inlay on a chess board that I made. I only recieved various small pieces and basically made short veneers out of it. I would mabye check EBAY first and try to sell that. Between the ebony, rosewood, bubinga, and purpleheart. There might be some good money to be made IMO.
John
 
BBQrs Delight Makes Black Walnut pellets, not tried them myself, but it can't be that bad otherwise it wouldn't make sense to market the product.

I would not use poplar.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> ..but do they add anything to the lumber?... </div></BLOCKQUOTE> or if bad things come into contact/get spilled on it how would you know and since it isn't intended for cooking food with it wouldn't necessarily get destroyed

It's a question you have to answer for yourself ... I have used maple lumber scraps and I'll use up what I have, but I'd rather buy chunks intended for smoking food. Not because I know the chunks are better (I don't know) but I HOPE they are safer because they are intended for food use.
 
The Maple and the Pear are the ones you want for sure. I don't know about the rest.

You should be able to find out from your wood vendor whether it's been treated at all, I would imagine.
 
I would want to know if the wood was treated. You can't just guess or go by smell or taste, you really have to KNOW. I'm grateful to have had a friend drop off a large trunk of a cherry tree. I can't swear the home owner didn't spray, but I know it's not impregnated with something. Wood is like food - usually better if you find a local source that you can trust.
 
David.
Depends on the kiln, and what methods they used.
Unless you can verify how your lumber was KD, I would take a pass.

This might help, on a few of your slab pcs.

Tim
 
Thanks everyone for you very helpful comments. Timothy your chart was especially helpful. I always tend to go with the best healthy choice when cooking anything. I don't believe I will use any of my wood scrapes from the hardwood scrape barrel.
 
David--I think that around here we pretty much have to stick with the hardwood that grows natural. I use pecan, which is quite abundant in North Florida/South Georgia, and have some local pear, wild cherry, and hickory on hand. I personally would be leary(sp.?) of anything not native.

Tom
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by timothy:
David.
Depends on the kiln, and what methods they used.
Unless you can verify how your lumber was KD, I would take a pass.

This might help, on a few of your slab pcs.

Tim </div></BLOCKQUOTE>At the bottom of that link it says <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Wood that is poisonous when used for Smoking.
DO NOT USE any wood from conifer trees: PINE, FIR, SPRUCE, REDWOOD, CEDAR, CYPRESS, or they will make you sick! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't think that is correct, we use cedar for planked dishes, Maine Grilling Woods sells white cedar chunks for smoking, real black forest ham is reportedly smoked with a fir tree native to the Black Forest. Maybe some species of those trees produce more toxins or the amount produced by those trees is blown out of proportion.
 
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