Apple Wood


 
M

Mike_G

TVWBB Member
A friend recently gave me some apple wood but the tree was cut down only a couple of weeks ago. How long do I need to let the wood dry out and cure before I use it for smoking?
 
A long while. I've had fresh apple since January and I split some chunks when I picked up the wood...still not dry. Cut them up so they can breathe.
 
3 - 6 months if you chunk it up in good size pieces. Most of my apple wood split as it dried. That took awhile.

Here's the upside. Some people prefer smoking with green apple wood. Let it dry a couple weeks and use smaller amounts and see if you like it.

If it were me and I had some damp wood, I would get it lit in the chimney let some of the moisture burn off then use it.
 
You will get various opinions on this one. Some people season for 6-12 months... others use green.

The key to remember is CLEAN smoke. I have used green apple wood in the past with sucess, however when I do I don't just bury it in my coals. I will take the time to ensure I have a couple good and hot briq's under it with lots of airflow. You just don't want it to smolder.

If you have larger trunk pieces I would chunk them up and store them. The extra surface area will get rid of a lot of moisture and in a month or so you wouldn't have an issues.
 
I use the small prunings from my father-in-law's apple orchard. We get a load each year in pruning season (January/February), enough to fill an outdoor rubbermaid shed. It needs a bit of time to dry out, but the pieces are small enough that happens pretty quick. We use clippers to snip it up into small pieces for smoking wood. This works very well for me and the price is right too.
 
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