Your-all experiences with uncommon wood.

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"All About Smoke Woods" http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/woods.html discusses the most common wood types used for barbecue: alder, apple, cherry, hickory, mesquite, oak and pecan.

But less commonly used (yet still appropriate) types are also mentioned. The dry, desert-southwest summer heat here severely limits the availability of barbecue-appropriate, locally grown wood varieties, although we do have considerable olive, flowering plum and mulberry.

Would anyone like to talk about their experiences with uncommon, yet appropriate barbecue woods?
 
I have a friend who has a large smokehouse on his farm, and uses strictly mulberry. He gave me a bunch and I use it on almost every cook. Either by itself or mixed with Oak and Hickory. I've used mulberry, apple, and cherry I'm not experienced enough to really be able to tell that much difference between fruit woods, and since the mulberry is free.........
 
Hi Dave, I mostly use hickory, mesquite, pecan and apple in that order. I was picking up some sausage at a meat market last weekend and got some Maple. It worked really well with the sausages. I will definately use that again.

They also have Grapevine. Never used it but am going to try some next session. They have just about every smoking wood known to man there!

Mark
 
I have used plum, ,Mulberry and peach!
The Mulberry givea a lite smoke and has a fragrant smell. Peach is probably my favorite wood.
It has a unique flavor that is great on chicken, ribs and shoulder.
Plum is good similar to peach but a littler stronger and more pungent. all in all they are great woods peach being the best IMHO. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif
 
The peach groves of S.C. are just 50 minutes away, I would be willing to bet there are peach tree trimmings to be had....I will let you know.
What about the 100's of acres of old apple orchards in the north part of the southern penninsula of MI ? Great woodcock and grouse cover too.
 
Kirk, is that Fruitless Mulberry that you use? I have two Fruitless Mulberry trees that I trimmed last year and have been burning in the fire place. I've wondered if it would be any good for smoking. It doesn't burn as hot as mesquite. Around here we smoke with mesquite mostly. It is plentifull, and the land owners will gladly let you cut all you want. We also get a lot of pecan free. I've also got apricot,but haven't used any yet.
 
Kirk, really appreciate the report on mulberry. For whatever reason one variety or another of mulberry are common lawn trees here (in Vegas) and require trimming yearly, after each fall. When I lived in the Bay Area choice of wood was out of this world! Grape vines. Pecans. Almond. Cherry and other prunus species like apricot and nectarine. All manner of citrus. Oak by the ton. Even Bay Laurel. H'mm. But now I'm in the desert. Olive wood for barbecue???
 
You may want to send an email to Norm Corely.
He lives in Greece and is on this site every now and then. Olive wood can be used. And being in Greece that would probably be right up his alley.
 
Michigan has thousands of acres of apple orchards.
We are the second producing apple state and the first in cherries. late peaches are pretty prevalent in the traverse area
 
A guy I work with owns about 10 acres planted in wine grapes, so I get a pretty good supply of free grapevine. It's great with chicken and fish, although I find it a little too light for pork and beef.

Rick
 
Bob, I've actually never seen the tree's I get the Mulberry from, the guy just brings me some at work. I sent him an email and asked. I would assume though that it's both. I wouldn't know what a fruitless looks like because the fruited are so common growing wild on farms around here. A quick search on the web though, indicates the fruitless is just the male pollen producing version of the fruited. Dave, also looks like alot of people aren't too happy about the fact that there are so many in Vegas......so many it screws up the pollen count.
 
Seems there's little mention to maple. Is it good? What type(s)? How about lemon, lime, grapefruit, etc.? I know corn cobs are interesting.
What else is out there?
 
Bought a house with a big, overgrown plum tree in the back yard.

I've been using it for chicken and fish straight up, and blended with apple for pork.

Love it.
 
As a newbie still waiting for my WSM cooker from Amazon I'm thinking this topic re: uncommon wood is worth more discussion. Corncobs? Olive wood? Manzanita? Who can imagine where these wood experimentation discussions might lead us? Barbecue nirvana? Probably not, me thinks, as the southern tradition has been passed down through generations of experimentation with knowledge of the best woods. But if I go fishing in Yankee So. Utah is it worth my while to load up the pickup w/ ash? (common in So. Utah but uncommon cooking wood). Just thinking out loud, your comments appreciated.
 
The nearby peach orchards have an unlimited supply of drying wood. Yesterday, I picked up a small load. I can't wait to try it.
 
Does it matter what size and shape the wood is?
The peach orchard cuttings range from pinky to wrist size. Most of what I brought home to try was 1"-1 1/2" in diameter. Cut most of them in 4-5" lengths. Am I on track?
 
Any one have thoughts on lemon and orange or other citrus? I see lemon and orange on the list here, what about grapefruit, tangerene, et.
 
If we go to http://www.ars-grin.gov/ars/PacWest/Davis/prunus.html which apparently has something to do with UC Davis (top aggie school in CA) we read:

"The plum, prune, apricot, cherry, peach, nectarine and almond all belong to the family Roseaceae genus Prunus. These trees are grown commercially for their fruits and also ornamentally in landscape design. The structure of all Prunus fruits is a drupe; the pit or stone inside them is really the hardened inner wall of the ovary and the fleshy part is the outer wall of the ovary. The seed itself lies inside the pit or stone - hence the name 'stone fruits'. Only the seed or kernel of the sweet almond is commonly eaten. The kernel of the other Prunus fruits is unpleasantly bitter."

Okay, (Dave here), only the nut/seed/kernel of the almond "ovary" tastes totally great, especially roasted with butter on top of trout (as in trout almondine).

We do the opposite with other great prunus species. We ditch peach pitts yet eat the outer flesh in fantastic cobblers, pies--or plum flesh in jam, or apricot flesh, or nectarine . . . Don't mess with that nut inside a peach or nectarine pitt.

I'm wondering if smoke from the individual prunus woods tastes
similar to other members of the same, larger prunus family (??).

Does cherry smoke resemble almond and peach? Will the smoke from an ornamental flowering plum, with it's deep purple leaves and scant fruit, (common lawn tree in Vegas, more common elsewhere) taste like the cherry-tree variety George Washington chopped down and now flower each spring all over DC?

Similarly, do all the citrus woods taste alike?

Perhaps these are questions that can be better answered as the spirit of good barbecue continues to gradually grow and catch on, and people continue to explore other woods that are not common to the birthplace of exquisite barbecue, the southern United States, (not to mention jazz!).

As even a newbie (with zero smoking experience) like me can see, barbecue is becoming international, while great barbecue remains comparatively rare outside the South.

Your thoughts are welcome and appreciated!
 
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