[SCA-cooks] wood for smoking

[Jeanne Papanastasiou]

I've used apple wood and hickory.  Be careful though, I've heard of many a
person  using oleander.  Not smart.

Soffya
http://www.aeonline.biz/Links.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-admin at ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-admin at ansteorra.org]On Behalf Of Nick Sasso
Sent: Monday, February 10, 2003 10:50 AM
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] wood for smoking


----- Original Message -----
I have never tried orange wood, but I'd not cook food with cedar,
juniper, or pinon.  They all are resinous, and would impart an odd
flavor to the food.  The cedar especially... yuk! ptooie!  They all
smell wonderful if you want to make a fire to warm your bones, though.
Being resinous, they burn hot and fast.  Hardwoods, such as oak and
pecan last longer.  Pecan, btw, is wonderful for cooking.  Mesquite is
good for cooking meats, too.  Applewood makes a good, slow burning food
fire, and so does Hickory...<<SNIP>>
Mordonna>>>>>

I smoke lots of stuff, but I do mostly hot smoking for personal use
until I get my smokehouse built out back.  While I haven't read too much
about historical methodology, I can say that several sausage and other
meat recipes reference hanging meat in chimneys to smoke/dry.  I have
inferred from that type of thing that pines/evergreens would be far less
likely to be used for smoking.  Remember that cooking with wood and
"simply smoking" (i assume cold smoking) with wood are two different
techniques with different results.  Cold smoking preserves, but does not
cook.

Naval stores are nasty things in large quantities . . . pitch, tar,
turpentine, etc.  The evergreens like pine produce a lot of sticky
resinous stuff that will accumulate in chimneys/smokestacks and
eventually pose fire hazard.  Since most everyone using chinmeys knows
to avoid pine wood for this reason, I would suspect that historical
cooks would likewise have eventually stumbled across this wisdom and
stuck with hardwoods/deciduous trees that were safer.  So, stick with
fruit woods, nut woods, and other hard stuff like maple and hickory.
Obviously, you can make a case for old world wood over new world
varieties.  Rhododendron is right out as it has toxicity issues.

You'll find fruit woods generally provide a lighter, almost sweetish
flavor than you will get with heavier, non-fruit woods like oak (very
strong), mequite, or hickory.  I get most of my wood recommendations
from internet sites.

pacem et bonum,
niccolo difrancesco
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