[Sca-cooks] Smoked Meats in Northern Europe

[Mark Hendershott]

Maple is definitely a North European wood although the chips you have 
available are probably New World in origin.  Hickory to the best of 
my knowledge is New World only.  The rest have counterparts in Europe 
even if the species at hand is New World.

Simon Sinneghe
Briaroak, Summits, An Tir

At 09:51 AM 10/6/2006, you wrote:
>Greetings all,
>             I have a question for the knowledgeable assembly:
>             What woods would have been used to smoke meats and fish in
>Northern Europe around the turn of the millennium?  I am planning a
>Viking Feast for my class, and I'll be doing some smoked salmon.  Since
>I have access to the Viking Culinary School's kitchens, we have a
>stovetop smoker that comes with 6 choices of wood 'chips' (they are more
>like wood confetti), so I have options for the wood smoke flavor I
>impart.  My choices (although they may not all be in stock when I go in
>to do this) are:  maple, poplar, alder, hickory, oak and cherry.
>
>             I am pretty sure maples are New World only, and I know
>cherries were a part of the Norse diet.  Obviously oak was around, but
>I'm not sure about poplar, alder, or hickory.
>             Thanks for being such a vast wealth of knowledge!
>             Christianna
>_