Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Wood for smoking question

I just cut a big dead limb off one of my apple trees, and want to use the wood for smoking. Should I take the bark off of it, or is it okay to use with the bark on? I was thinking take the bark off so the tannins don't impart a bitter flavor to the meat, but I've seen other people use wood with a lot of bark on it, so wasn't sure what to do...

I use cut sections of apple wood for smoking, bark on. I cut the trimmed limbs into chunks and let them age. Before using them, I soak the chunks in water or they burn rather than smoke.

Peach, pear, cherry or plum work fine, also. So do grapevines.

I never worry about removing bark, and sometimes will actually use bigger pieces of bark alone (without wood attached). This is with Pecan.

Depends on how dry it is whether the bark should come off or not. If the wood is completely dry leave the bark on.
Where trouble comes is trying to use green wood with the bark on to smoke. Especially bad with hicory. Meat smoked with green hickory will make you sick.

I use various local hard woods to smoke. Fruitwoods like pincherry, chokecherry and alder I use with bark on. For birch I split off the outside layer to make sure the bark and cambrian layers are all gone. The smoke from the birch and alder turns food yellowish whereas the two wid cherries turns it dark red/brown.

All of my outdoor cooking is done on a gas grill. In the spring I take pruners and cut some hickory saplings. One inch diameter is about right, give or take. I cut them into 4-8" lengths and store in a cardboard box in a dry place. When I want smoke on my grill, I throw a few in water and poke holes the bottom of a throwaway aluminum bread pan. The hickory goes into the bread pan and on a grill burner when I'm ready for smoke.

I chipped up a truckload of Hickory/maple/butternut/oak/apple some had bark on some not. Have not noticed any problems.

I like apple or cherry if I can get it. Smaller branches and such are used with the bark on (per Rocky's method). I like the hardwoods, too, including oak and hicory. Not real wild about mesquite, though.