Why not Cedar ?

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canadiannewbie

Fire Starter
Original poster
Feb 25, 2011
56
10
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Hi Gang

I read that cedar should not be used to smoke but could not find the reason.

Is it because it will give off fumes (like pine)

I planed a lot of cedar and have 5 garbage bags of shavings I was hoping to use :-(

Thanks in advance

Dave in Canada
 
Pine, Fir Spruce and Cedar contain resins that may negatively affect the taste of your food.

Do a test burn and see for yourself.

Todd
 
     Newbie, if you want the flavor of pine in your food without all the Creosote getting on your food, go to a Spice Store and get some Juniper Berries and grind them up in your Rub. I have tried it and it gives a stout Piney fragrance,but ground-up and cooked ,it get bitter. The only way I use it is in Brines and Cures,and not much then either.
 
I have cooked many racks of ribs on a cedar plank and everyone has enjoyed them.
 
     Newbie, if you want the flavor of pine in your food without all the Creosote getting on your food, go to a Spice Store and get some Juniper Berries and grind them up in your Rub. I have tried it and it gives a stout Piney fragrance,but ground-up and cooked ,it get bitter. The only way I use it is in Brines and Cures,and not much then either.
A buddy of mine does smoked Northern Pike and cans them with a few spigs of juniper.  The taste is fantastic!!
 
Cedar "planks" are not true cedar. I believe they are from the Mahogany family thus not poisonous.  Most of your true cedars are what is called "aromatic" cedar.  Not good........
Cedar planks are cedar. Period. Cedar planks are used for grilling all the time. Cedar is used to smoke fish by natives in the PacNW and Canada, but the technique is more like smoking in a smoke house than in an offset or a WSM.

BTW the smoke woods list needs to be amended in regard to Sassafras, people do use it with good results.
 
Cedar

Conifers, should not be used for smoking

Resinous woods such as conifers create smoke thick with unburned carbon and pitch.

Cedar is a conifer, Conifers should not be used for smoking. However Cedar planks are safe to smoke or grill on.

 

Planks for grilling, untreated cedar, Hickory, alder, or maple.

Sassafras

My father has smoked with Sassafras many years ago, he said he used to chew on the twigs as a kid and from what I read a sassafras twigs stimulates saliva production: a useful fact for desperately thirsty hikers.

The dried and ground leaves from sassafras are used to make filé powder, an ingredient used in some types of gumbo.

In 1960, the FDA banned the use of sassafras oil and safrole in commercially mass produced foods.

Safrole oil is extracted from the root-bark or the fruit of sassafras plants.

The roots of Sassafras was used in the flavoring of traditional root beer.

Sarsaparilla, sassafras are ingredients still used by hobby or microbrew enthusiasts.

Sassafras wood is commercially available for smoking, however, smoking woods are not regulated.

Would I use Sassafras wood for smoking? If I had sassafras, absolutely, after all my research I have not found any reason not to use it.

So I have to concur with Cliffcarter on both points.

 
 
I would not use cedar for smoking due to its oils and resins/rosins....  Here is one article...  there are others you might consider "googling"

J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1989 Mar;83(3):610-8.
[h1]The toxicity of constituents of cedar and pine woods to pulmonary epithelium.[/h1]
Ayars GH, Altman LC, Frazier CE, Chi EY.

[h3]Source[/h3]
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.

[h3]Abstract[/h3]
Occupational exposure to cedar and pine woods and pine resin (colophony) can cause asthma and chronic lung disease. Prior studies suggest that plicatic and abietic acids are responsible for the asthmatic reactions that occur in cedar-wood and colophony workers; however, the etiologic mechanism(s) of the chronic lung disease is unknown. To determine if plicatic acid from cedar wood and abietic acid from pine resin could directly damage lung cells, we exposed monolayers of rat type II and human A549 alveolar epithelial cells, intact rat lungs, and rat tracheal explants to solutions of plicatic and abietic acids. As indices of injury, we measured lysis of alveolar epithelial cells with a 51Cr technique, quantitative desquamation of epithelial cells from tracheal explants, and histologic alterations in tracheal explants and intact lungs. Plicatic and abietic acids both caused dose- and time-dependent lysis of alveolar epithelial cells. Instillation of plicatic and abietic acids into rat lungs produced bronchial epithelial sloughing. Abietic acid also caused destruction of the alveolar epithelium. The addition of either acid to rat tracheal explants caused epithelial desquamation that was dose- and time-dependent. Our results suggest that plicatic acid, a unique constituent of cedar wood, and abietic acid, the major constituent in pine resin, can produce lytic damage to alveolar, tracheal, and bronchial epithelial cells. We hypothesize that repeated occupational exposure to these substances might promote the chronic lung damage observed in some cedar- and pine-wood workers and in electronic workers exposed to colophony.

PMID:2926083[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] 
 
Yep the planks burned, I don't think any flame ever licked up the top to my ribs though (as in the pictures in the link just posted). The bottom of my planks always looked all aligatored from burning. I still have a few that I haven't used yet. I soaked those from the moment I decide I'm going to use them, so i thats in the morning for dinner that's when I soak em.
 
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Yep the planks burned, I don't think any flame ever licked up the top to my ribs though (as in the pictures in the link just posted). The bottom of my planks always looked all aligatored from burning. I still have a few that I haven't used yet. I soaked those from the moment I decide I'm going to use them, so i thats in the morning for dinner that's when I soak em.
Yes the planks burn/smolder and flavor the meat, usually you place fish on them, never heard of ribs but okay. Here/over there in the pacific northwest it is very common to cook your fish with cedar/on a cedar board.


Cedar "planks" are not true cedar. I believe they are from the Mahogany family thus not poisonous.  Most of your true cedars are what is called "aromatic" cedar.  Not good........
Cedar planks are very much true cedar. Especially when you go the the hardware store and buy a cedar board. You should only cook with WESTERN RED CEDAR, Eastern cedar varieties are NOT SAFE TO COOK ON.

Hope this helps.
 
 
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