Wood- from tree to smoker?

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ggrib

Newbie
Original poster
Apr 23, 2015
20
11
I am using a Masterbuilt smoker

Just moved:

 The new house has 3 small fruit trees that are dead. 1 cherry, and 2 plum trees. I read about these varieties of wood. My questions are:

[a]  Can I just use the small branches cut in small lengths to put into the smoker .

The property also has  2 Black Walnut trees. The branches have a green lichen on some of them. Can I use the small dead branches with the lichen on them?

[b1] The wood guide says use only a little bit of Black Walnut as it is an overpowering wood. Any comments?
 
Small-diameter pieces have a high ratio of bark to wood, so they may tend to have more of a sharp/bitter flavor.

I would not use the walnut for smoking, maybe walnut embers for cooking with a dutch oven or something like that.
 
I'd check with Masterbuilt to find out if you can burn small chunks of wood in the wood chip holder--unless you're planning on chipping them yourself. Then, from my understanding, the wood needs to be dry before it can be used for smoking. I'd stick with the plum and cherry woods and only use those for specific meats. However, Todd Johnson, owner of A-MAZE-N Products, sells black walnut-flavored wood grilling pellets so I guess that can be used as well. Bu for regular smoking you're going to want to use hickory and/or oak, and perhaps apple, alder, pecan and maple. In any case, you should buy top quality wood chips for smoking if you choose to stick with chips.

I only use wood pellets for smoking and buy them exclusively from Todd. I burn them in his A-MAZE-N Pellet Smoker (AMNPS) which has totally transformed the way I smoke into an almost set-it-and-forget-it, easy and enjoyable method.
 
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