# Another wood question



## otis857 (Jan 12, 2012)

Greetings and Salutations,

   I have another question about a certain type of wood and if it would be good to use in my smoker. I have a huge Carob tree that I extremely dislike. Its a nice looking tree, but puts out tons of bean pods and trashes up the yard. But at one time, the food police thought Carob beans were a healthy alternative to chocolate. Now my wife would call that blasphemy, as she is a confirmed chocoholic.

   I did my yearly trimming and have some big branches that I set aside for this possibility. The wood is quite hard and I'm thinking it may impart a mocha like taste to whatever I would use it for, but that's an assumption. Has anyone here tried Carob wood for smoking? If so, what would you imagine it would work with? Or should I just pitch the limbs? Im up for an experiment, but maybe someone here has already tried it.


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## venture (Jan 12, 2012)

I see references to it being used, particularly in Italy.  Whether yours is the same species?

Good luck and good smoking.


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## pineywoods (Jan 12, 2012)

I see nothing that says it poisonous so if it's a hard wood I think I'd have to burn some of the wood and see how it smelled if I liked the smell I think I'd try a smoke with it


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## otis857 (Jan 14, 2012)

Well, I did a little more looking online about using Carob wood, until I got bored with the Internet jungle. Apparently it is used for smoking fish, especially Salmon in Italy. Carob trees are fairly common there, but mainly in California and Az here in the states. Its a very dense wood that sinks in water & burns slow. I could not find a reference to the taste of the wood when used for smoking. Although, I did find a few high end restaurants in Italy that listed Carob Smoked Salmon as menu items.

I guess I'll have to experiment and see how it goes. BUt now I know its a safe alternative and I can save the bigger limbs that I was putting out for trash pick up


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## alelover (Jan 14, 2012)

Since it is very dense it should smoke quite well.


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## sport650 (Mar 28, 2013)

Carob wood is like alder wood it seam like u need a hot fire to keep it going is hard and dense


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## parman (Jul 15, 2014)

I see yours is an older post but find myself with carob wood. As you say its a dense, heavy wood. A huge branch broke off from my tree and totaled my car. So, I have an abundance of carob wood. Did you try smoking with it? If so, what type of protein? Should I save it or just use it in the fire place?

Looking forward to hearing from you and others.

Rich


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