# Maple trees?



## daddyzaring (Apr 7, 2010)

Can anyone tell me how to tell the difference between them?  My Dad has a bunch of maple in his back yard from a large down limb a couple years or so ago, was just wondering how good it would be to smoke with.


----------



## caveman (Apr 7, 2010)

Since I am a city smoker, I can't answer your question.  But I am sure someone will be along soon to enlighten you.


----------



## westsmoke (Apr 7, 2010)

Maple is one of my favorites. Theres no reason you couldnt use some old branches. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.


----------



## meat hunter (Apr 7, 2010)

Most common Maples are the Sugar and the Silver. Both have roughly the same style leaf, 5 pointy lobes. Of the two, the sugar maple lobes are more compact and the silvers are more elongated. The Sugar Maple is considered a hardwood and is great for smoking, but the silver is a great smoke wood as well. The sugar maple being a harder wood, will give you a little more btu's, (heat for the amount of wood used) vs, the silver. 
Many a great bbq joints swear by the use of sugar maple on their smokes.


----------



## mr bonejangles (Apr 7, 2010)

To help identify the tree this link should be helpful

http://www.maple-trees.com/pages/map...tification.php


----------



## daddyzaring (Apr 7, 2010)

Man there's alot of different maple trees, I'm not sure. lol


----------



## mr bonejangles (Apr 7, 2010)

Meat Hunters advice may be more useful lol, besides giving that link thats basically the full extent of my maple tree descriptions lol


----------



## daddyzaring (Apr 7, 2010)

Well I may just have to just give it a try, or wait until the leaves bloom and do a q-view.


----------



## erain (Apr 7, 2010)

i remember from forestry class i took in high school a simple way to tell the difference between silver and sugar maples... on a silver maple, in between the lobes the pocket is pointed or v shaped, on sugar maple the pocket between the lobes is rounded or u shaped... there is a v in silver and a u in sugar...


----------



## coyote-1 (Apr 7, 2010)

My backyard maple is a silver. I use the downed limbs as smokewood, and it's great.

One thing: Even when the wood's fully seasoned, it tends to generate heavy white smoke for the first couple minutes. DO NOT fear that! Despite the _thin blue_ mantra, in this case the white smoke is fine. After a few minutes, it calms down to thin blue.


----------



## jd08 (Apr 7, 2010)

Are all of the Maple varieties acceptable for smoking? I have a couple in my yard and never thought about it before.

BTW, I'm in South Florida, so they're most likely Florida Maple.


----------

