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Dangerous Wood Chunks

Jolly Bill Barker
Jolly Bill Barker Posts: 119
edited November -0001 in EggHead Forum
A friend of mine just cut down a Osage tree and I got to wondering if this would be a good smoke flavor. Then I got to thinking that maybe some woods could be dangerous to use because of what is in it. I know that many people are allergic to types of woods.

What do you guys and gals know?
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Comments

  • Gator Bait
    Gator Bait Posts: 5,244
     
     
    Hi Bill, HERE is a link to a thread on The Texas BBQ Forum that is worth a look.


     
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  • Mr. & Mrs Potatohead
    Mr. & Mrs Potatohead Posts: 2,037
    The only one that I know of that can be bad....Is cedar.
    But yet we cook on cedar planks??!!?? :ohmy:
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    Mr. & Mrs Potatohead wrote:
    The only one that I know of that can be bad....Is cedar.

    as in all things, you must define "bad".

    if it isn't poisonous (the Osage, or any other wood), then it comes down to taste alone.

    cedar is not bad, it is bad in too high amounts maybe. just as oak would be, or hickory.
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • Jolly Bill Barker
    Jolly Bill Barker Posts: 119
    No I am talking about burning a wood that might kill you or something crazy. Like Poisonwood in Africa.
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    i was quoting potato head

    if it is toxic, don't use it. i don't know about Osage specifically.

    but if it is a hardwood or fruitwood, i'm not sure what the concern is.
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • gdenby
    gdenby Posts: 6,239
    There are several species of trees called cedar. "Aromatic cedar," a kind of juniper, repels insects, and I would suppose eating any food smoked with it would be about as pleasant as sucking on a glob of pine tar.

    I suppose the cedar used for planking is the western red-wood like variety, and used by Tlingit, etc for planks to smoke salmon for centuries. Aromatic, but not resinous.
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  • gdenby
    gdenby Posts: 6,239
    I worked with osage for wood sculpture. It is unbelievably hard. Never got a rash from it. Used to be used for ax and mallet handles. It is somewhat water resistant, and I recall that it had a slightly waxy feel. As it ages, it goes from bright orange to a deep dried blood color. I'd suppose that means it has a lot of tannins. Might be useful for a very pungent aroma if used in small quantities.
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  • jeffinsgf
    jeffinsgf Posts: 1,259
    Osage orange, hedge apple, bois d'arc, call it whatever you want, but grab all you can get your hands on for your smoker. It is delightful. A little more body than fruitwood without the sharpness of hickory.

    I can't answer for exotics -- most smell so nasty raw that I can't imagine them on fire -- but I can tell you from personal experience that hedge is sublime.
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  • Mr. & Mrs Potatohead
    Mr. & Mrs Potatohead Posts: 2,037
    Big sorry to stike and fellow EggHeads!I guess I wasn't too clear, was I? :blush:
    The "bad" I refer to, is that somewhere here on the forum I read that cedar is toxic....Was in the poisonous category, if memory serves.
    This was either a link or a post with a cut and paste from a site similar to the one Gater Bait just attached.
    We even had some discussion with me asking "Cedar?Poisonous?" and had a return that perhaps in the smaller amounts of smoke emitted from a plank, no big deal.
    If I were better at the computer and searching thing....But it wasn't that long ago, if someone is better than I at finding such things here.
    Also, I don't know if it was white, red....whatever cedar, as it only listed "cedar" as a wood to avoid.
    I have done fish on cedar planks a number of times and what I do know first hand is this: Store bought planks (I assume "red") have a much more pleasant aroma and taste on the fish then the white planks that I cut from my lumber pile. That was pretty darn strong!
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  • Ripnem
    Ripnem Posts: 5,511
    Jerry,

    This may have been the one.
    http://www.deejayssmokepit.net/Woods.htm
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  • Mr. & Mrs Potatohead
    Mr. & Mrs Potatohead Posts: 2,037
    That's the one! I remember it...
    Thanks Adam
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  • Jolly Bill Barker
    Jolly Bill Barker Posts: 119
    jeffinsgf wrote:
    Osage orange, hedge apple, bois d'arc, call it whatever you want, but grab all you can get your hands on for your smoker. It is delightful. A little more body than fruitwood without the sharpness of hickory.

    I can't answer for exotics -- most smell so nasty raw that I can't imagine them on fire -- but I can tell you from personal experience that hedge is sublime.

    Cool! :P
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  • Hungry Celeste
    Hungry Celeste Posts: 534
    Several tropical species unrelated to "cemetery" cedar (the genus cedrus, or what most North Americans think of as cedar trees) get called cedar, but they're botanically closer to mahogany. I'm thinking specifically of "spanish cedar" (cedrela odorata, also known as cigar-box wood. It's rot resistent, often used for boatbuilding, but it is noxious. The sawdust will irritate your skin & airways, it has quite a pungent odor, and the smoke is definitely not something you'd want flavoring your food.
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  • Deckhand
    Deckhand Posts: 318
    Osage Orange (hedge, hedge apple) is VERY dense and burns VERY hot. The phone company cut one in the backyard of a house I used to rent. They cut it into fireplace logs for me. The burning logs would pop and send embers flying 15' across the room if the screen was not closed. A Google search brought up a page that the fragrance is used in some perfumes. A big chunk of it surrounded by hot coals would be a time bomb. Smaller pieces might be OK.
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    Westphalia ham is smoked heavily with juniper, as are more ancient traditional styles of gravlax.

    It is nothing more than personal preference weighted heavily by regional influences
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • Capt Frank
    Capt Frank Posts: 2,578
    Osage Orange or "Hedgeapple" as we called it growing up in rural Kentucky makes the best fence posts you can get. Will not rot, ever. But you got to be a man to handle them, the wood is extremely dense and heavy.
    There ends my total knowledge of Hedgeapple. :laugh:
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    it's not toxic....

    i mean, sure, inhaling any smoke would make it toxic. but cedar has been used to smoke foods (by a few cultures) for millennia
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    he is incorrect that they are "poisonous". yet another example of the parlor game "phone call" effect, where the more something gets passed along, the more it changes.

    overly smoked with pine, cedar, etc., a food might taste piney or resinous, unpalatable. but it isn't "poisonous". there are many examples, which i have become sick of repeating (hahaha), where cedar or juniper are used to smoke foods not only for a little flavor, but at length, and considerably. pine, and even pine needles, are used in spain (if i remember correctly) to smoke some cheeses.

    when anyone (including me) tells you that something is safe/unsafe, good/bad, /easy/difficult, accepted/forbidden... whatever it is, nod politely and find the answer yourself.

    i'll tell you the only certainty i have discovered (so far).... if someone starts a sentence with "I heard...", then whatever they tell you next will wither be incorrect, inaccurate, or an exaggeration. every. single. time.
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • Carolina Q
    Carolina Q Posts: 14,831
    Don't use poison ivy!! :ohmy:

    Other than that, beats me. When camping, I've used whatever I could find laying around. I'm sure there's been cedar in the mix, and pine, spruce and probably sassafras for that matter. No idea what all I've used -I just know that no one ever developed a rash or had any intestinal distress. And that food cooked over an open fire is always awesome!

    I hate it when I go to the kitchen for food and all I find are ingredients!                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

    Michael 
    Central Connecticut 

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  • Jolly Bill Barker
    Jolly Bill Barker Posts: 119
    Well I sure as heck am not putting my burnt Osage Gaston (signed) duck call in the egg. I am going to be buried with it and my grill tongs. However, I am going to dry some of this cut tree in the attic and then give it a whirl.
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  • THA
    THA Posts: 198
    we have called it "horseapple" or the more common name in Texas is Bois-de-Arc (Bo'dark)

    makes a dang good long bow
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