Bark or NO Bark!!

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smokincassbbq

Newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2017
7
10
South Dakota
I'm sure this topic has been discussed at some point but looking for other people's experiences.  I generally buy chunks from Home Depot-Apple, Pecan, Cherry, Hickory, etc., and some pcs have bark on them.  Sometimes after I put it in the fire I will start to get an "OFF" smell.  Usually seems to happen with Hickory wood.  And I always remove when i smell it.  I would eventually like to find a local source for some fruit woods and when i do I'm wondering if removing the bark is something others do.  
 
I haven't used chunks in a while but when i did i used chunks with bark on some of them. Now i use a lot of splits and most of them have bark on them and it doesn't affect the flavor of the food i make on my stick burner. I have been the last several months using pecan and cherry wood.  Just my experience..

Happy Smoking,

phatbac (Aaron)
 
I have no problem with bark as long as it's not filled with dirt. That said I use a WSM and kettle and buy my chunks or mini splits from Fruita wood and BBQ supply it's much better then the dried out bag junk.Thumbs Up
 
I go through quite a bit of wood on my offset. No way would I want to peel bark off of wood or just look for bark less wood. Be way to time consuming.
 
Using a stick burner reverse flow I have never noticed any off flavors due to bark on. I will however peel the bark off of splits if it is ready to come off with minimum effort (as in almost falling off). I have utilized all types wood with this idea in mind apple, cherry, maple, hickory , oak , pecan, mesquite, and other harvested hardwoods. Personally I feel it has no direct effect on the finished product beef , chicken , fish or pork.
 
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