Drying trees for smoking

[smoke373]

hi everyone, m Ruth from Sabah, Malaysia. i dont have any experience in smoking meat or even barbeque . but m very fascinated by the using of woods to enhance meat in barbeque. a lot of fruit trees n bamboo here are being cut down everyday. our climate here cant have woods like apple or apricots. i m hoping to get more knowledge on how to dry up the cut down trees so not go to waste. how to identify trees good for smoking. so, m actually starting from scratch .

 

[tropics]

hi everyone, m Ruth from Sabah, Malaysia. i dont have any experience in smoking meat or even barbeque . but m very fascinated by the using of woods to enhance meat in barbeque. a lot of fruit trees n bamboo here are being cut down everyday. our climate here cant have woods like apple or apricots. i m hoping to get more knowledge on how to dry up the cut down trees so not go to waste. how to identify trees good for smoking. so, m actually starting from scratch .

Welcome to SMF You can use any fruit wood that you dry,also any kind of nut woods will work.hard woods Oak,maple

Richie

 

[tropics]

You can use Mango if you can get corn take the kernals off and use the cob after it dries.

Richie

 

[smoke373]

Hi Richie, thank u.
We dont have most of the wood trees u have there. Fruit trees that we can get usually are mango, rambutan, durian, pomelo, guava, ciku, mangosteen, bamboos, Bougainvillea flower tree, banana, papaya.

May i ask how to dry the trees coz we have rain most of the time, very humid, and i live near the sea. Sabah is an island.

Should i hang the cuts? Do i need to trim off the barks?
Does it need to be washed before drying? Sory for so many questions but i dont find the exact answers in googling.

Should the cuts only from older parts of branches?

How to use the wood in bbq pls?

 

[tropics]

Hi Richie, thank u.
We dont have most of the wood trees u have there. Fruit trees that we can get usually are mango, rambutan, durian, pomelo, guava, ciku, mangosteen, bamboos, Bougainvillea flower tree, banana, papaya.

May i ask how to dry the trees coz we have rain most of the time, very humid, and i live near the sea. Sabah is an island.

Should i hang the cuts? Do i need to trim off the barks?
Does it need to be washed before drying? Sory for so many questions but i dont find the exact answers in googling.

Should the cuts only from older parts of branches?

How to use the wood in bbq pls?

To dry it would need to be kept out of rain.Smaller pieces will dry quicker I have a place in the Philippines but don't do any smoking their.I just bought a bag of Coconut Charcoal so that may be another option for you. Good luck

Richie 

 

[smoke373]

:〉 yes.. coconut.. so many here... but it seems to live forever. Thanks again Richie.

 

[wimpy69]

If durian wood smells anything like the fruit, I would think twice. Nasty stuff imo.

 

[tropics]

:〉 yes.. coconut.. so many here... but it seems to live forever. Thanks again Richie.

How to use the wood in bbq pls?

What kind of BBQ Pit do you have?

Post a pic if you have one

Richie

 

[browneyesvictim]

Smoke,

You obviously have access to some very exotic wood that are not normally available to most people that smoke. You have a few that I would start with and experiment with the others- most of which I've never heard of, but you never know, You may likely find some rare ones that are better than  most common smoking woods around here.

mango- an edible fruit bearing tree- should be great! and my first choices!

rambutan,- an edible fruit bearing tree- should be great!

Durian- an edible fruit bearing tree- should be great!

pomelo, an edible fruit bearing tree- should be great! This one is a citrus and I would use this as you would orange. A couple chunks on the coals when making a steak- Oh my!

guava- an edible fruit bearing tree- should be great! and my first choices!

Ciku- an edible fruit bearing tree- should be great!

Mangosteen- an edible fruit bearing tree- should be great! Even reported medicinal properties.

Bamboos- Not what I would choose out of this list

Bougainvillea flower tree- The sap of this tree can be toxic, so I would avoid this one

Banana- an edible fruit bearing tree- is used in cooking all the time- even in the leaves!!!

papaya.- an edible fruit bearing tree- should be great! and my first choices!

As for how to season the wood- just keep it dry out of the rain and keep air to it so it can evaporate off moisture. You may find you need to season the wood longer than 1 year due to your humidity there. You could wrap bundles in stretch wrap to make a psudo-solar-kiln; kind of like a green house. Leave it open at the bottom for condensation to drain but can speed the process. Just cut to length and stack it up. How do you plan to smoke with it? What method and smoker type or BBQ will determine how best should cut/trim the wood. Sticks… chunks, or chips are typical. No need to wash it. If you just build a fire then let it burn down to coals as you would to cook with. At this point just put the unburnt chunks of desired wood on to smolder for the flavor.  What do other folks use there for cooking wood fires? If you have a commercial electric smoker or something like that, then you would want chips or even pellets. Grilling and smoking are 2 different things.