Ornamental purple cherry tree wood for smoking?

[Jmoriari]

I have been using a lot of apple wood from a tree my parents took out to smoke homemade bacon and other things. We had a snowstorm yesterday that took out an ornamental purple cherry tree we had in the front yard and i was wondering if it can be used for smoking meats. I did see one single cherry on it when we first moved in, but it's not really a fruit bearing tree and more ornamental.

 

[jcam222]

If in fact it is truly cherry I’ve read that ornamentals are ok to use. I looked into ornamental pear. I’d make sure it’s actually cherry though and not just nicknamed that

 

[Jmoriari]

Looking at pictures online, it may have been a
Canada Red Chokecherry Tree, which it looks like it's good to smoke with but "may produce a bitter flavor." Definitely worth it to save and dry out some of the wood to test it out when i am out of or to supplement my apple wood. The tree had at least one dark purple cherry fruit that i saw when we first moved in, so i know it is some kind of cherry tree.

thanks

 

[Fueling Around]

What do you define as "ornamental"? Does it flower, but not produce any fruit?
Outside of chokecherry, I don't know of any cherry to avoid.

 

[Mr. Zorg]

Maybe it's some vareity of ornamental plum, purple fruit. When we lived in NW Ohio one neighbor had a tree that looked like a cherry tree when in bloom. I asked him what kind of cherry tree it was and he told me it was some sort of Japanese ornamental plum.

 

[DougE]

Sounds maybe like it's purple plum, which I have used for smoking.

 

[cutplug]

Flat pits would be a plum. Round would be cherry.