Red Maple

[Gonna Smoke]

A friend of mine had a fairly big Red Maple die. This tree is about 14"-16" in diameter at the base and has been standing dead for over a year. That is until a storm blew it down about 6 weeks ago. Anyway, it's been laying on the ground for about 6 weeks and he decides to cut it up and asks me if I want it for smoking. Without looking at it, I said yes so he cuts it up into logs and stacks it. Now I'm committed to removing this wood so I go over today and load up a bunch to bring home and split. This wood is VERY WELL SEASONED with some actually being to the point of crumbling when I attempt to split it. Some is relatively hard and sounded like a baseball bat when I split it. I tried to sort through it as best I could but my question is should I burn it in the fire pit or use it to smoke with? Was this all a waste of time?

 

[kilo charlie]

I would just use it in the fire pit.

Think about it this way... you have some rotting, which is going to lead to inconsistent burning and with the price of meat these days its not a risk I'd be willing to take myself.

Other opinions will vary of course

 

[jcam222]

If you have time to sort it keep the hard stuff for smoking and the crumbling stuff for the pit.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

I would just use it in the fire pit.

Think about it this way... you have some rotting, which is going to lead to inconsistent burning and with the price of meat these days its not a risk I'd be willing to take myself.

Other opinions will vary of course

If you have time to sort it keep the hard stuff for smoking and the crumbling stuff for the pit.

I actually loaded a bunch of it back up in my truck and hauled it off, I just didn't want to sort through it. What I did keep may be somewhat salvageable just not sure if it's worth the effort even though I've split it....by hand no less. So I've got a fair amount of sweat equity into it. But as KC said, I certainly don't want to ruin any good meat with bad wood. I was really excited to get some maple because I've never used it before.

 

[Hamdrew]

i have used much worse wood with fine results. That said, maybe save it for cheaper cooks??