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I have been told that smoking with fruit wood that has bark on it is poisonous. I also have been told that there is nothing wrong with using 'barked wood'- that it is only a matter of personal taste.

Which is true?

Glorfindel
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PaulRWA
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2 Answers2

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It depends on the wood if it is desirable or not to smoke with the bark still on the wood. I have had good results smoking with apple wood bark, but disgusting results with birch (birch bark gave off heavy soot).

Is it poisonous? Well, I am still alive, but that's anecdotal.

Tritium21
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    Yeah, I'm gonna need some evidence before I'll accept that you are alive. – Shog9 Jun 11 '15 at 21:07
  • Not an issue that it's an anecdote, but that *n* = 1. Try it a dozen or so more times on yourself or feed it to a few dozen other people and we can get some good stats. – Nick T Apr 06 '21 at 18:18
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I have been smoking meats for some time now (the really hard part is keeping the rib-eyes rolled up tight and lit). But seriously, I have yet to be poisoned by any bark from any of the wood I have used, and I have used them all. I have heard that there are some potential carcinogenic issues if you are constantly eating heavily smoked meat, but I do not have any facts to base that on. I think the primary issue with tree bark is that it will typically add a bad flavor to the meat and make it taste much more ashy and sooty (not very technical terms). Also, if you are in a competition, the bark tends to make much more smoke which can throw the look of your meat off when presenting as well.

Overall, I would say it is a best practice not to use the tree bark. However, I cannot say that it is due to specific health risks.

geoffmpm
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