wood prep?

[newbie]

hiya all, i can get hold of a bit of wood, it's from apple and cherry trees, not much, maybe a couple of branch's off each.

now, how do i prep it in readiness to go on the grill? i'm thinking of removing the bark, cutting it into 2"-3" chunks, then just leaving it in the shed to dry out over winter?

any advice would be appreciated.

thanks
newb's.

[keith157]

Sounds about right, get the bark off while it is still green & soft then space it out to allow good air flow around it.

[Heathrow_BBQ]

Is the bark toxic? Is that why you should remove it?

[keith157]

Not necessarily toxic, but it is best removed for a couple of reasons.

1. As the outer shell of the tree it absorbs all the nasties that our modern world generates, traffic fumes, pollution etc.
2. It is a different density to the core wood so will burn/smoulder at a different rate to the core wood.

It is solely up to you whether you want to go through the process of removing the bark. If you do it is best done when "green". I always remove the bark from my woods but I will happily admit to not being the forum's most experienced BBQ cook so others may have a different slant on the topic.

[grum]

I have some bits of cherry I just trimmed and was wondering this. Any tips on removing the bark?

[YetiDave]

Never removed bark, never had any off flavours because of it

[paulfire]

If any bits of bark are loose, or look "odd" I would remove them, but I have not had a problem with taste.

[onevision]

Personally I have found that with seasoned wood the bark just falls off.

[smokewoodshack]

I would cut it into whatever sized chunks that you are after, and store it in net bags if you can get hold of some. Leave the bags in your garage or somewhere dry with a bit of air flow and out of the rain for them to dry out. One your wood is relatively dry the bark sometimes falls off.

As for the bark, we cut literally tons of different types of wood up for smoking, and unless the bark falls off we leave it on, and we have never had a request from a customer to have it removed. Some people say by leaving the bark on it omits a bitter taste, I have tried both with, and without the bark and I personally cannot taste the difference.

If you trawl the internet there will always be the for and the against regarding the removal of bark prior to smoking.

[keith157]

As an addendum, I suppose a lot depends on where the tree has grown if in a rural setting then it won't have any pollution to speak of. If from a city centre location then the opposite applies. Most of my wood comes from young Paulie G some has bark some doesn't