Leaving bark on wood for smoking

[MG_NorCal]

I suspect bark is blamed many times when the problem is simply a dirty fire. Get sweet thin blue with sufficient air to the fire and preheat seasoned splits so they'll ignite quickly and not smolder... bark on or barkless if it'll make you feel better.

Of course it is an easy enough thing to test.

Anybody who really wants to find out can burn a pile of bark and judge the quality of the smoke.

 

[Puppyboy]

I leave the bark on.

 

[Dave Russell]

Of course it is an easy enough thing to test.

Anybody who really wants to find out can burn a pile of bark and judge the quality of the smoke.

Seems to make sense, but then again it's all about the smoke and what it tastes like. As long as the fire is hot and burning clean, as so many others have attested to, evidently the bark burns clean enough to not have any negative effects. Don't know that we could do that with nothing BUT bark.

As for charcoal smokers like my wsm, which doesn't burn wood cleanly but rather slowly smolders it, I'll take thick bark (nutwood) off but not mess with thin fruitwood bark. Like I said though, I do it more to make me feel better, not really noticing a big difference between cooks.

 

[hankll]

Bark free for me!

 

[DirtyDirty00]

I use wood with the bark on, unless the bark has obvious mold or fungus growing on it.:thumb:

:shocked:WHAT!!! fungus and mold make all the flavor! ever eaten any bleau cheese???

 

[DirtyDirty00]

and i also never take off the bark. if the piece doesnt have bark or the bark falls off while im carrying it to the smoker, then the bark doesnt go in... otherwise whatever is in my hand or in the wood gets burned... hopefully that last pack of ants learned their lesson!!!

 

[Boshizzle]

I leave the bark on when cooking with all wood in my Jambo and have never noticed a problem. Tuffy Stone, Johnny Trigg, Rod Gray, and so many others don't remove the bark either.

 

[NorthwestBBQ]

 

[Chucktown]

We keep the bark on with no problems. We also preheat the logs.

 

[webby]

same here

I leave the bark on and it doesn't seem to be a problem. If I'm handling a split and it seems any of the bark will just kinda peel off easily, I do that, but otherwise it stays.

I always leave the bark on. Or if it is loose and easy to remove I do so and that is just so it does not fall off later and make a mess I have to clean up. I have not noticed any differnce bark on or off just my opinion.:clap2:

 

[brewerjamie15]

Bark on. I'm too lazy to pull it off.
Preheating is not something I can do with the UDS, but I did preheat with the stick burner.

Never used birch before. How's that work for ya Harbormaster?

 

[Coldholler]

I'd say take it off, just for the extra fun and for the purity of it, not because you have to. Get a bark spud and peel the logs while they're green, after bucking but before you cut them up into rounds or chunks. Here's what one looks like, and here's how it works:

 

[gator320]

In my stick birner i never take the bark off in theWSM i use chunks with the bark off never noticed any difference

 

[jestridge]

Maybe it the charcoal briguetts that giving it a bad flavor

 

[tjack]

I just see all the fungus and other plant life on it and I wasn't sure that by burning it that it covered the wood in burnt fungus, spores, ect. ect.

But if the vast majority have no adverse effects by leaving the bark on, then I will burn it with bark on.................

 

[BigBobBQ]

It is totally a personal option I know some people that remove the bark and some do not. For me it depends on the wood and where it came from. The outside can host a variety of moss, mold, fungi, and chemicals if it was in an orchard or area that has been sprayed with chemicals, removal of the bark removes the bad stuff and you get down to good clean burning wood.