Picked up some pecan wood...red inside?

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

So I recently got my hands on what I thought was a very good deal on 2 cords of pecan. Got it home and started splitting it and getting it ready to do a cook and about half of the wood is red on the inside, rather than white as I've usually seen with pecan. Further more when split this red wood smells a bit like poo...so much so that it even attracts hoards of flies.

I talked to the guy from who I purchased the wood and he swears up and down it's all from a single pecan tree he in his yard. While I recognize it's still a bit green I've never ran across any pecan wood that is red and smells so bad. Did I get bamboozled or is this possibly the trunk of the tree or something else?

I did try burning some of the wood and it smelled awful...100% completely unusable. I even tried burning it down to coals but even the coals have a very off putting odor.

 

[seakuv]

So I recently got my hands on what I thought was a very good deal on 2 cords of pecan. Got it home and started splitting it and getting it ready to do a cook and about half of the wood is red on the inside, rather than white as I've usually seen with pecan.

Pecan heartwood is usually a dark reddish brown. The outer sapwood is white.
In some species of trees the heartwood will rot out leaving the solid sapwood behind - a la the old hollow tree. I'm wondering if what you've got is some old decayed pecan heartwood.

 

[CptKaos]

Or it's actually pee-can wood from his old out house ��

Larry

 

[Norm]

Nut trees are susceptible to a bacterial infection that makes the wood smell like urine when cut. I have a sawmill and will run into this mostly on red oak as we don't have any pecan around here. Shop fireplace is where mine goes.

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

@Seakuv, that really makes sense considering the guy said he only took the tree down because it was rotting / dead and he only took it down because Hurricane Florence was on its way. Thanks for the insight.

@Norm, Thanks for the insight...I have no fireplace so I'm not sure what else I can do with all of this garbage wood.

@CptKaos, that was pretty good! :eusa_clap

Thanks again everybody...at least now I know what I've got.

 

[WilliamKY]

Only one thing to do with this wood. Bon Fire!

 

[BBQ Freak]

could you share a pic of it ?

 

[BillN]

I burn a lot of pecan and have not run into this issue.

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

could you share a pic of it ?

Sure.

 

[BBQ Freak]

that looks like Pecan to me and thought you meant the red was darker , post a pic of the bark and can show you what my bark looks like but the smell thing has got me ? I do know one time I bought some pignut Hickory and it smelt real bad when splitting .

 

[4ever3]

Good lord man, cook with it!

 

[Norm]

If it smells nasty it's going to impart that flavor to whatever you are cooking. Wood is cheap, why ruin good meat.

 

[Monkey Uncle]

Let it season for a few months. The smell may go away. Just from looking at the picture, I don't see anything wrong with the wood. It does not appear rotten. If anything, it looks a little green (meaning unseasoned, not the color green).

I've split lots of green oak and hickory over the years (pecan is a species of hickory). It often has an unpleasant smell when it is first split. The smell goes away after the wood seasons.

 

[Hoss]

Let it cure for a few months and smoke away.Nothing wrong with that wood.

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

I'll hold onto it and see if seasoning it helps. Right now it really does have a pungent smell that's quite unpleasant. Some of the wood has a much deeper red, but I burned off most of that a few days ago when I burned out a 55 gallon drum.

I'll pick up a new cord of seasoned pecan in the mean time and see what happens in the future.

@BBQ Freak, funny enough any piece with bark is white on the inside and not red, and it doesn't have that pungent odor. The pieces that are white on the inside smell amazing and sweet just like I'm used to with pecan.

 

[PatAttack]

I'm thinking red oak...

 

[Ylouder]

its fine. let it season and the smell will go away. just nature started working to decompose it. since its split now it will dry out and the smell will take care of itself.

 

[4TheLoveofBrisket]

For what it's worth - I bought a bag of pecan splits from W&W down in Texas (bought it at bass pro, but the company is out of texas). Their stuff is kiln dried and it had a pretty pungent aroma to it also, out of the bag. When I burned it, it was definitely a very strong smell also. I'd suggest maybe you try to seek out some pecan chunks or mini logs from W&W (again try Bass Pro or Cabelas) and compare the smell of the two.