[Claude]

Here's a slightly different question for you about our most popular carving wood: can it be used in a smoker like hickory or apple wood to turn plain old meat into a delectable gourmet delight? I've used hickory, apple, pear, oak, cherry, maple, and mesquite chips in my barbecue to flavor the meat, but I've never tried basswood. Has anyone? I mean, we have all these little chips all over the place that could be easily swept up, soaked in water, and used in a smoker, if it might give the meat a good flavor....

Claude

[Plain_Ol_Ed]

Never have tried that! I don't know as how I generate enough chips in a month to bbq for a day. Plus the chips are awfully small.
It's something to think about though. I love bbq. Specially brisket of coarse pork shoulder aint bad either, or ribs, or ........

[curly maple]

hello claude i dont believe it would work. the reason i say that is years ago before plastic most wooden utinsels were made from basswood a couple differant reasons 1. lot of clear wood not many knots 2. easy to machine same reason we love it for carving 3. most important it did not impart any flavor to the food you were working with and most other woods do. now days we can make plastic utinsels cheaper so not much basswood used any more except chop sticks and most are made from basswood. btw i understand chopsticks are made here in the states and shipped to china isnt that ironic. hope this helps.

curly maple

[Thomp]

most fruit woods and nut woods are abundant and are used here in the south, each has its own distinct smell and flavor,

have you ever lit up some basswood chips, i did, smells like smoldering newspaper. and i dont think your family and friends could hold back their opinions about the cooks efforts,,

get some apple, pear, peach or plum limbs, my favorite is pecan wood to smoke bbq, its sweet

i found a use for basswood chips, it keeps my grandson out of my hair to give him a dishpan of chips and an empty water bottle he stayed with it till full, we put in some pinto beans and put it on the porch,

he said its a jack & giant magic bean stock.

[Ed Redwine]

Claude: I once had a piece of basswood that had gotten a bit wet. In an attempt to dry it out in a hurry, I put it in the microwave. Big mistake! In a very short time the wood overheated and filled the kitchen and den with acrid smoke. It ran the wife and me and the grandkids out of the house. We had to ventilate and run a fan. Comparing that smoke to apple, mesquite and hickory, you won't find any basswood in my smoker!
ED

[Lynn O. Doughty]

We used to smoke grapevines when we were kids but have never lit up a piece of basswood. I've attached a photo of a cigarette that is actually made from a piece of basswood that a fellow carver game me in Dayton a couple of years ago. He also makes cigars which look just as real.

While I don't smoke it I do keep the chips I produce which I toss in a barrel to be used as fire starters during the colder months.

[Jim-Iowa]

Never used Basswood. Used to cut a lot of cottonwood to burn for heat.
It burned too fast and left little ash but was easy to get a lot in a short time.
I think I would use the basswood chips for kindling burning trash and not in the smoker or Barbeque.
I do prefer apple, Oak & Hickory(may try some mulberry this summer) in the smoker. We use the smoker a lot, though the wife is the cook and I'm just the fireman. usually about 30 lbs to a batch.
Lynn mentioned Grape vines and leaves, if you do some checking on the cooking sites grape is used for Gormet Cooking(especially for fish if I remember correctly).

[Plain_Ol_Ed]

Just did a quick "inventory" of my bbq wood and I've got Peach, Pear, Plum, Oak, and Mesquite. No basswood.

[William]

You can use them as fire starters in a woodstove, I've never tried it but a friend has and she said it makes the job easy.

She takes an egg carton (the kind that looks like cardboard) and fills each slot with basswood chips and then melts old candle scraps to fill each egg cup, after the wax gets hard she breaks the carton up and she has 2 dozen fire starters.

[Claude]

Thanks, all, for the replies. That's sort of what I expected... I don't have a smoker, as such - just a gas BBQ on the deck of my townhouse. When I want to add a little smoke to some meat, I walk across the street to the common area and either pick up some small fallen branches, or break off a couple of twigs and throw those in the BBQ. I usually pick the maple trees. Hmmm, come to think of it, the tree in my front yard is a flowering crabapple - that ought to work also...

Claude