Like the title says. I just now had a thought about the way smoking food makes a unique flavor that most people love. Everything I’ve put in my smoker was over hardwood and I’ve never questioned it. Now I am questioning it. So, what makes hardwood so much better than softwood in terms of cooking?
In: Chemistry
Soft woods are very sappy, which is bad because the wood doesn’t really smolder, that sap burns like oil. And when the sap is burning it produces this intense black smoke that’s for a buncha particulate and stuff that does not taste great. One of which is creosote. Sappy soft wood produces more creosote when burning which is this black carbon compound that is a cross between like, tar and coal, which is why you’re not supposed to use it in indoor stoves.
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Hardwood can smolder more slowly creating less heat. You don’t want to boil the juices in your meat, just smoke it.
Softwood has a couple traits that make it not ideal for smoking. One big reason is softwood often has a lot of sap or resin. When this burns, it’s generally pretty stinky. Not the kind of flavors you want to add to food. The other reason I believe is that it can burn a little hotter and faster than you would like. Smoking is often about long duration and not intense direct heat. Softwood burning hotter or faster offers zero advantage for smoking.
Not all hardwoods are equal. Some will have irritants when burned or other reasons not to be popular for smoking, but softwoods as an entire category almost always have issues.
Most softwoods tend to be conifers, conifers tend to be resinous which creates a very sooty black smoke. Unburnt carbon all over your food.
Tastes bad, is bad for you.
Hardwoods are deciduous trees, even balsa wood. The sap is water with sugars, and some but not all hardwoods make a good tasting tar that gets deposited on the food.
Softwoods are conifers, and the sap is a lot different. Lots of turpentine and rosin along with the sugary water. Dry wood that’s been in the fire a while and burned down to coals is fine for cooking, the noxious stuff vaporizes. But wet smoking wood smoldering is going to make the food inedible.
I wondered this myself, and despite knowing the conventional wisdom answer, I decided to ‘smoke’ some foods with several softwoods I had on hand about 8-9 years ago.
I can confidently tell you:
the reason to smoke with hardwoods is because the result tastes good.
the reason *not* to smoke with softwoods is because the result tastes like Treebeard’s taint.
Hope that answers your question lol
Cedar is used for smoking and cooking planks isn’t it? Is that not a soft wood?
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