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
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.
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