AZ Barbeque.com
BBQ Related Topics => BBQ Fuel Discussions - Charcoal, Lump, Pellets, Wood & Gas => Topic started by: mclan on October 05, 2012, 11:12:50 am
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Question for all: i built a home bar and have a bunch of scrap red oak board leftover its home depot bought board by the foot not plywood. Is it suitable for cooking?
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If untreated, red oak is the preferred wood for tri-tip. :P
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I don't think so.As far as I know wood sold at lumber places is pressure and chemical treated and wouldn't be good for cooking.
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My father was a cabinetmaker and we always had piles of various hardwoods around the house. (I still can't get the smell of sawdust out of my nose) ;) But I don't recall any of them being chemically treated treated or compressed the way they do two-by-fours. They were all just planed down to size. Pine scraps, on the other hand, are only good for bonfires. I don't even like toasting marshmallows with them.
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I always thought that they only chemically treat wood that will be in contact with the ground or a foundation, to deter termites. Also, isn't chemically treated wood blue (or maybe it is green?) on the end to show it has been treated?
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Anyone else have any opinion or suggestion on how to verify this, I've checked HD website. I believe it is the "untreated' red oak board.
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It's been 35 years, but I made a 16-ft. conference table, an 8-ft. dining table, a big coffee table and two end tables, all with red oak. None of it was treated with anything until I sealed it with a Danish oil stain and all of it is in use to this day. Personally, I wouldn't have been afraid to use any of the scraps for smokewood.
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Anyone else have any opinion or suggestion on how to verify this, I've checked HD website. I believe it is the "untreated' red oak board.
Pressure Treated or Treated wood in the Southwest is typically a softwood (Pine or Doug-Fir), is colored Green or a Greenish-Blue and is not suitable for indoor applications or for fires of anykind. Typically it is stamped as such. In my almost 40 years in construction (Carpentry and Architecture) I have never seen anything otherwise.
In a previous life I was a custom cabinet maker and would love to have a tenth of the hardwood scrap that we threw out including white oak, red oak, alder, cherry etc., etc., etc. Common sense says that I am not using any prefinished wood or softwood in my smoker or for any cooking fire, but I would use almost any hardwood that I could find. I even scammed onto some Olive that is quite interesting.
Have fun with your windfall!
8)
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I'm gonna agree with Kevin here. Treated wood has been stained by the treatment. It's usually a compound of copper.
Crash, back me up on this. Most of the wood available in Hawaii is treated stuff. In fact, Hawaii has stronger treatment.
But, if the color looks OK, and there isn't little dimples on the wood (they gotta get the stuff in there, somehow) use it.
But, serious wood, anything that would end up in furniture, should be OK. If you live where Crash does, construction lumber would be questionable, until you look. (But, who is using construction lumber to smoke with? Unless you're building with serious oak.)
steve
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I have no frame of reference on this Steve. We only use wood from fruitawoodchunks.com (http://fruitawoodchunks.com) and they have some quality smoke wood available. I'd highly reccomend using the fruitawoodchunks.com (http://fruitawoodchunks.com) products...they really are that good. Cut to order and shipping is included in the price.
Lately we've been experimenting with guava, ohia and Australian Pine (not a true pine).
Honestly, there is no way I'd ever use anything that had every been treated or even looked like it had the possibility of being treated.
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I have no frame of reference on this Steve.
I was referring to the available construction lumber, not cooking wood. I know that most of the 2X4s and 4X4s are pressure treated, unless you really look for the non treated stuff.
steve
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SHELLY has been bringing home the scraps from the high school wood shop for the last ten years! I checked with the teacher there and with a local cabinet maker and they both agreed the the wood that they buy is untreated! We burn the pine in in the living room woodstove and save the hardwoods for cooking! Also since it's the holidays, if you have nuts on your coffee table, save the shells for smoking-
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Good recommendation on the nut shells, Pat. I've tossed fallen pecans onto the fire and they work great. I've even burnt allspice berries when grilling jerk chicken, since pimento (allspice) wood is what they use in Jamaica.
Here's a bit of nutshell trivia. In movies, they use ground walnut shells in the path of galloping horses. The dust cloud they create films well. Years ago, I wrote an IMAX film about Sedona. They used a bag of walnut shell dust roped to a horse's saddle to replicate the body of Pearl Schnebly- the 5-yr. old child of Sedona Schebly. In 1900, she was dragged to her death by a bolting horse. When we were going through the dailies, the scene was so horrifying that we barely used any of it in the finished film. ???