Apple wood

I've never burned it but a few months ago a neighbor took a section off his and I have around 20 splits. Can't wait to smoke a brisket!! Need to think about the spices that will make the sauce to compliment the apple smoke

Intheswamp said:

Splitting apple is easy. I can hand split a round of some of my well seasoned apple in less than a minute...of course the splits end up only about 3-4 inches long... for the grill.

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There you go. The wood itself is eminently splittable. It's just getting a piece of any length that can stand up straight so you can take a whack at it that's almost impossible.

hareball said:

I've never burned it but a few months ago a neighbor took a section off his and I have around 20 splits. Can't wait to smoke a brisket!! Need to think about the spices that will make the sauce to compliment the apple smoke

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I always make a sauce out of hard cider, simple as that......

Pen, my family does the same thing every xmas, burn a couple hours for some coaling, add a few splits for smoking, throw a grate on there and voila. Nothing better than watching 20 steaks being cooked like that, i have a pic somewhere...

One of the highest heat values around, one of the best smoking woods, and a highly prized ash for pottery glazes. Not only that- until you cut it... it makes apples.

Freegin giving tree I tells ya

(I thought I posted this before)

Wow, with every post I wanted to go out back and start the grill for some morning steaks!!

We do a lot of open fire cooking during the camping season. Usually with hickory, oak or maple. But, I have had a 20-30 foot apple tree down since the December 2008 ice storm that left many of us without power and treetops!! My one acre yard was a war zone and provided about 1 1/2 cords of wood from downed trees and big branches. The apple tree is still alive however, and produces apples due to the roots still being mostly under ground. I think this year I'll either try to stand it back up or cut it up. I think the best use of this wood would have to be cooking considering how small the trees are and how sought after they are for this purpose. The apple wood seems to store a relatively good amount of energy but by far its smell outweighs its heating punch.

According to this site: http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm , apple has 21.6 million BTU/cord which is relatively good, but how many apple trees would you need to get a cord?. Hickory comes in at 25.3 MBTU/cord, White Oak and Black Birch at 24.2 MBTU/cord, White Ash and Green ash were right above and bellow Apple with 21.6 and 21.1 MBTU/cord respectivelly. The highest they measured was Osaga Orange at 30.0 MBTU/ cord and the lowest was Balsa at 5.8 MBTU/cord. Intersting firewood comparisson chart from a great site. I find this site very helpfull.

Brilliant link.........

Must try to get some Osage Orange growing here, now that would be a nice change from our local trees and shrubs

woodchip said:

Brilliant link.........

Must try to get some Osage Orange growing here, now that would be a nice change from our local trees and shrubs

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Let me know if you succeed growing the Osage Orange, I'd have to make a special trip across the pond to see it burning! :lol:

I have grown it in MA and have some in my yard in NH. It likes wetter conditions and more sunlight than I have provided it.

It is available in this country from Burncoose Nurseries, but it is not suited to our soil, being very sandy and acidic. From what I see, it prefers a chalky soil.

I'd better stick to growing apple trees.

At least I get to eat the fruit, make cider, and cook pork steaks over the applewood. Now that's a useful tree

Saw a Craigs list listing - Triaxle of apple wood for $300 in misc. lengths.

From this thread, it seems that we are pretty lucky. We cleaned up our friend’s yard from three years old apple tree rounds.
My husband split rounds by hand. Few trips with our Subaru Outback and we have gotten about one cord of excellent firewood.
This is our first season of burning wood in a wood insert. Buying and installing insert is not easy, but getting good seasoned firewood in the November is a real challenge. We use this wood wisely – for coolest days, big rounds for overnight burning, small splits or rounds as helpers for other firewood. Now, I am learning that we should save it for BBQ as well.
As per Clydesdale owner’s manual, apple firewood (26.5 MBTU) is better than white oak (25.7 MBTU).

FYI.
Firewood rating, organized by species region (Western, Eastern) and type (hardwood, softwood):
http://worldforestindustries.com/forest-biofuel/firewood/firewood-btu-ratings/

Firewood rating and guide (heat output, easy to burn, easy to split, heavy smoke, sparks):
http://www.thelograck.com/firewood_rating_chart.html
This site rates the apple tree firewood only as fair. ???

termv said:

Saw a Craigs list listing - Triaxle of apple wood for $300 in misc. lengths.

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A grapple load of anything here is $700+. I would jump on that $#!t so fast...

woodchip said:

pen said:

However, I haven't burnt a bit of it through the wood stove. I save it for the burn pit.

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Same here, I save all my orchard prunings for the fire pit as pork cooked over applewood is the best way to cook pork.

If you want a great steak, try grape vine prunings if you can get them

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I especially like grape vine prunings for fish. Nice light flavor for salmon.

Glad to read this thread. I just bought an Enviro Venice 1700 insert and wouldn't ya know it, the guy 1/2 a mile down the road took a bulldozer and plowed over his 50 year old apple orchard.

I've been there cutting and hauling one pickup load after another for the last two weeks. I probably have 10 full cords and I'm still working. All free wood

There must have been 200 + trees. Some have trunks over 24 inches diameter. My buddy sold me his Husqvarna 266XP chainsaw to help handle it all because my Stihl 017 was puttering out on the bigger pieces.

I have about a 3 year supply of wood now and its 100% apple.

I found three standing dead apple trees and 2 live ones on my property this past fall. The dead ones were dry and burned great in the stove. The 2 other ones seem to be on their way out but I'm going to try to save them in the spring.

I used to work on a large fruit farm for like 30 years..loved my apple wood.
Can be a bish to split though by hand.
Had cherry also..good stuff.

pen said:

yep, nothing wrong with it at all. However, I haven't burnt a bit of it through the wood stove. I save it for the burn pit. Reason for this is I find nothing better than throwing a grate over some apple wood and apple wood coals then plopping a couple of 2 inch thick steaks on top. Yep, I'll save it for that!

pen

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Amen!

Some of the best steaks I've ever eaten were cooked this way. High dollar steak houses don't even come close in comparability to the open pit BBQ.

KeepWarmInWinter said:

From this thread, it seems that we are pretty lucky. We cleaned up our friend’s yard from three years old apple tree rounds.
My husband split rounds by hand. Few trips with our Subaru Outback and we have gotten about one cord of excellent firewood.
This is our first season of burning wood in a wood insert. Buying and installing insert is not easy, but getting good seasoned firewood in the November is a real challenge. We use this wood wisely – for coolest days, big rounds for overnight burning, small splits or rounds as helpers for other firewood. Now, I am learning that we should save it for BBQ as well.
As per Clydesdale owner’s manual, apple firewood (26.5 MBTU) is better than white oak (25.7 MBTU).

FYI.
Firewood rating, organized by species region (Western, Eastern) and type (hardwood, softwood):
http://worldforestindustries.com/forest-biofuel/firewood/firewood-btu-ratings/

Firewood rating and guide (heat output, easy to burn, easy to split, heavy smoke, sparks):
http://www.thelograck.com/firewood_rating_chart.html
This site rates the apple tree firewood only as fair. ???

Click to expand...

Funny...these sites have major difference in btu ratings per species! Pretty safe to say that stacking and moisture content play a major role in determining the ratings, though. However, the first site you linked stated that the amount of BTU per pound of wood is similar throughout all species. It said that one pound of hard wood had about the same BTU output as a pound of soft wood.

The one pretty safe thing to say is that a free cord of apple wood is a pretty good deal no matter how you look at it, enjoy!! ;-P