Elm?

[locolobo]

Had a big limb fall from an elm tree that's on the fenceline of my property. Neighbor says he will get his son to cut it up and he was wondering if it was good for BBQing. I don't know the answer as I'm a big oak / pecan fan. What's the consensus here?

 

[SMOKE FREAK]

I say no to elm.
It's a slow growing soft(er) wood that will probably provide more ash than flavor.
But I could be wrong.

 

[chilidog]

It’s not bad, when my dad smoked his German sausage he would look for fruit wood either peach or apple and if he didn’t find any of that he would use elm. We have Siberian elm here.

 

[Lahawk1]

No way. Unless the elm where you are is different than the elm here there is no way I would smoke with it. I have cut them down and piled them up to burn and I can say they do not produce good smoke.

 

[locolobo]

I was told a long time ago they are Chinese or Japanese elm, Don't remember which. Larger leaves than on our native elm. It is a softer wood. Have had several die over the years and the wood does not take long to get soft.

 

[bschoen]

There are American, English and Dutch elms, along with some others (red, cedar, rock, winged and wych). I don't know if any of them produce a clean, tasty, smoke. Elm is very bendy, make some long bows out of it .

 

[1MoreFord]

Many Elm varieties don't even make good firewood.
Around here many ole timer's called it pizz elm because of the nasty odor.

 

[creek bottom]

Many Elm varieties don't even make good firewood.
Around here many ole timer's called it pizz elm because of the nasty odor.

This is exactly what we call it. Smells like urine when burning. The stuff up here does make good firewood though. No way I would use it for cooking...

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

I have seen the pizz elm put out a fire in a wood stove when it burned. There is a LOT of sap in green elm. We always joked around here that Chinese elm had about a two week window when it was suitable for firewood. It was either too green and would hardly burn, or too dry where it burned too fast and produced too much ash for the very little heat it produced.

 

[locolobo]

Thanks guys! I'll let im know.