Smoking wild meat with willow?

I remember in more northerly Saskatchewan in the lower, damper type of land, we had black poplar.
On the drier land, often ridges, we had tamrac trees, the ones that shed their needles every fall.
In BC we have what is black poplar in Sask., only it's name is cottonwood.
On the side hills in drier BC we have the tree they call tamrac in Sask., only it's name is larch!
Of course, when I was in Saskatchewan we had Jumpers and partridge.
Found out in BC the jumpers were deer and the partridge were grouse.
 
How many different types of willow are there locally in saskatchwan? I know of some red willow near the farm along an abandoned road, and some lighter colored stuff near a pasture.
 
Young white poplar and young black poplar can be hard to tell apart with an unpractised eye. Look for larger, greasy looking leaves on black poplar. Each type usually grow in bunches, but can be found mixed on occasion. Black poplar is probably the worst firewood on the planet. Right down there with wet cedar! Smoke from white poplar smells good. Smoke from black poplar smells like dirty, dirty feet and week old arse.
 
This tree is what you Saskatchewan fellers would call a black poplar.
But here in BC it is a cottonwood. Going through a bunch of pictures this is the first one I found and it just happens to be beside a trappers cache, near his cabin, with the ladder to reach the cache leaning against the cottonwood tree.
 
The leaves on a cotton wood should have a serrated edge on them. You don't have any birch around there do you. The other thing you can use is a dry diamond willow if you can find one. Just remove the bark first.
 
My momma she told me to use fruit trees for smoking game meat. Apple, Cherry etc... Have lots of wild Cherry trees around here, works great.

Tried Oak that came with the smoker, used it twice. First and Last time...
 
H4831 said:
This tree is what you Saskatchewan fellers would call a black poplar.
But here in BC it is a cottonwood. Going through a bunch of pictures this is the first one I found and it just happens to be beside a trappers cache, near his cabin, with the ladder to reach the cache leaning against the cottonwood tree.
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There is a tree commonly called cottonwood or Russian poplar, that is different than black poplar. Cottonwood can get huge. We had one on our farm in Manitoba that two people could not join hands around it. Black poplar usually dies out well before it gets that big, at least on the prairies. Black poplar is a very fast growing tree.
 
I use oak and it works and tastes great. It must be oak that has been standing dead for a few years or old oak fence posts (not treated). Never use oak that has been laying on the ground. If you cut green oak, let it season for at least 2 years and keep it stacked up off the ground. Two years is minimum seasoning, the older the better.
Bark on or off, makes no difference.
 
There is nothing wrong with using black poplar. Cut in winter or late fall and split it right away. Let it season for a couple of years and the bark will usually fall off or can be pulled off easily. If you don't split it the bark gets slimy underneath because the bark does not breathe. It an Birch are my favorite wood for cooking over an open fire. For smoking I find alder very strong and prefer using a fruit wood or hickory or mesquite when available.
 
H4831 said:
I remember in more northerly Saskatchewan in the lower, damper type of land, we had black poplar.
On the drier land, often ridges, we had tamrac trees, the ones that shed their needles every fall.
In BC we have what is black poplar in Sask., only it's name is cottonwood.
On the side hills in drier BC we have the tree they call tamrac in Sask., only it's name is larch!
Of course, when I was in Saskatchewan we had Jumpers and partridge.
Found out in BC the jumpers were deer and the partridge were grouse.
Click to expand...

The correct term for black poplar/black cottonwood is Balsam poplar. The natives around here used to chew the buds to relieve tooth ache. I've actually tried it and while the taste is awful, it has a natural "numbing" effect. There are two types of Tamarack/Larch here, one type actually grows in wet, swampy areas. They look very nice in the fall when they turn orange.
Jumpers are whitetail in MB, partridge is ruffed grouse. Chicken is also a general term for grouse, mostly referring to sharptail though.
Common belief is the term jumper comes from the fact there used to be many mule deer and it refers to their hopping gait.
 
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I finally got around to trying some willow, not for smoking exclusively, but to amp up the chicken on the charcoal grill. I used the kind that grows near slough/ low areas, and trimmed off the bark and outer wood. So it's really just the pith or heart wood, whatever you want to call it. Works fine, not strong or overpowering, but adds a decent flavor, and especially a nice golden color.
 
saskgunowner101 said:
I'm embarrassed to ask, but how do you tell the difference between white and black poplar? AFAIK, we only have white poplar around, but it smells like arse when you drop a green chunk in a fire pit.
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gotta laugh here, an old memory comes to mind! When I was green, we went for a load of free cut and load your own fire wood. The trees were already felled. I saw this rough bark looking wood, I thought it was oak, I was over joyed, we cut and loaded a full truck box and trailer load and went home smile'n. Found out later it was black poplar:redface:! No wonder nobody else was cutting it, they were all cutting the white poplar and whatever else was there! I was scratching my head wondering why would one take white poplar if you could have oak!

Some real good smoker tips here, I'll be watching this thread closely!
 
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Built a smoker at a remote camp on a whim after a successful night's fishing. Got the fish in the brine and started looking around for wood. Well there are not that many options up here for wood from the bush. A local native at the camp said they used black willow. I tried it and while it's not my favorite, it's not bad. I found it best to not get too carried away with the amount of smoke, at least for fish (trout). A few years back while in the south I threw a bunch of maple logs in the back of the truck and brought them back up. It's been my favorite wood to smoke with for years, even before I moved up here.
 
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