Cherry
Prunus spp.
A fruitwood named by the Culinary Institute of America among the commonly used smoking woods. Like the other fruitwoods it is reached for when a lighter smoke is wanted, and like the other fruitwoods BBQHQ has found no institutional source establishing that it is lighter.
What it is
- Wood type
- Hardwood · medium grain
- Smoke intensity
- Not established — see below
- Where
- international
What is repeated, and not established
Cherry is widely described as mild, slightly sweet, reddens the surface. That description is everywhere and BBQHQ has retrieved no source establishing it.
Described as mild and sweet throughout the popular literature, and unestablished by any source BBQHQ has retrieved. The absence of any institutional wood-and-food chart is recorded separately.
Texas A&M’s meat science department attributes regional wood preference to local availability rather than to culinary property, and the Culinary Institute of America’s section on smoking woods names the woods without attaching a food to any of them. BBQHQ therefore publishes no wood-and-meat pairing chart.