2 month old maple

Me being a country boy, my experience says not dry enough. It will dry a lot faster if cook in short pieces. They would have been dry by now if that was done 1st that way. Might be able to dry faster in idea drying place. Some where warm and low humidity.It will be very mild wood.In front of a dehumidifer for the week would do the trick.

Put a small chunk in and test it w/o meat. A pan of water could simulate a load of meat so oven heats up normal. If it burns/smokes OK and smells reasonable - go for it. Better to test than mess up some good bacon. Like cal said, 2-3 months is kinda short cure time but don't know til you try

The wood still hasn't seasoned. I'd cut it into 2x2x2 pieces so it will dry a lot more quickly. If you didn't live in Michigan this time of year, I'd suggest placing it out in the sun for a week.

Got a dehydrator? Feel daring. How about setting the wood on the top shelf of your smoker at 140* well above the element for a few hours? If wood starts to smoke, which it shouldn't, turn it off. You could try laying the wood out in a single layer with a fan blowing over it for a few days. Got an electric heater you use for warming up a room? Place wood on a table in front of the heater (well away from the heat source) but where the warm air blows across the wood. All this will help dry the wood, but will only work with the smaller pieces.

If your going to try and use that smoker to dry it might be hard. It's a humid environment with no where for the moisture to go.

How do you heat your house???

Maple is not much of a wood to use in small increments in a CS.

You could also go get a $2 fryer chicken and smoke it.

Cheap way to answer a thousand guesses.

Thanks for all the good answers, maybe we'll go with some cherry and not worry about the maple at all.

Bubba,
You just give up to easy. Cut the end pieces about 1" thick, dry the best you can. You didn't say how you heated that house? If it is central heat and have registers on the floor just put it over ones closes to heater. Make sure you flip every once in a while.

Central heat, dry heat, mind you even with the humidifier going it's still dry. I'll do it tonight and see what happens.

With them only being 2" and in cold weather they may be seasoned more than a person thinks.Maple is a real sappey wood and a big piece wouldn't be close. Like Tom said TEST,IMO wouldn't even have to be meat in smoker. Look at color of smoke and see how the piece has burned in say 3-4 hrs.

A person needs to know his smoker,thats just my 2 cents!!!!!!

Here is the wood drying 101, as recommended from Cal!!
I cut 5 pieces you can see the wet section in the picture.

We also have a problem with this set up, other than everybody thinks you've finally lost your mind, you have the wood poachers, you have to watch for them, there sneaky.

It starting to look like that cherry might be needed!!!

I don't know about the cherry just yet but it's a good thing I cut more than I needed, the poachers got a piece each last night. The wife just sat there>>What!!

Maple worked out well, gave it about a 45 minute pre-smoke to make sure, no nasty smoke or smell, bacon came out well, not salty, we have lots of bacon now, 11 packs. That will last us a long time.

Nice looking bacon. A lot less fat than we buy at the grocers.

I know its to late now but im a wood turner and you need dry wood before you turn it or it splits after turning. You can dry small amounts of wood in the microwave quickly.

In the winter here with the furnace running all the time the climate is so dry. Those few small chunks I cut up finished drying without a problem in a couple of days. I just had to keep an eye on the damn dogs(thiefs).

quote:

Originally posted by Pags:
Nice looking bacon. A lot less fat than we buy at the grocers.

Yes, it is lean and it cooks up nice, we chowed down yesterday as I sliced it up all the little pieces my son fried as I sliced. Good snack as I sliced and sealed.

I know maple is a very mild wood. Did you use more than a normal smoke and what is your impression on the flavor?

Dmassey, Thanks on the tip on drying in microwave! Do you use hi power or like to use a lower setting?

It is mild and I used about 6 oz, I didn't check but I would guess there is still some left, I'll find out tonight when I smoke some trout for dinner. You could smell it more than taste it but when I pull some out next weekend it might be better. For some reason that seams to be the case with just about everything I cook. It's always better the next day as far as smoke flavor. It only took about three hours at 180 degrees for the pork side to get to 145 degrees so It didn't smoke for long either.

Care to share your recipe on how you made your bacon? My wife loves the stuff.

Used the high mountain buckboard bacon cure and directions except used a side of pork instead of Boston butt. The side was really meaty but a little thin in areas, came up with some little pieces but flavor wise it's good. Rinsed for three hours cut a piece off and cooked it, it was a little salty for I soaked another 1.5 hours and let it sit on the racks for about an hour and put it in the smoker. It got up to temp so fast in the smoker I don't think it took on the amount of smoke I wanted it to. I think instead of using maple again I'd maybe go with a apple and hickory mix for a stronger smoke flavor. But as I said in a earlier post, after a week or so the smoke flavor might be just fine. ?? Anything else I can share, let me know.
Jeff