Mistaken for Chokecherry

• Wild black cherry wood suffers from a case of mistaken identity when it comes to choosing wood for smoking. Although a wild black cherry tree can grow as high as 90 feet, it's often confused with a smaller, more poisonous cousin, chokecherry, a tree about 20 feet tall whose leaves are harmful to animals when eaten in large amounts. This won't be a problem when buying commercially harvested wild black cherry wood, which will be labeled. However, it can be a danger if choosing wood yourself in the forest, or using wood provided by someone other than a professional. It's true that wild black cherry leaves contain small amounts of hydrocyanic acid, a component of the poison cyanide. However, the acid doesn't get into the hardwood, which is what you want for cooking purposes.

Brave the Misconceptions

• Having the courage to use wild black cherry wood despite the misconception that it's toxic will earn some delicious rewards. The wood has a smoky-sweet flavor and gives a pleasant reddish tinge to meat, poultry and fish. The best choices are commercially harvested wild black cherry wood in chips. chunks, planks, blocks or logs. If you're still concerned about any smidgen of hydrocyanic acid remaining in wild black cherry wood, be sure that the wood you use has been stripped of bark. As the tree's outer skin, bark absorbs impurities to protect the inner wood, so that's where any toxins would be.

Don't Overwhelm the Food

• As with all hardwoods for smoking and barbecuing, use wild black cherry wood with care to avoid overwhelming the food. Soak the wood well before putting it on the fire to make it smoke and smolder rather than blaze. With a round charcoal grill about 2 feet in diameter, add 1/4 cup of soaked chips once the coals have turned grayish-white. Smoke should rise as soon as you add the wood, so immediately put the meat, poultry or fish on the grilling grate. If your grill has a hood, lower it after the meat is positioned on the grate to capture all the smoke. Always start out using a small amount of wood for flavor. You can always add more if the flavor isn't strong enough for your taste, but you can't take away any flavor that's already gotten into the food.

Cooking Options

• Wild black cherry wood chips and chunks work best when grilling meat, while slower-burning blocks and logs are best in smokers. Planks are used in conventional ovens for roasting meat, poultry and fish. In addition to giving its own flavor, wild black cherry wood in all its forms can be soaked in wine, beer, whiskey or fruit juice to add more tastes to food. Black cherry wood works especially well with fish, so a plank can be soaked in hot water with the juice of 1 lemon to add a piquant flavor. Beef tenderloin can be grilled, smoked or roasted over black cherry wood soaked in whiskey.