Best for smoking pork beef and chicken.
Best hardwood for smoking.
That is also why we get the common questions of what is the best wood for smoking meat when it comes to smoking meat there are recommendations of meat wood combinations.
Unlike a lot of smoking woods alder is a gentle hardwood that adds a slight and delicate note of smokiness to salmon.
For more delicate meats like chicken and fish a lighter hardwood is suggested.
This means that we can slowly coat the salmon in alder without risking overpowering it or turning the fish sour.
My personal recommendation is of course the apple oak and peach wood chips.
Smoking wood plays a role in the flavor and the color of the meat it also forms a bark or crust on the meat in general mild woods are good for fish and poultry medium fruit woods are best for poultry or pork and strong woods hold up against dark red meat flavors.
While it might be easy to think that this will be too weak this is actually perfect because cold smoking salmon tends to last for at least a day.
For example for heavier meats like beef and pork hardwood is recommended.