I’ve tried black walnut for smoking and it gave meat a bitter taste. Kinda like when I use too much hickory in a long smoking session. I’ve learned to use mostly oak, plum from our big plum tree that finally died, apple, maple, etc.
Of course, over 80% of our trees are hickory...
What we have here is a hickory. I think that might be ok for smoking. Truthfully, we use pecan wood chips in our smoker. I love the delicate flavor it gives everything. Beef, pork, chicken, salmon, have all been really great with pecan wood. It’s subtle compared to other woods. Of course, pecan doesn’t grow up here in the Midwest (that I know of) so we purchase our wood chips.
I have a ton of oak, plenty of hickory and some cherry available here. I like to start out with cherry and then swap to hickory and finish with oak.
The meat has taken as much smoke flavor as it can pretty quick. Then it’s just a matter of keeping the right temp and mammalian meats tend to get wrapped in foil at the half way point. On big roasts, when I foil, I might swap to the oven to finish it. Boston Butt or brisket, I might start late enough in the smoker to finish overnight in the oven.
My son doesn’t like smoked meat aside from salmon of course and it’s just me and him so I haven’t run it in a while. I need to go smaller. Hate using pellets when I’m surrounded by wood. Might have to invent the Mini Wood Fired Smoker.
You would think I’d love a small pellet smoker with thermometers inside, including stuck in the meat, fully automated. Cooking is different though.