anthropic, I bring many varieties of wood home from my work as an arborist. I've tried Gambles oak, a species of white oak; plum, cherry, and peach; apple and pear; and the alder and river birch which grow along our streams.

I'm not picky; every one of those woods has added quality flavors to any fish, wild or domestic turkey, chicken and blue grouse, and beef and whitetail. Pork, too, of course.

I have one of the outer burners of my gas grill reserved for the smoking wood. Most commonly I fire up the grill, turn off the burner under the wood after several minutes and extinguish the flames to get the smoke going, then put the food to be grilled on adjacent burners.

I have also successfully smoked several birds and trout/kokanee salmon by keeping the grill temperature down near 200 degrees.

I probably use more alder than any of the others. I have so much of it. But then I have so much of the others,too. I think as long as you don't use pine or juniper/cedar, the outcome will be tasty.