Aroma Intensities of Various Wood Smoke Fractions

Subjective aroma intensities were performed on smokes generated from cherry, chestnut, hard maple, white and red oak, apple, hickory and mes‐quite woods. The smokes were separated into total, carbonyl, neutral, basic and phenolic fractions. A sensory panel rated the carbonyl fraction of all smokes, except mesquite, as having the strongest smoke intensity. The aroma of the basic fraction was next in intensity. In the case of mesquite, the phenolic fraction was the most intense. Contrary to the common belief that the phenolic fraction is the primary contributor to smoke aroma in wood smoke, this study showed the carbonyl fraction to be the primary contributor for most woods. Because of the potential health danger associated with smoke‐associated phenolic compounds, this study demonstrated that it would be possible to reduce or eliminate the phenolic fraction in many smoke sources without losing smoke aroma intensity.