The flavor of wood smoke

[HMS Irruncible]

Does the wood of certain trees contain flavor notes of their fruit and other culinary products? For example, it's common knowledge that apple fruit seems to complement the flavor or pork. But many people seem to recommend smoking pork with chips of apple wood. This sounds like a false association to me... I can't see that apple wood or the resulting smoke tastes anything like apple.

I was just looking at some recipes involving smoking pork and beef, so I wondered about this.

[silenus]

Maybe not of their fruit, although I wouldn't doubt it, but each wood does have distinct flavors. But since the fruit and wood both grew from the same tree, with the same soil components, it wouldn't be a stretch to say the wood reflected the fruit.

[Jeff Lichtman]

Apple wood produces a mild, sweet smoke flavor that happens to complement pork. It's simply coincidence that the fruit also goes well with pork.

Stronger-flavored woods like hickory or maple are usually used for smoking cured pork (like ham and bacon). Apple wood doesn't produce a strong-enough flavor for this purpose.