Is it safe to cook marshmallow over burning sycamore wood?
I can’t recall sycamore having anything especially toxic in it. People usually avoid softwood like pine for cooking, because of the turpentine which distills out of the wood as it burns. Black walnut contains a natural herbicide called jugalone. I don’t know if it is toxic to people, but it is not going to taste good on a marshmallow. People can’t eat acorns because of all the tannic acid, but oak can be used for cooking because the tannins are not volatile. I would say the only thing to be very careful to avoid are any vines clinging to the logs. If these were poison ivy, the very volitile oil will vaporize and this could cause a very nasty rash. This was what happened to a friend of mine. He mearly stood downwind of the smoke but came away from it looking as though someone had splashed acid in his face.
