Wood Chips for grilling ribs?

Maple is quite similar to Alder wood. Maple is sweet and also darkens the color of meat. Balance it with Alder, Apple or Oak. Sugar Maple wood is the sweetest.

Leave the bark on

Some other basic smoking tips:

1. Use only hardwood, fruitwood or herb woods for smoking. Avoid softwoods, such as Cedar, Douglas Fir, Pine and Spruce, which are loaded with unpleasant pitch and resin and will ruin your meat.

2. Whenever possible use fresh wood - cut within twelve months of use in order to obtain the most flavorful smoke possible.

3. To obtain the best results, soak wood chips or chunks in HOT water. The heat opens up the wood fibers, allowing the water to more fully penetrate the wood so it smolders, rather than burns.

4. Develop your own blends. Experiment using the various hardwoods, fruitwoods and herb woods available. Think of different combinations as having your own spice cabinet right at your grill.

5. For a unique flavoring, try soaking Oak or Alder chips or chunks in white or red wines. This is an especially effective way to add additional flavor to fish or poultry.

6. Keep a logbook of what you do. Write down what kinds of woods you use and with what kinds of meat. How many spoonfuls of chips, logs or chunks you used. This way, when you have an especially good result, you can easily duplicate the process the next time. Likewise, if you have a failure, you can study what you did and avoid making the same mistake twice.

7. DON'T lift the lid off the cooking unit to see how the meat is cooking. Heat is lost and you lengthen the time it will take your meat to cook. You also lose valuable smoke

If they are indeed Maple and you chip them up, make sure to soak them in cold water for about 20 mins before adding them to the fire. Otherwise, they will burn too quickly. You want them to smolder on the coals or fire slowly so they release that aroma into the ribs. Good luck, hope this helps.

maple wood can be used for smoking, so if you can chip them up to a resonable size, go for it.