Cooking food over wood is an excellent way to experience some delightful flavours. For instance, flame-grilled ribs, or wood-smoked pizza, are pretty hard to beat! While cooking with wood at home isn’t overly complex, there are some things you need to think about to ensure you go about it the right way. With that in mind, here are some of our top tips to ensure your fire burns hot and your food tastes great!
Dried hardwood is the best fuel for your fire
Picking the right wood is such an important first step when it comes to cooking with wood at home. The best wood you can use is dried hardwood from a species like birch, oak, or pecan, for example. It’s best not to use softwood for cooking, as it doesn’t maintain heat for very long and will burn much more quickly than hardwood, which is far from ideal when you’re hoping to maintain a steady heat to effectively cook a meal.
Wet wood - or wood that has not been dried - causes high volumes of smoke and is not safe for cooking. When you’re setting up a fire for cooking food, you need to ensure you use wood that has a moisture content of less than 25%, which will allow you to cook your food to perfection. All of our kiln-dried firewood has been dried to a moisture content of 20% or less, making it perfect for home cooking, ensuring you won’t be overcome by smoke and fumes from your fire. One other thing to note - burning wet wood at home is now illegal, so make sure you have a stock of legal firewood you can use in your home fireplace.
Think about the flavours
When you cook over firewood, your food will take on the flavours generated within the fire. If you use the right fuel, the result will be delicious, wood-smoked flavours that melt in your mouth and complement your meal. Done wrong, you could have a problem on your hands. It’s so important that you avoid wood that has been pressure or chemically treated, as you need to make sure your food isn’t heated over toxic flames - for obvious reasons! You should also avoid wood that is covered in mould or fungus if you plan to cook with it, as it can produce some undesirable flavours in your food.
Build a small, hot fire
While it can be tempting to set a huge fire in your firepit at home before getting started with your cooking, a small, hot fire is actually the best for cooking. Keep things reasonable and build your fire in such a way that enables sufficient oxygen to get around the fuel that you’re using. You can then add logs as and when you need them in order to maintain the heat of your fire, as opposed to merely for aesthetic purposes!
Use a Home Fire combo to prepare the perfect woodfire for cookingBecause there’s so much to think about when it comes to preparing the perfect fire to cook over, we want to make your life so much easier. We’ve put together a range of handy bundles for you to choose from, which will make things incredibly straightforward when you come to cook over wood at home as well as saving you some money at the same time!. Our handy firepit bundle includes the kindling and logs you need to get your fire started in the right way and ensures you will be able to cook your food to perfection.
Light your fire approximately 45 mins to an hour prior to cooking to ensure you have glowing, smouldering embers rather than leaping flames to cook over. Remember, the deeper your pile of logs, the more intense the heat and the longer it will take to be ready to cook with.
Using wood creates a distinct flavor for the food you cook, but it is also difficult to control. You can cook with wood on a charcoal or gas grill to help enhance the food's flavor. The different sources of heat give off different combustion gases, which create varying flavors.
Wood-fired cooking is a type of cooking in which food is cooked in heated wood smoke. The smoke not only adds flavor to the food but also helps retain moisture, making dishes more flavorful and tender. This type of cooking has been used for centuries and has become an essential part of many kitchens worldwide.
Pick the Right Wood. The best types of wood for cooking are dense hardwoods from fruit- or nut-bearing trees, such as oak, hickory, mesquite, cherry, apple, or pecan, which burn hotter and longer than soft, resinous woods like Eastern white pine, which should be avoided.
One of the main benefits of wood grilling is that it gives food a unique flavor that cannot be replicated with other methods. Additionally, wood grilling is considered healthier than charcoal grilling because no chemicals or additives are necessary to start the fire.
Hickory and Oak are probably the #1 and #2 types of wood for grilling and smoking depending of where you live in the US. The taste of hickory smoke reminds of the taste of molasses — sweet, rich, and a bit nutty in flavor.
To summarize, wood grills excel in the realm of flavor, infusing your food with an unrivaled smoky taste that delights the palate. The use of wood or charcoal provides much higher temperatures, ensuring perfect cooking results. On the other hand, gas grills offer convenience.
Your food will retain more nutrients too, making wood-fired cooking a great healthy option. Finally, the point we most enjoy about cooking over wood, is that it's fun. There's something great about using a natural fuel and nurturing your fire to cook your dinner on.
Cooking with firewood produces various airborne toxins, resulting in poorer respiratory health [34] and imparts undesirable sensory properties to the food. ...
Exposure to the pollutants emitted by firewood burning can lead to respiratory diseases, including asthma . The use of firewood for cooking also contributes to indoor air pollution, which can result in increased morbidity and mortality .
Cooking with wood can be a bit more time consuming and requires more maintenance. However, wood-fired grills produce undeniably delicious, smoky flavor that you just can't achieve with other grills.
Sugar Maple: This is the gold standard for food-safe wood. It has excellent hardness, with a Janka hardness rating of 1,450 lbf. It's also not too hard, meaning knives won't get dulled. It's also tight grained and naturally water resistant.
The rule of thumb is to use “heavier” hardwoods like oak and hickory for smoking “heavier” meats like beef and pork, especially if they're heavily seasoned or sauced. Use “lighter”, sweeter hardwoods like maple or fruit woods for smoking “lighter” meats like poultry and seafood or vegetables.
Wood is a smoother, softer material, that is naturally less abrasive that stainless steel. This means that the vulnerable non-stick coating of your expensive pan, or handmade ceramic serving bowl will not be in danger of being scratched or marked by wooden utensils.
When introduced to high temperatures, metal spoons can get really hot. Plastic spoons can begin to melt. Wooden spoons don't conduct heat so you can stir until your heart's content without fear of the handle heating up.
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