How to Cook with Wood / Cooking with Firewood

Firewood is by far my favorite way to cook. Gas, Charcoal and other ways to cook are fine, but you just can't beat the smoky flavoring that cooking with wood gives you. It produces a delicious aroma (as long as you use the right firewoods) and there's something really romantic and traditional about it that let's us kind of travel back in time and appreciate the simple things. Cooking with firewood is becoming a lost art, and I'll run over all the different ways you can go about it.

But first, you've got to make sure that you choose your wood carefully. You don't want to use sappy, super moist, or diseased wood to cook your food over! Yuck! You'll need good, healthy, seasoned hardwoods for the firewood when cooking over a wood fire. Oak, Sugar Maple, Hickory, and Elm are the best woods to use. They provide the most aroma and are among the cleanest burning woods. (Some people use Ash, but to me - it doesn't have enough flavor or aroma, though it is a very hard wood.

Methods for cooking with firewood

Cooking with Coals

You might remember doing this during your childhood. I know I did. I cooked marshmallows, hot dogs and more all off of the embers of a bonfire. Remember how good they were compared to the normal way you cooked them at home? Well you CAN do that same thing at home. Just use a charcoal pit or fire pit to burn a fire and use the embers to cook with!

Using a Rotisserie

When Rotisserie cooking, you don't want to let the fire die. You want it at about a medium blaze and you want your food spinning over the flames. A lot of folks like "blackened" meats and this is the best way I've found to achieve that goal. The fire seals in the juices and crisps the outside of your steak, chicken or pork ever so slightly, so it "blackens", giving it a nice cajun zing.

Cooking in a Fireplace

Make sure your fireplace is clean! That being said, if it is...this is the most romantic of all. It's a nice treat for couples with the house to themselves to enjoy instead of doing the same old thing of using the stove. Fireplaces are romantic, and it just so happens - that COOKING with fireplaces is even more romantic! Cheers!