Types of wood suitable for burning on the BBQ

[LyNx]

After filling up another bin full of timber shavings, i want to start making some fire bricks for the summer evenings outside. What timbers are suitable, and are not suitable for burning and cooking food over.

I have a large collection of Western Red Cedar so far but i know this spits and cracks when burnt.

Andy

 

[tim]

You should only be cooking over embers so most woods will be fine - except the known dodgy ones eg laburnum etc.

IMO you would be better off using charcoal and to add a flavour you could always stick some damp shavings of oak, maple, hickory etc to give a smoke.

Chestnut spits like mad on any fire.

 

[LyNx]

I would opt for charcoal but it's a big firepit and we are building a grill to go over it. It won't be right using charcoal (if you know what i mean)

Andy

 

[Gill]

A combination of charcoal and wood works very well. Light up the charcoal barbeque as per normal, than take chunks of your chosen wood and soak them in water for at least 20 minutes (my barbecues normally take much longer than 20 minutes to come to temperature). When you're ready to cook the food, add the soaked wood to the barbecue at the same time. It will impart the flavour of the wood to the food. You can make the wood last longer by wrapping it loosely in aluminium foil.

I'd avoid resinous woods such as pine and cedar because they'll impart a bitter taste to the food. The most popular woods are hickory, oak, mesquite and fruit woods such as apple and pear. I've also had a lot of success with woody herbs, such as rosemary (great for fish) and sage (for pork).

Gill

 

[Ian Dalziel]

probobly most of bq's range of softwood #-o

Ian

 

[LyNx]

thats even rubbish for burning, as i found out last year when i covered the garden in ash :roll: