Looking for a cooking method that infuses flavor into your meats and vegetables like no other? The best wood for grilling is ready to handle the task!
Many cooks might try to get away with wood chips or pellets to influence a dish, but only certain varieties of wood are fit for a master chef’s arsenal. Different woods have different flavors, and to cook with wood is to temper a dish’s flavor with that of the wood.
Of course, you can’t cook with fresh wood, as it contains too much moisture, isn’t dense enough and doesn’t provide a good flavor. Generally, aromatic firewood that offers long-term, high heat while limiting smoke is the best to grill with. Keep reading to find out why.
But first, feel free to learn more about Lumberjack’s cooking wood specifically by clicking the button below.
Why Does the Best Wood for Grilling Need to Be Dry?
The driest wood is easiest to start. Removing virtually all moisture makes firewood much more flammable and less likely to ruin food with excess creosote. The two primary ways of removing moisture are “seasoning” and kiln drying.
“Seasoning” is a popular, inexpensive way of drying firewood. To season firewood, vendors leave it outside, usually over the summer. During this 6-month process, a loose tarp or awning protects the firewood from the elements.
Kiln-drying is an infinitely more effective process, requiring about 48 hours to generate significantly drier firewood. Seasoning reduces firewood’s moisture content to about 30%, but the moisture content of kiln-dried firewood effortlessly sinks below 20%. With this low amount of moisture, firewood can cook food much more thoroughly without causing excess smoke and creosote.
Why Does Grilling Wood Need to Be Dense?
Another critical factor to consider is density, which determines how hot and long fires will persist. But how do you know which wood is densest? For starters, hardwoods are always denser than softwoods.
Fire made with dense wood, like oak or hickory, is substantially hotter than fire made with pine. Also, hardwood is much less likely to contain bitter sap that can ruin food.
Which is the Best Wood for Grilling?
When you use firewood for grilling, you essentially include the wood’s flavor in your seasoning palette. So now you may ask yourself, “Which wood species pairs best with this type of food?”
Depending on the climate, different woods absorb different nutrients from the soil. On top of this, the subtle flavor of a tree’s fruit may be present.
Red Meat
Oak might be the best wood for grilling steak.
A solid bed of coals is the foundation for any carnivorous smorgasbord, and oak wood is an effective option for such a task. This dense hardwood provides the most heat for the most time, so it’s perfect for making a coal bed, especially if you’re a beginner.
Oak doesn’t have a lot of flavor in the first place, so it’s incredibly versatile. Besides providing a nice sear to red meat, it also works well with white meat and even pizzas.
If you’re feeling bold, you can try hickory or mesquite for more robust barbecue flavors. Still, it’s easier for these woods to overwhelm meat with too much smoke, so be sure to use each sparingly and pay close attention to whatever you cook. They may not be easy to cook with, but they’re great complements to spice and pure sweetness.
White Meat
For grilling chicken, among other types of poultry, you might benefit from a combination of oak and cherry.
You can rely on the oak most heavily for cooking, but add cherry as the meat cooks to let in a bit of smoky fruit flavor that’s not too sweet. Besides, cherry smells even better than cedar!
Using other fruitwoods, like apple, apricot and peach, might present sweeter or tangier notes, but none should overpower the inherent flavors of most birds.
Poultry
Applewood is the most popular fruitwood. It owes this popularity to the high amount of sweetness and tang that make it versatile enough for all poultry.
Shellfish
Peach is an excellent option for shellfish and other seafood. It doesn’t overwhelm food with heat, and its mild flavor makes it the best wood for grilling shrimp or scallops.
The Other White Meat
Pork is a good fit for hotter, denser wood like oak and hickory, but it’s also light and sweet enough to match maple. Sugar maple is suitable for making all forms of pork fall right off the bone.
The signature sweetness of maple wood is hardly replicable. Whether working with ground pork, sausages or whole chops, maple is your best bet.
Vegetables
Grilling isn’t just for meat. You can cook your favorite vegetables on the grill using cooking wood to create more flavorful dishes. Oak is an excellent starter for most vegetables. Supplement the oak with a few pieces of hickory or mesquite for vegetables that perfectly pair with any barbecue.
Fruits
Hardier fruits allow you to make dessert right from your grill. Pair the fruit of your choice with a matching wood, if possible. For example, peach wood pairs perfectly with peaches. Applewood is, quite literally, made for grilling apples. Of course, sugar maple is an ideal wood for anything sweet.
Game Meats
Do you have a hunter in the family? Their hard-earned venison will pair perfectly with oak, maple or hickory. Oak and cherry are excellent for wildfowl like duck, goose, turkey or pheasant. A base of oak with a bit of applewood is ideal for grilling rabbit.
How Can I Store Leftover Cooking Wood?
If you have any leftovers, save the food for tomorrow and stack extra firewood appropriately. Extra firewood needs to maintain dryness to be effective in the future.
Keeping firewood outside is a good start. You should leave it under either an awning or a loose tarp to protect it without reducing airflow among individual pieces of wood. As you stack them, ensure there’s a lot of space among the logs, as this will also allow for greater airflow.
Finally, keep your cooking wood off the ground. Leaving it on a pallet or concrete is most effective.
Where Can I Restock on the Good Stuff?
As wood-fired cooking becomes more popular among restaurant owners and home cooks nationwide, we know you’ll enjoy using premium cooking wood in your grill. The social aspect of gathering around a fire is just as important as what you’re cooking.
Whether you’re a long-term veteran of wood-fired cooking or just starting, we hope you’ll enjoy your own wood-fired cooking sometime this season.
If you want to know where to buy wood for grilling, Lumberjacks is proud to offer an impeccably dry and dense selection of apple, cherry, oak and hickory. Please call us today to score some killer cooking wood.
Editors Note: This blog was originally published in April of 2023 and updated in February of 2024.
