The Wood-Fired Blog

A Girl and Her Dragon – She’s on Fire!

Jul 05, 2016

The bright side is that, as of the writing of this latest blog, I haven’t set anything on fire that I wasn’t supposed to. I am not going to lie; there have been a few close calls. Turns out burning cornstarch will adhere to a pizza peel and turn a 6-foot cooking implement into a temporary torch. Evidently supposedly dead coals can flare up when brought out of the oven... Read More

Fire and Water

May 06, 2012

I have to admit right up front that the next couple of things I am going to say are really (really) obvious. But bear with me, I might make a little bit of sense and find a bit of insight. Maybe. 1. Dry firewood, with less than 20% moisture burns fast and better and is far easier split than damp wood. 2. Firewood that has been stored properly, and not... Read More

Seasoned. Or Aged.

May 02, 2012

Writing about seasoned wood got me thinking about the Italian and English words for aging, or seasoning. Italian uses stagionato for cheeses—seasoned. A quattro stagioni pizza is a four season pizza, with olives, artichokes, mushrooms and ham. This list of toppings comes from our friend in Florence, Kyle Phillips, the Italian food editor for About.com. Photo from The Italian Dish Blog. On the other hand, in English, we use aged... Read More

Proper Seasoning. Seasoned Wood That Is.

May 02, 2012

I don’t think you can overstate just how important dry wood is to an enjoyable session of wood-fired cooking. Damp wood is hard (dare I say impossible) to light, it smokes when it burns (that’s because the fire needs to bake all the moisture out of the wood before it actually combusts) and it takes much longer to fire your oven for cooking. It can take all of the fun... Read More

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