Choosing and finding wood Firing Your Oven Discuss Choosing and finding wood in the Oven Management forums; Originally Posted by jayjay Here in the Philippines most of our firewood is well under three inches. We have a ...

[Acoma]

Originally Posted by jayjay

Here in the Philippines most of our firewood is well under three inches.
We have a lot of Mango, and some Mahagany. We also use Santol and
Nara. These are woods that many of you have not heard of. I beleive that
part of the problem I had/have with my oven is not getting it hot enough.
JJ

I eat Mango and I have had Mahagany furniture

[sharone]

Hi There,
I'm new here. I found a source for some of the better woods, i.e. various fruit woods like apple. Was wondering about these other varieties that are easier for me to get in my area? Maple, birch, and alder wood? Any thoughts on these?

[dmun]

Here's a table from woodheat home that gives the calorie content of various firewood species. The higher up the table, the better the wood. The table shows three maples with widely divergent heat values. The stuff we get here on the east coast is great firewood. White (or paperbark) birch is a popular fireplace wood, mostly, I think, because it looks good in the firebasket, and the bark burns ferociously, giving a nice appearence. The wood doesn't give off much heat, but it's not as bad as the conifer based softwoods, like pine and spruce, for creasote on the chimneys. Alder, I don't know about.

[maver]

I have plenty of alder and use it for the oven - does not contribute as many BTUs as maple but it certainly works. I tend to use the lower BTU woods as my starter fire where I make up for lower BTUs with volumes of fuel (wood), then use the maple during the maintenance phase when cooking pizza. Maple excels here for longer consistent burn, no sparks. Alder sparks a little. Alder is easier to get burning than maple, which also makes it pretty good as kindling.

[jwnorris]

Here is a link to a post of mine discussing the characteristics and BTU ratings for wood.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f2/a...wood#post15053 (alder or maple for firewood?)

In the lower portion of the post, where BTUs are discussed, those in red are soft woods and normally not used for cooking.

J W

[maver]

JW, it looks like the highlighted woods are perhaps the more pitchy woods, more likely to release sparks and heterocyclic amines (carcinogens) when combusted at lower temperatures? Sparks may be an issue in the pizza oven, but I have a hunch the health concerns with some of the highlighted woods may be less of an issue due to the higher temperatures. I guess when it comes to health we'd like more than a hunch though (but that doesn't keep us from eating barbecue!).

Marc

[sjordan93436]

Walnut is bad? I use it regularly for starting fires. It goes on top some oak kindling (wine barrels from a friend). Then red oak. So it is at least an hour before cooking. the oak starts FAST. A friend has a walnut orchard and has a huge pile of old, old walnut no one else wants. Cost free.

Our coastal red oak is very dense and hard to start. But once it gets going, it is great. (Santa Barbara county)

[jwnorris]

NO, walnut is not bad .. I use it myself. However I can not find it for free.

As for those that are highlighted, I am just passing along what I have heard in the past about the softer woods. Maybe the high temperature would make a difference. The harder woods do have a generally higher BTU rating.

I just located some local olive and used the first batch this weekend. Sure burns HOT.

J W

[sjordan93436]

I jsut find our walnut to start fast, burn bright, but burn out quick. the weight of the wood is _significantly_ less than the oak.

The oak takes a while. Even after almost a half hour, it is just getting started. When I move the fire to the side, ouch, ouch- it almost dies. But then ! a little later the oven is closer to temperature, it starts and burn hot.

I need to watch two things. When I move the first time, I can kill it. Later, I need to be careful not to overfeed, the fire and the oven can get too hot.

[ballard6449]

Scored a pickup load of Mesquite (2" to 4" thick pieces). Client of mine just cleared a pasture with dozer and was piling it up to burn.....
Trying to get out and get another load before it all burns