"Baker's pine" Firing Your Oven Discuss "Baker's pine" in the Oven Management forums; Yes, I know, in the sticky thread at the top of this section the post says: "The only rule on ...

[sakoman]

Yes, I know, in the sticky thread at the top of this section the post says:

"The only rule on wood is to not burn pine, fir or cedar."

Yet in some of my reading on historical baking techniques in WFO's I've repeatedly run into references about the use of "baker's pine". Does anyone know what type of pine this is?

Digger pine is quite common in my area:

Pinus sabiniana

I've been experimenting with it in my Casa 110 and have been quite pleased. When seasoned for a year it starts easily, burns hot, generates little smoke, and leaves an amazingly small amount of ash. I really don't see any obvious downsides to using it.

Could it be that the blanket restriction on pine as fuel is a bit extreme?

[nissanneill]

Hi sakoman,
I tend to agree with you on the pine issue.
I personnally don't burn much pine because I can get plenty of 'better burning timber' than pine.
I use pinus radiata for the kindling and small starter wood but not for the main heat generating logs. I prefer to use eucalypt which is also a no no from some members here. All I can say is that they must have very sensitive palates if they can taste the oils or resins generated from this timber. It burns so easily and there wouldn't be any remaining to permiate the food. Maybe if you are burning green timber and you choke the fire producing copius quantities of smoke but then you are smoking rather than baking, right?
No, run with it until you find that if/when the taste gets to you, then change your timber.

Neill