Knock on Wood: BBQ Wood

Cooking BBQ can be enjoyed in many ways. It could be cooked indoors or outdoors. It may be done with metal stakes or with bamboo sticks, each giving a distinct flavor to the meat being skewered. Flavors are always the highlight of a good BBQ experience for diners. These are brought about by the spices and the type of meat itself, but another factor which is most often overlooked is the type of fuel that has been used to cook it.

There are many fuel types for BBQ, wherein some use synthetic fuel, and some utilize organic fuel types. There’s gas, charcoal, or BBQ wood. Gas may be easy to obtain, contain, and utilize, but sometimes there is that slight twist in the taste, especially if the fuel has not been combusted fully, giving a pungent taste to the meat as it absorbs the unburned gas.

Charcoal is an organic fuel which uses carbonized briquettes that burn slowly to cook the meat. It may be a good solution, if not for the dirt and mess it makes.

BBQ wood is a good source of fuel for BBQ cooking. It is as easy to gather BBQ wood as it would be any other type of firewood. However, the uncontrolled quality of inferior BBQ wood may result in a random taste from the smoke of the burning fuel. There are some high quality BBQ wood types, which when burned as cooking fuel give off a fragrant smell that is absorbed by the meat, adding to the overall taste.

Different Types of Wood to Enjoy BBQ

One of the most popular flavors of BBQ is brought about by hickory BBQ wood. The nuts and extracts from this tree are one of the more popular flavoring for BBQ recipes, but the smoky and dense musky texture of cooked BBQ is brought about by the firewood itself. Hickory BBQ wood is not that abundantly available as the trees have other uses than just firewood.

Another high quality BBQ wood is the cinnamon type. As we know, cinnamon is from the powdered bark of the cinnamon tree and is used as a strong spicy flavoring in many dishes and drinks. The flavor of cinnamon is not only limited to the bark, but the wood itself has traces of the same flavor. When used as BBQ wood, it also gives off that same smoky and spicy tang for the meat to absorb.

There are too many types of wood to be enumerated one by one, but definitely, the quality of BBQ recipes also depends on the type of fuel used in cooking it. By far, the best taste is achieved by using BBQ wood.


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