How about the recipe and technique for those whole chickens being roasted over the pit?
When someone figures out how to use plastic water bottles for fuel, you will really have a first page article!
For all the wood naysayers that are concerned about the environmental impact, I am sure you never fly on a plane or drive a car , right?
1
The environmental impact of cooking methods like these in the quantities in which they’re employed, as compared to modern agriculture, energy production for power grids and millions of automobiles across the globe is statistically zero. It is immaterial so please save your shame and guilt (always the shame and guilt) for much broader issues of concern which will actually make a difference (and which I fully support).
2
I visited my daughter when she was in the Peace Corps in Niger, where everybody cooks over a wood fire. When I arrived at the airport in Niamey at dinner time, the city smelled as if it was engulfed in a forest fire. If you want to revert to third world standards of air quality and environmental damage, cooking with wood is the way to go.
3
Why not? After all, we have too many trees... not.
3
Irresponsible not to mention wood burning’s contribution to dirty air. Sorry to be a wet blanket, but mindfulness about what we eat and how we cook it is surely in order this summer. We are expecting temps of 102 this week—do we really need to burn wood to cook meat?
4
If you have the capacity to grill over wood, why on earth would you not?! Most charcoal briquettes are not natural, and are loaded with horrible chemicals.
This is completely wrong. Wood burning puts out many harmful (and carcinogenic) molecules. Coal briquettes burn far more cleanly. Please check your facts.
As an added note, "natural" doesn't mean anything as far as safety. Plenty of "natural" things out there will cause cancer or kill you outright.
5
Delicious, bursting with complex carcinogens.......
3
Those rushing to cook with wood should consider that they are making a direct contribution to global warming.
3
We have been camping at Vermont state parks for a while now, and the camping spots come with a firepit with local wood fuel available for purchase. The firepits are American made with a system for adjusting the height of the grates for controlling grilling temperature. I’d have to say we have had the tastiest BBQs on these grills. It takes some time to master them, but eventually you will as most of the time the pit is the only way to cook your dinner. As for cancerogens, marinate your meat and grill vegetables to reduce the exposure to these compounds. As far as charchoal not having any flavor, I disagree. Hardwood lump charchoal has plenty of flavor. And it gets pretty close to the taste of a wood fire.
1
Restaurants that regularly make a practice of grilling foods over wood-based fires are on shaky environmental ground at best. Wood, a severely over-exploited industrial resource, is in increasingly short supply around the world. As an example, years ago I spent much time in the California desert. It was common at the time to see pickup trucks with chainsaws in the back heading out onto desert backroads each morning in search of mesquite trees and stumps suitable for cutting into grill-sized chunks. They would return in the evening with full loads. This practice was so lucrative for the mesquite hunters and so widespread that it eventually fostered a mesquite shortage as suitable trees became harder and harder to find. Desert ecosystems are extremely delicate and easily disrupted or even destroyed, and recovery can take decades.
I know from experience how flavourful meats grilled over a wood fire can be, but on a mass basis it is an exploitive and environmentally destructive luxury that Mother Nature can no longer countenance.
4
We spent two months in Argentina last Winter. it was our third trip there. They don't cook over open flames but the coals that have burned down from an adjacent fire just like the picture at the top of the article. The meat is awesome and has no strong smoke flavor but mostly the flavor of the fat dripping onto the hot coals. True smoked meat is called barbecue and it can take 12 to 24 hours to prepare. Both cooking processes produce incredibly tasty meat but the end products are quite different.
1
Bingo! This article makes it sound like Argentines cook over live flames, which they absolutely do not as a cultural rule.
They use a brasero (braseiro is Portuguese spelling) to produce ashed over embers which are spread below the grill grate.
In my year in Argentina and apprenticeship at a parrilla, I never saw a single "blow poke" and experienced a tendency to grill over lower heat than we do in the USA.
I'm happy Argentine grilling is getting attention, but wish it was more accurate about the techniques employed.
Good beef. Salt. Zero live flames below the meat. Period.
1
I'm surprised this article left out Metta in Brooklyn. There's always a crazy wait and reservations are impossible. The food is good. But I have to say I leave dinner smelling like a campfire, not in a good way.
1
I'm a grass fed beef farmer and I'm fortunate enough to have apple trees in my pastures. The dead-wood that falls naturally from these trees provides more than enough fuel for us and our friends to enjoy the meat we produce over wood heat. I'd be able to cook over wood a couple times a week for a lifetime and never cut down a single tree. Obviously, if every household in America were to cook a large percentage of their meals with wood, there'd be measurable forestry and respiratory health impacts. That's not going to happen. Compared with other methods, it's the least convenient and requires the most time and thought. We all know which way the masses trend. In the right setting, with the right methods, cooking over wood is a really fun and flavorful way to celebrate the simple pleasures of life in good company.
11
Leave deadwood where it is! http://www.farmbiodiversity.ca/helping-habitat-2/woodlots/dead-wood/
Please don’t do it in dense urban areas especially! Wood burning produces fine airborne particulates that make your neighbors choke! Even with their windows closed! Even worse, some irresponsible supermarkets right in here in the city sell the wood specially prepared to make it burn more easily. It only compounds the problem of particulate laden air in EPA non-attainment regions, such as here in the Delaware Valley. It messes with everyone, especially those with asthma, for example.
11
For years I've grilled using the bark of old, dead maple trees: burns hot, leaves wonderful coals within 10 minutes ... and the flavour!
1
The resins contained in different woods and charcoals can vary with the source, the manner in which the fuel is prepared, and the method used to combust it, which includes the amount of oxygen provided (stoking).
1
I guess it's only me then that becomes a bit frustrated when I read yet another tired story about more elitists, in this case, chefs, such as Stone, Puck, Robbins, etc., with plenty of expendable cash to spend making even more high dollars, to buy fancy, high end dead tree wood, in an era where, unless you've been living under a rock or a Trump MAGA banner, our earth is facing perhaps the most daunting ecological and climate problems it has ever in it's history known previously.
Here I am, dumb me, trying to live as conscientiously, and as foot-print conservatively as possible to pay my way with mother earth, so to speak, and then I read about this kind of inane consumerism, wrapped up in a package with the name 'trend' slapped on it.
What's more, they're not using generic wood. They're cutting down oak, cherry, hickory, applewood, all which don't exactly replace quickly like pine, maple, etc. Ugly.
It's an exhausting, beaten up feeling knowing that my tiny part of conserving- means- nothing.
20
"It's an exhausting, beaten up feeling knowing that my tiny part of conserving- means- nothin"
Your not alone - but our type is.
6
If a Wall Street financier and a retired Microsoft exec are doing it, it has to be the best. Right?
1
Meat had a short shelf life until some of it fell into a fire and, if it wasn't eaten immediately the smoke preserved it for later. Our taste for smoked meat is primal, it keeps us safe and tastes good as well, eaten hot off the grill or later. Tonight it's Applewood smoked salmon and potato salad.
4
We are at a tipping point with the climate and have so many more people and more pollution. It’s time to evolve away from dirty combustion.
1
It's fine to cook with whatever fuel you want in a rural area, but in dense cities, the smoke can be harmful to the health of your neighbors. I developed asthma midlife from occupational exposures, and in the fall, if too many of my neighbors have wood stoves going, I can't even take a long walk without my lungs starting to close up. I can't imagine what it would be like for me and all the kids with asthma if people decided to start cooking with wood again.
11
We in rural areas are suffering exposure from our wood burning neighbors, as well.
1
This article muddies multiple ideas. Coal burns FAR hotter than wood (~2,000 degrees vs. 1,000), so talking about the "intense heat of wood" in the context of a coal fire is super misleading. The article also contains scattered comments about why grilling is superior (e.g. vs. smoking) that further imply that wood is the only way to get there (the comment about the Maillard products resulting from caramelization at high temperatures is also misleading - this is a process that happens in any high-heat cooking, and you certainly don't need to hit 1,000 degrees to get there).
Finally, wood smoke contains huge numbers of carcinogens relative to coal. Good for a treat, but it really ought not to be a frequent source of food.
8
I dont think this article implies anyone is using "Coal" as in anthracite. I think it is talking about the "embers" of hardwoods. @RTFA
Last year's fires in northern CA were supposedly caused by a downed power line. I wonder if the current Pawnee fire was inadvertently started by an overzealous home-cook, eager to grill his ribeye over almond. Happy Fourth, y'all, and watch those sparks.
9
:) I used to enjoy grilling when I lived in the midwest in a much smaller city. But now? I came home last week and seriously thought the apartment building next door had caught on fire. There was serious smoke rolling across the street. Turned out to be someone grilling.
Ever have your smoke alarm go off because the downstairs neighbor has his gas grill on again? Or because the teriyaki restaurant next door is opening up and getting the grill going:)
7
Burning wood is bad for the environment. Not only the CO2 but all kinds of nasty stuff and particulates. Many of the things I grill - mainly veggies - do not benefit from a smokey flavor. I'll stick to gas, thank you.
16
lol, I thought the whole reason the earth was warming was due to burning fossil fuels...like in a gas grill:)
1
Whether smoking or grilling, cooking with wood is always great. I'll have a fire going tomorrow in the 110-degree Texas heat. I've seen a lot of silly concern in these comments over the source of cooking wood (and a lot of even sillier comments about how wood smoke is dangerous). Seriously, people, it's not like anyone is cutting down old-growth forests for cooking wood. But one bit of advice I'd like to add is don't go to the grocery store to buy your wood. Every day, there are thousands of trees getting trimmed back because of power lines, removed because they're dying or their roots are causing damage. Most local tree service companies do a nice side business in selling this wood. Support your local economy and go there for your wood.
10
Our city grinds the trees up to use as wood chips/mulch for the parks.
4
Uh, not that many almond, oak, cherry, alder etc trees growth along the power lines where I live. Have you tried woolybucket for your steaks?
Seriously, people, it's not like anyone is cutting down old-growth forests for cooking wood.
Yea, you wait and see, and while you're at it, take a look at an aerial photograph of the border between Haiti and Dominican Republic. That side with no trees left is Haiti. They cook (and heat) with wood.
3
Just using what drops from the trees, one can grill over good wood on an Old Smokey or a simple hibachi. For example, lamb and vegetables ire delicious when grilled over pecan twigs and small branches that fall to the ground.
3
Most of what falls on the ground here is pine, spruce, and fir. I have read that those are not good choices for grilling. We don't have mesquite in these parts except at the Fred Meyer store:) And pecan trees are not very common here except at the Arboretum or perhaps they have one at the Amazon biosphere downtown:)
1
You do have apple and cherry wood though, which are particularly good for pork products - hams, sausages, bacon, and chops.
1
And Maple and ALDER! Lordy there is a TON of Alder! If you are short, I have a couple of Western Big Leaf Maples that were "cut down" about ten years ago that have turned into gigantic sprawling 60' Maple shrubs that I could donate...
Great article but not even a mention of Francis Mallman who has done more to spread the gospel of using wood fires for cooking than anyone I know.
3
There was mention. Inspiration for one of the manufacturers.
1
Look closer:
Mr. McCarthy had experienced his own wood-fire epiphany during an outing with the grill maestro Francis Mallmann, who has restaurants in South America, France and Miami. “Propane has no flavor, and charcoal isn’t much better,” Mr. McCarthy said. “The aroma and flavor of wood are in a league of their own.”
1
He's mentioned in there.
Oh yeah...20 years ago wood cooking was all the rage and I got into it in a big way. Big, prime ribeyes ...and 1/4 cord of wood later they were delicious...No! not unless you have a forest behind you and don't care about the environment. I care now...
8
You’re an inspiration.
Is it not true that charcoal burns hotter than wood?
ABSOLUTELY.... charcoal burns hotter than wood! It's just basic chemistry & physics. A lot of the heat energy produced in wood burning is used up in the removal of H2O and other natural elements in the wood fibers. But the claim sure sounded good.
1
No. That is why the author specified SEASONED wood.
Yes - nearly twice as hot.
We've been cooking over wood camp fires for decades. Some 20 years ago, we welded up some very heavy steel mesh with angle iron and made an adjustable grill that has six different heights on it.
Some people call this a Tuscan grill. We call it our camp grill. It's out back all summer in a rock fire pit. It goes in the bed of the pickup when we are off camping. It takes all of five minutes to set up.
Note to apartment dwellers: don't try this at home.
Charcoal gets going in the chimney. Wood, usually scrub oak or mesquite, goes on top.
Our go to meats are lamb and chicken. Fish is salmon when we can get wild king or sockeye. Veggies - squash, potatoes, carrots, onions, pasilla peppers, sweet red peppers, whole garlic and asparagus.
Also we like to grill citrus. Slice a pink grapefruit in half, place cut side down over the hot embers. Cook until it's caramel brown. We drizzle wildflower honey on top and eat this for dessert. Oranges are good, too.
5
Lived in an old (C1725) house outside of Boston; had apple wood from dead old trees and cooked in the big fire place with a grate thrown over the andirons.
Key is: make sure you are cooking over coals, otherwise everything is "apple wood flavored".
Note to the concerned: Cooking method used only when need for a nice warming fire arose.
3
Just finished up cutting up some oak from local trees for my offset smoker. A few months ago, looked into getting a wood burning pizza over - wow $5K. Then I thought about using my offset smoker - weighs over 600 pounds on pneumatic tires - and makes great smoked turkeys, hams and Boston Butts.
Yes wood smoke has carcinogens in it but most of the wood I use comes from dead trees or trees too close to homes. Brings back memories of getting up well before down to start the fires in granny Lynch's wood burning stove - great memories.
Wood smoke is laden with particulate matter that is harmful. The smell of a wood fire may be romantic, but the harm it can cause to lungs is not. Use gas or charcoal.
3
No CO2 with gas?
No particulates with charcoal? No cresol?
Are the laws of Chemistry different out West?
1
My very favorite thing to do is to go camping and to cook. I am not a very motivated cook at home, but when you are away from it all, have lots of time and hungry from being in the great outdoors: cook. Start a wood fire, let it burn into coals, wrap potatoes in foil and put them in the coals, put a grill over the coals, start cooking some shrimp for a start and it goes on and on. Best bet is if we catch some fish that day.
You should go all the way with the foil meals; wrap your meat and an assortment of veggies together in the foil before you toss it in the coals. Delish.
1
Potatoes don't need to be wrapped in foil. Just put them directly into the coals. When they are done, just wipe them off with a wet paper towel. As long as they are completely covered, they come out perfectly.
The thing I think of is convenience and the number of people being cooked for. We use a gas grille at home and a charcoal kettle grille at our ocean house in Canada. But up there it's usually just a couple of us. Even charcoal is more effort than we often want. But after reading this I may try wood for some steak or fresh of the boat swordfish this summer.
Propane seems much less polluting. With wood you first have to get the fire burning long and well enough to generate the steady hot coals, then after the cooking is done the fire burns itself out. That's a lot of fire for just 20-30 minutes of cooking. With propane you just turn it on shortly before cooking and turn it off when you're done. As most avid campers and backpackers will tell you; Fires are for ambience and warmth, stoves are for cooking.
1
I switched from charcoals to gas years ago and never looked back. The smoke generated from the fat has more then enough flavor for me. Occasionally I may use soaked hickory chips for beef however nothing beats a pan seared steak seasoned with salt and pepper. A fine cut of beef needs nothing else.
Cooking a steak in a pan is a crime against God and nature. Only open flame will do.
3
I watched Alexis Stewart cook a steak in a pan and I tried it and have never even put a steak in my broiler again much less start up a grill. All she did was throw a big chunk of butter onto a very hot pan and immediately put the meat right on top. She even told the viewing audience that it seems odd to throw butter into a skillet on high heat but she stated that she learned the technique studying at the Cordon Bleu.
2
Hank Hill, central character on TV cartoon "King of the Hill", would disagree. Hank, a propane and propane appliance and accessory sales person, always says "You should taste the meat, not the heat"
4
Hate to say it, but a really ancient cooking fuel, particularly where there is little wood but plenty of domesticated animals, is dried animal dung.
5
And, as people are animals and what goes around comes back around ....
Or, you can just throw a grate over your campfire. We've cooked at our summer cabin for 35 years on the campfire every day, except when it's raining really hard. We now have a grate we can raise or lower, but for years we just would put an extra log under the grate for heat control. We use our local hardwood in upstate NY, sugar maple. If you're not sure how, ask a Girl Scout.
3
If you have the fire anyway, then cooking on it makes great sense. But building a fire just for cooking makes less sense. Like on a 90 degree summer day.
2
Well, during a heat wave cooking in any manner makes no sense. Unless it’s on a metal sheet left in the sun. Eating cold or room temperature food makes more sense. Salads, both with & without protein, sandwiches, cold soups. Why heat up your living space (indoor or outdoor) with any kind of heat? Oh, cool, not cold, water will cool you down much faster & more comfortably. As will eating meals without protein. Don’t forget to eat a starch or you will be craving another meal shortly. Forget the inside of the potato. It’s just there to keep the skin fluffed out. Most of the nutrition is in the skin anyway. As well as the flavor.
Great article. At home, grilling is a complete family event, from prepping the food to building the fire, from enjoying a glass of wine while cooking to slowly keeping track of the heat and brushing the meat with the chimichurri. An existencial experience
3
Pecan wood is fantastic for smoking pork and chicken. Soaked pecan shells work great also.
1
Such gastronomic snobbery and silliness! Good ingredients and attention to the cooking process are the important parts.
Despite all the hoopla intense heat is still heat, and if you want your food to taste like old burned wood that's your mishigoss.
1
Wood fires are a major source of air pollution. Particulates, formaldehyde, hydrocarbons.
Yes they smell wonderful and give food that smoky taste but romanticizing 'an ancient fuel' as if we are getting back to a 'simpler' time is foolish posturing.
23
Still CO2 is the end product.
"Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness".
John Ruskin
5
CO2 plus, in the case of wood, lots of nasty pollutants.
Fantastic! Pediatricians and asthma researchers have so little to do, now they can work to keep ahead of the trendy influences of foodies.
6
I recently read an article in the NYT that said cities across the United States are losing many of their trees. Just what we need to combat climate change, a reason to cut down more trees.
8
Paella: There is a NYT video with Mark Bittman in Valencia where he goes to a restaurant which uses the Orange tree wood to cook Paella. As someone from California I had the audacity to serve Spaniards my version of Paella outside of Spain. I pulled out all the stops on the ingredients but they approved of it and ate it really because the wood smoke flavor.
Just tonight we did a leg of lamb on the grill along side fennel and garlic in a cast iron pan. The smoke is the secret ingredient.
And for all you environmentalists out there: burn bone dry wood and you don't need a bonfire to cook a piece of meat. Most importantly; don't burn something down like your house or your neighbor's house, or your neighborhood. Now that is an environmental disaster.
2
Our family went to the Plymouth Plantation where we saw historical replications of Indians cooking turkeys over wood fires. We copied this at home. It was easy. We dug a fire pit near a hose outlet where we could see it from the kitchen. We filled the pit with wood that fell off the trees when the wind blows. You stuff a branch through the neck and tail holes. After the fire died down we would hang the turkey branch on metal porch chairs over the coals until the legs were loose. We did not baste or turn it. The fat from the back is on top and it runs down over the heavier breast.
2
Beyond those flavor producing compounds, wood smoke comes packed with cancer producing compounds. http://www.ehhi.org/woodsmoke-exposures.php
Wood smoke particulates are akin to second-hand tobacco smoke for harm to human health. Would you rather your cancer surgery be done by a caveman or a Yale Medical School doctor?
10
Smoking is at an all time low yet cancer keeps surging. I'll take my chances with the wood fired pizza ovens and grills I run in my business and let's concentrate more on keeping roundup and other chemicals out of our food supply
3
Obviously ,the quiche and kale crowd here is not overtly enchanted at cave men cooking red meat.Yet that's how most of us got here until peanut or wheat sensitivity recently arised to send some unwillingly into convulsions. Not to demerit the sensitive with allergies,and not to mention the smoke but this Argentine and Brazilian grilling thing is big out west and they must have some filter systems because I've noticed a few right in Los Angeles proper.In all sincerity ,there quite a lot of industry there also ,and money.Texas smoked meat's the best, any where you dont need sauce and this looks like it!
2
Thank goodness. Maybe the fads are fading. and we can get back to cooking with fire.
1
Wait–bbq takes a half-day to properly prepare, but wood grilling takes a full, mesmerizing and communal day? So, do we all have to wait until we're retired to dive into the technique?
1
Nice article, but failing to include the magic of Santa Maria bbq using red oak obliterated a huge part of California’s Vaquero history.
7
Wood is the best for flavor and crust, and that smokiness. In the summer I get that with wood or hardwood charcoals in my Weber kettle, or over a beach fire. And, even better, I get that in the winter when I’m cook in my fireplace, grilling meats and vegetable over embers pulled on to the hearth and a grill made from a few bricks and a grate. Other food gets wrapped in foil and shoved into the coals under the grate where the logs burn. Or I pull out e,beds to wrap around my dutch oven.
There is nothing like cooking over wood in the middle of winter when the storms are howling outside, the snow piling up and the power is out. And you’ve got the lovely warmth of the fire and th4 smell of a rib-eye grilling over the coals. Or when you’re into your third nor’easter and second multi-day power outage in three weeks.
7
You can end up with greasy residue in the chimney, causing a fire.
4
Every chimney should be checked & cleaned every year. But, it’s not a reason to not use wood to cook & keep warm with. As time goes on, have you notice electricity gets more & more scarce? Never build a detached home without a wood burning fireplace, gas is such a waste for nothing.
I learned to be one with the fire from Ben Eisendrath, grillworks. I have never looked back. It is a very zen experience and puts one in “the now” more than anything else you can do. Wood size is key and watching the fire instead of in the kitchen making salad. The salad course can follow the meat course and no one will mind.
2
I have a fireplace that I can't use with real wood -- I have to use Duraflame logs because I have asthma.
As much as I'd love the idea of smoking wood to cook with (on my substantial deck, here in the Hudson Valley) it's a total no.
Oh well.
1
Grilling smokelessly with a solar grill can produce first-rate food with no environmental or health threats. All one needs is an hour of sunshine, even when the yard or roof is snow-covered. I cook in the sun with my Gosun grill which heats up to 700F. One can even heat a slab of soapstone, place it on the patio table, and saute on that. One charity is supplying these grills to rural cooks in Guatemala. A Puerto Rican woman posted photos of banana bread she baked in hers to share with neighbors.
13
Appreciate your comment on several levels: using it personally and donating. There is a Navajo project to get wood burning stoves to people in more isolated areas of the reservation, but the issue of pollution, the risks of accidents has made me reluctant. Your suggestion sounds like a viable solution. Thanks.
2
I cook on wood. Summer winter fall and spring. 40yrs. The fancy and I suppose expensive grills pictured are very nice but unnecessary. I cook both low and slow and hot and fast on the simple sliced 55gal drum with hinged lid that you see on the streets of every city and town. Cheap and easy to build. Love of grilling, trial and error are my teachers. Winter time grilling is done either outside on the drum or on a tripod grate fastened from a discarded oven rack with threaded rod legs that I set inside of my Vermont Castings Defiant woodstove. We also will place a cast iron skillet directly on the flaming embers, either the woodstove or drum work fine, get the skillet HOT, a dab of butter and whatever you wish to eat, blacken to perfection. A relative of mine is a cancer researcher and says flame grilling and drinking Belgian ales (open fermentation) are keys to a cancer free life. True or not, I follow his advice. LET'S EAT. My wife adds "Don't forget the kimchee."
5
I find it hard to believe that an oncologist would tell you eating flame-grilled food leads to a cancer-free life when HCAs and PAHs (byproducts of grilling over an open flame) are confirmed mutagens and heavily suspected human carcinogens. There is plenty of evidence that they cause cancer, and admittedly some evidence that they may not, but zero evidence that they somehow prevent cancer.
I'm with you 100% on the Belgian ales, though. Cheers.
Antony Bourdain mentioned in his second book that in order to install a wood fired cooking method in New York that a multitude of associated equipment is necessary for pollution control e.g. blowers, filters etc. There is also a long process to get the necessary permits,
17
In Los Angeles fireplaces can't be used unless the weather conditions are severe. Wood burning cooking sounds marvelous, but the threat of pollution is troubling. Appreciated the comments about solar heat cooking.
1
my problem with low and slow bbque is getting cold meat served to me - doesn't do it for me
so I prefer a hot grilled steak fresh off the metal - like the eye fillet steak my missus cooked perfectly for me 2 days ago
AU$16 for 2 - $8 each - hot, pink in the middle, juicy, succulent and delicious - way better for me than paying $30 for a few skimpy slices of cold meat cooked lo'n'slow ... jus' sayin'
4
Low n slow doesn’t mean what hype think it does. Pit masters still cook food to the same internally safe temperature, so the meat is not cold. Typically cooked at 225 degrees over time allows the smoke to help develop a complex and delicious crust on food. Certain cuts of meat need time to tenderize and make it delicious, or are thick. If you try to cook a pork but fast, the outside will cook faster than the inside, yielding a meat both under and over cooked. Low n slow is great for ribs, brisket, pork but, thick cuts of steak. These meats are often then finished with a high heat for searing.
1
Are you serious? In developing countries, daily use of wood for cooking creates 1) deforestation = habitat loss and climate change; 2) respiratory illnesses from smoke exposure; 3) pollution from the haze; at the very least. People are trying to move away from this method of cooking.
And here, first world cooks are 'rediscovering' this as a trend and Nytimes is reporting and praising this? Do your Food section reporters not read the Environment section and vice versa? How do these wood fires filter their smoke and emissions? Aren't there local codes about fired and smoke?
39
It appears you are conflating world economic and environmental issues with bbq in the western world. Yes deforestation is a major issue that's because the poor have almost no income and need to make charcoal for cooking and warmth. It is an economic issue and often in countries that are corrupt or have very poor economies. I'm sure this is not the case in the Carolinas or Georgia where there is plenty of hickory or Canada plenty of maple to cook with. Much of it fallen wood on the ground from storms or select clearing. Larger cities already have strict fire codes for open fires. If you are a suburbanite with a spacious backyard or live in the vicinity of a rural area it's perfectly fine. Lastly there will not be plumes of smoke rising everywhere around major cities because of this article. Not everyone has the patience or skill to burn a fire properly let alone cook food with hardwoods Its an art. It will be limited to bag wood chips with no harm or smoke inhalation issues. Way too much drama in your comment.
43
When I first flew into Atlanta, the number of trees was amazing - we get lots of rain and that supports those trees. I got a wood fired offset smoker several years ago - mine is on air filled tires and weighs over 600 pounds. I have experimented smoking different entrees and at a neighbors suggestion tried to make a large pan pizza and it worked and tasted great. Also another surprise came up when I smoked a turkey - it was surprisingly moist - no mayo needed here. On occasion I do a whole uncooked ham - takes about 12 hours but once U get a offset smoker going - very little is then required.
My family had lived in a small/old bungalow and it came with it's own smokehouse. It had rails for hanging various cuts of pork - U can only smoke 1 cut of beef and that is brisket - so pork it is. My ancestors used to raise hogs, smoke the meat and make corn whiskey with their extra corn. They would build rafts, put their smoked meat/whiskey on the Ohio River and float down to Vicksburg or New Orleans and sell their products for specie - hard currency - and walk back to Indiana on the "Devils Highway" Fascinating journey with challenges/
4
No backyard griller is talking about daily. Given the time, skill, procurement, and cleanup required - and given that some people think flicking on the gas flame, or washing bowls of cereal, is already too much work - I think even the enthused would only tackle wood cooking a couple times a year.
The wheel of cooking preferences turns and revives the practices of old. Love of wood fire is an atavistic feature of the cave man. I love oudoors grilling, as long as I do not have to clean-up after.
5
Is the wood being used for these wood fires from sustainably grown trees?
7
No. Only endangered trees make fire that is acceptable for cooking.
32
And endangered species make the best steaks...
1
There is magic in the placebo affect.
If you think you can taste the smoke flavor compared a gas grill you have probably smelled the smoke when the meat was cooking.
For those of us who grill often over the warmer months here on the taiga it is simply not worth the effort , expense and cleaning the ashes to grill with wood.
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I can tell the HUGE difference even in a restaurant where I didn't do the cooking or see the kitchen. I wonder whether you have tasted real wood cooking.
The real placebo effect is with the gas grill. What's the point of a gas grill? You already have your oven broiler.
I will not dispute the placebo effect but I can attest to tasting the smoke flavor on the food several days after coming off the grill and sitting in the fridge.
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It isn't just flavour imparted by smoke that is better. Try tea or coffee made with water brought to a slow boil on a wood fire. The water is silkier, smoother on the tongue than water brought to a quick hard boil. Try slowly steaming food, it tastes way better cooked on a wood fire. There is something about electric or gas cooking that takes away flavour.
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Wood smoke contains the exact same cancer causing chemicals as second hand cigarette smoke. It coats the food cooked with wood, with these chemicals, and it releases these chemicals into the air where they are forced into the homes, yards and lungs of innocent victims. Cooking with wood is not cool. It is deadly, and it contributes to climate change.
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Smoke contains flavor chemicals that are breakdown products of the lignin in wood- vanillin, eugenol (clove oil), guaiaciol (used in cough mixtures, responsible for the muh of the taste of smoked food) and syringol (responsible for much of the smoky aroma). These can all be made synthetically, and usually are. Look up Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" and Wikipedia on "wood smoking".
However, electric or gas cooking doesn't take away flavor: the wood by-products add it.(The slower the cooking/boiling, the longer the exposure to these by-products.) If you crave the taste of water boiled over wood, but don''t have wood available, there's nothing to prevent you from adding a drop of artificial vanilla or clove oil or both to a pot of coffee or tea.
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Lots of things taste different following smoke inhalation. I'd account the other sensations described as simple asphyxiation.
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Mesquite has a very strong flavor and it’s not my favorite fuel for grilling or barbecuing, but it’s good to use it because it is a water-consuming monster and a pest throughout South and West Texas. I don’t know if it is technically an invasive species but I do know that it has contributed to the deterioration of grasslands because it consumes so much water.
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