I was born and raised in the South Carolina Lowcountry where wood fires are a regular occurrence. In 2011, I launched Bull’s Bay OYRO, a catering company providing wood-fired oyster roasts for parties. Needing a cooker, I designed my own and worked with area welders to create two prototypes using scrap metal. Today, the Bulls Bay OYRO cooker is being ordered from California to Maine! Needless to say, I have learned over time how to build the perfect fire.
Here are my tips.
I use a variety items I keep around for starting my fires but my go to items are usually dry tightly twisted newspaper, a couple of pieces of fat lighter followed by seasoned kindling. If I’m out in the wild I’ll start with twigs and pine cones, adding larger pieces of branches as the fire grows. I’m also not above using a small piece of fire log. It works great as a starter along with paper in wet conditions. I always have a box type container around for tossing small pieces of kindling wood in picked up from my wood pile or left over from carpentry projects. When I use non-hardwood, such as pine, to start my fires I use it sparingly so that it will burn off and not affect the taste of my food.
Properly seasoned wood burns hotter and longer with a more consistent heat. The most obvious way to tell if wood is aged enough is the weight. If it is fresh cut it will be full of moisture and be considerably heavier than properly seasoned wood. The next thing I look for is cracks and splits in the wood. As the wood dries out it will shrink causing these tell-tale signs on the ends. And the last thing I look for is if the wood has a hollow sound when it strikes another piece of wood or solid object verses a dead thud.