First smoker in transit!!! Stick Size question?

E

enricocoron

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After several summers of 'meh' outdoor cooking and after seeing the sad imitation models of real offsets at Home Depot I'm stoked to say my Yoder Cheyenne will arrive next Tuesday. I'm planning on starting off with a 4 hour seasoning with peanut oil, and then trying out some Memphis style spare ribs and Jamaican Jerked Chicken. I'll get to the butts and brisket once I can get the temps under control tightly.

In San Diego we don't have a ton of options for quality wood. One of the more reputed places, Olson firewood (family owned for years), offers two types of wood, 6-8 inch 'splits' or the whole logs for you to split. Same price but it seems like the 'splits' are too small for a proper offset like the Yoder Cheyenne. I'm thinking it's worth it to split it myself, lord knows I'll have plenty of time on my hands waiting for the meat to smoke.

Hickory is 45 bucks for 40 lbs....Oak, Cherry, Apple, and Walnut are 40 buck for 40, that's not too bad for San Diego is it? (mostly cactus grows here).

Appreciate any input on the size of the sticks I should burn.
 
Try looking for this kind of outfit: http://www.southernfuelwood.com/
OK, you ain't gonna ship cooking wood from Florida to San Deigo :crazy: The reason for posting the link is to point out there are likely companies near you that cater specifically to restaurants and supply them with cooking wood in bulk. It might help to visit a couple pizza joints or other restaurants that feature wood fired ovens and ask where they get their wood; they get it somewhere and I doubt they spend $1.13 per pound:shocked:

PS: my splits are about 16 inches long x 3-4 inch wedge (think about a 6-8 inch diameter tree quartered).
 
Welcome to the stick side!
All of the wood listed is good for making Q.
Try them all some time.
Length is important if you don't have a saw.
Never bought wood, but would get it split if i was.
You can always make it smaller.
Save the peanut oil, any spray vegetable oil will work.
Do not worry about tight temps.
Relax and make some Q!

Later,
Doug
 
enricocoron said:
Hickory is 45 bucks for 40 lbs....Oak, Cherry, Apple, and Walnut are 40 buck for 40, that's not too bad for San Diego is it? (mostly cactus grows here).
Click to expand...

That's almost double the price of running to walmart and picking up those $5 bags of Western Chunks (those are almost 10# each). Not to mention, I'd never buy wood by weight unless you can confirm moisture content.
 
enricocoron said:
After several summers of 'meh' outdoor cooking and after seeing the sad imitation models of real offsets at Home Depot I'm stoked to say my Yoder Cheyenne will arrive next Tuesday. I'm planning on starting off with a 4 hour seasoning with peanut oil, and then trying out some Memphis style spare ribs and Jamaican Jerked Chicken. I'll get to the butts and brisket once I can get the temps under control tightly.

In San Diego we don't have a ton of options for quality wood. One of the more reputed places, Olson firewood (family owned for years), offers two types of wood, 6-8 inch 'splits' or the whole logs for you to split. Same price but it seems like the 'splits' are too small for a proper offset like the Yoder Cheyenne. I'm thinking it's worth it to split it myself, lord knows I'll have plenty of time on my hands waiting for the meat to smoke.

Hickory is 45 bucks for 40 lbs....Oak, Cherry, Apple, and Walnut are 40 buck for 40, that's not too bad for San Diego is it? (mostly cactus grows here).

Appreciate any input on the size of the sticks I should burn.
Click to expand...
That price is off the charts even for Socal. If you cannot find a better price down in the SD area, drive up to north OC woodshed and stock up.

1015 N. Batavia St . Orange

http://www.thewoodshedoc.com/

Rick
 
palmtreefrb said:
That price is off the charts even for Socal. If you cannot find a better price down in the SD area, drive up to north OC woodshed and stock up.
Click to expand...

Mind your state regulations for transporting firewood so you don't spread diseases and pests. I'm sure a state like CA likely has a 50 mile max
 
FYI, I just did the math, the kiln dried hickory & pecan I buy works out to $0.10-$0.13 per pound 1/10 of what you were quoted and cheaper than Kingsford.
 
CL is your friend. Plenty of cooking wood for areasonable price. You can also talk to or call with your local tree service guys and they usual have seasoned wood on hand. I got a guy off of CL who has his own tree service and can deliver seasoned oak any time I want. I saved his number. $100 for 1/4 cord of oak delivered to my driveway.
 
SteveKing84 said:
Mind your state regulations for transporting firewood so you don't spread diseases and pests. I'm sure a state like CA likely has a 50 mile max
Click to expand...

In California most if not all of our wood is from northern California which is more than 350 miles from southern California.
 
For small amounts of firewood, I like the way Bear Bottom Farms in Richmond does it - polypropylene bags of a generous 2cf (weighing 60 lbs. or so) for $20. It's not anywhere near as good as cord prices (which they also offer), but it does keep the car or truck clean, and it's easy to handle. Unfortunately, for hickory in splits, I have to order it elsewhere, and pay through the nose.
 
You asked about size. Some of that may depend on the size of your firebox. Mine is 20x20x20, so I like to cut my wood at 16" and split it to about 3" - 4" pieces.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. Looking around those prices are pretty steep, I found another supplier in El Cajon (Garcia's firewood) that offers split Oak and Pecan wood at $25 for a 'wheel barrow full' which they said is 10 cubic feet, so I guess that would make it roughly $300 per cord at that price. It's not very far so I'll try a few wheel barrow loads and if it's properly seasoned like they claim and burns well I'll go grab a half cord of oak.

No Hickory though, as someone posted it seems pretty expensive around here.

Southern California Firewood in Thousand Oaks, CA will deliver all types of cooking wood in 40 lb. bags that cost around 8-12 bucks each with a 6 dollar delivery fee per bag. I'll probably order some Hickory, Alder, and Apple wood bags from them.

Cheers
 
Sweet I just came home with 20 cu. feet of Oak, 10 cu. feet of Almond, and 10 cu. feet of Mesquite (Arizona sourced) for $100. It all seems well seasoned though I'll need to split most of the pieces down further. I can live with that to get started. If the oak burns well and even I'll go get a half cord of it. The owner Fernando says he gets Pecan, Apple, and Cherry from time to time too, but never Hickory. He said it's too expensive and most chefs in San Diego think the Oak gives a better flavor. Fightin' words to Texas Q. Curious to try some fish with the Almond but I'll probably use the Mesquite sparingly and or as a finishing wood.

Smoker Comes tomorrow between 9-12!!!
 
enricocoron said:
Sweet I just came home with 20 cu. feet of Oak, 10 cu. feet of Almond, and 10 cu. feet of Mesquite (Arizona sourced) for $100. It all seems well seasoned though I'll need to split most of the pieces down further. I can live with that to get started. If the oak burns well and even I'll go get a half cord of it. The owner Fernando says he gets Pecan, Apple, and Cherry from time to time too, but never Hickory. He said it's too expensive and most chefs in San Diego think the Oak gives a better flavor. Fightin' words to Texas Q. Curious to try some fish with the Almond but I'll probably use the Mesquite sparingly and or as a finishing wood.

Smoker Comes tomorrow between 9-12!!!
Click to expand...

Awesome! Post up some pics when you get it.
 
Oak-n-hickory said:
For small amounts of firewood, I like the way Bear Bottom Farms in Richmond does it - polypropylene bags of a generous 2cf (weighing 60 lbs. or so) for $20. It's not anywhere near as good as cord prices (which they also offer), but it does keep the car or truck clean, and it's easy to handle. Unfortunately, for hickory in splits, I have to order it elsewhere, and pay through the nose.
Click to expand...

I'll have to check them out. I went up to a place in Santa Rosa and got about 1/8th a cord of oak for $30, but then it was about $30 each for 1.7 cf bags of apple and cherry. I've reached out to some of the cherry orchards in Brentwood to see if they have wood available.

OP...any orchards down in your area? Maybe you can grab some wood if they prune or replant sections of the orchard. That's what I'm trying to do.
 
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