Hardwood

There’s undoubtedly something special, maybe even spiritual, about cooking with hardwood—the fire, the aroma, the romance. We can’t get enough. Many home cooks and chefs avoid cooking over a hardwood fire, intimidated by its requirements for skill and experience. That’s why we’ve decided to offer this chapter, which is somewhat of a crash course. It showcases a dynamic range of backyard cookery that will help you hone a variety of cooking skills while eating damn well.

Today, there’s an abundance of equipment, tools, and techniques that people can employ to sharpen their hardwood cooking skills. For us, it all starts with the simplicity of grilling over a mixture of natural lump charcoal and hardwood split logs. With that in mind, we have created hardwood recipes for cooks of any skill level and any backyard rig, from old-school Smokey Joe to Santa Maria–style cowboy pit to cast-iron fire kettle. Of course, human ingenuity has provided us with what seems to be an endless array of hardwood-fueled cooking devices, so we’ll also highlight the dynamic range of cooking that can be performed on pellet grills and in wood-fired ovens. In Hardwood, you’ll find a smoke-filled look at some of our favorite methods and wood types for preparing seafood dishes.