To cook quality BBQ, you need quality firewood
A Q&A with Mike Wheeler, the owner of Sierrah Wood, on sourcing and fire management tips for a better backyard BBQ cook.
Mike Wheeler found himself in the wood business by accident.
After months of therapy recovering from a spinal fusion, Wheeler needed a remedy that would help him heal. He had tried various workouts that hadn’t worked. But swinging an axe was therapeutic — both mentally and physically — and he began splitting wood regularly.
“For whatever reason, it wasn’t awful,” Wheeler recalls.
He spent the spring and summer of 2015 chopping wood. By September, Wheeler had so many cords in his backyard that his wife, Lori, said he had to get rid of it all. He posted online about his stock and sold out within two days. Then it clicked.
“I said, ‘Holy cow! Let’s see what’s going on here,’” Wheeler says.
That’s when he founded Sierrah Wood in Central Texas. He now sells wood to barbecue cooks across the Austin area and to 13 of Texas Monthly’s top 50 barbecue restaurants.
To help you improve your barbecue cooks, I spoke with Wheeler about sourcing good wood, the difference between seasoned and green wood, and proper fire management tips.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Matt Keyser: Mike, it’s an honor. Let’s get to it. What should you look for when sourcing wood for barbecue?
Mike Wheeler: The number one thing you’ve got to ask is how long it’s been seasoned. Don’t ever feel like you have to buy something if it’s not what you’re looking for. Be educated on what you’re buying. If you’re going somewhere looking for post oak, you need to know what post oak is — what it looks like, what it smells like — because these days people will pass off red oak for post oak all day long.
MK: How can you tell the difference?
MW: The main difference you can see visually is with post oak the bark is raised and rigid, whereas the bark on red oak is usually flat and held against the meat itself.
MK: We talk about the term “seasoned wood” so much in barbecue. What is it and why is it better than going into your backyard, cutting down a tree, and immediately using it to smoke?
MW: Using green wood — which in our world, green is a bad word — makes the food bitter, because the wood isn’t ready. It still has all the sap content and is full of moisture. So green wood is basically putting off resin, which is changing the flavor profile of your meat. All you’re tasting is smoke and bitterness. Not to mention how hard it is to start and maintain a fire with wet wood.
MK: Ain’t that the truth. What’s the difference in buying from a wood supplier such as yourself compared to buying a bag of wood from a big box store?
MW: My big selling point is I care about every stick of wood I sell. If I wouldn’t cook with it, you’re not going to either. I cook with a couple of splits from every stack we produce. Before it goes out to the backyard guys or our restaurants, I take a few splits and I cook with them so I know exactly what they’re going to do. It’s maybe a little bit overkill, but that’s how much I care.
MK: And that kind of quality assurance certainly isn’t something you’re getting from a box store or gas station.
MW: It’s not. And it’s probably a little overkill on my part, but it’s really helped my stress level knowing I’m selling quality wood.
The thing is buying from a big box store is that almost 99% of all bagged wood is kiln-dried wood. The problem is there are a lot of factors with that, like you’ll never find even kiln-dried wood — ever. It’s either match light and it’s gone immediately or it’s way too dense and it smolders.
MK: Speaking of wood that either lights too quickly or smolders, how large should your splits be in order to keep consistent temperatures throughout your cook?
MW: That’s an important thing for backyard guys. I see it a lot where they have problems with ebbs and flows with their temperature. That’s because they’re using splits that are too large. If you have a 20-inch firebox, you don’t want to stuff an 18-inch split in there. You have your fire peeking too high or the split will smolder and your temperature will go too low. A good rule of thumb is your split should be half as big as your firebox.
MK: So in that 20-inch firebox scenario, you’d want to use a 10-inch split.
MW: Exactly.
MK: If you have a wood supplier, can you request those specific cuts or will you have to cut them yourself?
MW: Most wood guys won’t cut to specific sizes, because they don’t have time, unless that size is a product they supply. You can cut it down yourself with a chainsaw.
MK: Post oak is obviously king in Texas barbecue. What are your thoughts on using other woods or combining woods during a smoke?
MW: My favorite smoking combination is a 3:1 ratio of post oak to pecan. That’s what I always smoke with. I like it because of the flavor profile it gives off. Pecan adds a sweetness to whatever you’re cooking. If it’s chicken, it makes the skin crispier and sweeter. It also gives a mahogany color to the meat which makes for great pictures. I also love live-fire cooking, and mesquite is phenomenal for that. It burns hot, so you burn it down into coals and then it’s a roaring coalbed. You can flash cook steaks, chickens, fajitas, because it’s really hot.
MK: You can’t beat a well-cooked steak on a live fire. Okay, let’s say you have a neighbor who recently cut down a post oak tree and he knows you smoke barbecue and he’s willing to give you all that wood. How long should you let it season before using it? Also, if this sounds like a very specific scenario, it’s because that’s my neighbor and the barbecue cook is me.
MW: Your best bet is to cut it into large pieces that are the length you want your splits. Then stack it in a place where it’s going to get air in the rounds like that for several months. Then by like month six, split it all open and let it breathe and stack it again. Then by month eight, it’s probably ready to roll.
MK: So, stack it and leave it out uncovered for the better part of a year. What about when it rains?
MW: It’s actually better if the rain hits it. Since we live in Texas, it rains and then it gets hot, which helps the sap to leave faster. If you have some property, stack it where it sees the sun all day and that will dramatically increase the time on how fast it cures.
MK: The rain may be good for seasoning wood, but not so much for the days you’re cooking. Us being in Texas it’s inevitable that an unexpected thunderstorm is going to hit in the middle of a cook. What are your best tips for using wet wood when you’re caught in a freak thunderstorm?
MW: You can put wet wood in your cooking chamber if you have room to dry and preheat it. That’s a good thing to do in general because when you put that wood on the fire it’s immediately going to light. If you don’t have room in your cook chamber, put them on top of your firebox.
MK: Have you ever come across a split of wood that absolutely shouldn’t be used?
MW: One thing to look for — and it doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen — is to watch for mold on the wood. If it’s green mold, it’s toxic and you absolutely shouldn’t cook with it. You don’t have to throw it away, but don’t cook with it right then. You can remove it from your wood pile, set it aside, and the mold will eventually die. Then you can brush it off and use it.
MK: Can you not put it on top of your firebox and burn the mold off?
MW: I wouldn’t advise that. The whole reason not to burn wood with mold on it is when the spores get hot and burn, it’s toxic, especially to anyone who suffers with allergies. It’s a terrible thing.
MK: Oh, that’s a great point. See, this is why you’re the wood expert. Mike, thank you for your time and sharing your expertise.
MW: You bet. Thanks, Matt.
More from Texas Monthly’s Daniel Vaughn: Wood Is Hard to Find, and Pitmasters Are Scrambling
Wheeler says he plans to expand, if not for one problem, he tells Vaughn: “Everybody wants to be the wood guy until they have to be the wood guy.”