The Texas BBQ Forum

HI everyone, sorry if this is a stupid question but I'm confused about the moisture content of my wood.

So after trying to learn how my offset cooks I discovered that some of my wood burns much better then others, this lead to me to purchase a moisture meter from amazon so I could tell for sure. So after splitting some of my wood and checking both sides the content seems way off, the outside of the wood is around 12% and the inside can but as much as 20%. So I thought that maybe this wood is still a big green, so I had some BBQ mini logs I purchased from academy about 3 weeks ago. They have been sitting inside the original bag which was opened under my covered patio. So after splitting some of them and checking the moisture content is around the same........ 10% outside 18% inside, I thought that this wood was kiln dried and has a very low moisture content?

So now I don't know what to think, any advice please?

Thanks,

Actually I'm a bit surprised the moisture content is that low.
Check the relative humidity of the air in your location and compare that to your firewood. It's reasonable to expect the moisture content of the wood to be close to the same as the air that it is in.
You've no doubt heard about guys preheating their sticks before going into the firebox this will lower the moisture content of that wood.

I'm still confused, the humidity in Houston is very high but pretty much all wood piles are stored outside.

Any idea of the % of a freshly split BBQ mini log from academy

20 internal is pretty much perfect for oak, time to light those fires.

Chasdev wrote:20 internal is pretty much perfect for oak, time to light those fires.

Thanks, so just to confirm if you were going to buy some oak and you split one open and the internal was below 20% you would buy it?

golfguy wrote:

Chasdev wrote:20 internal is pretty much perfect for oak, time to light those fires.

Thanks, so just to confirm if you were going to buy some oak and you split one open and the internal was below 20% you would buy it?

I wouldn't hesitate one bit. In fact, I'd love hear about your findings when checking out "seasoned wood for sale".... that stuff is usually way to green. Firewood sellers can be a bit optimistic in their product.

I went to Vasbinders in Richmond, they have oak and then small splits in bags of pecan oak and hickory I think. I bought some small bags of oak and pecan and then some random large pieces of oak. When I started cooking with it I noticed especially the larges pieces that it was all over the map. This lead me to buying a moister meter etc. the small splits do seem to be pretty good though.

My thinking is that anything between 12 and 24 is good to go with 18/20 being ideal.
Below 12, it burns clean but too fast and somewhat too hot but given a choice between too wet or too dry go with dry..
Only wood you will see that is too dry will be from very old standing dead trees and it will probably not have any bark and look pale and feel like balsa when you hoist it.

Thanks for all the replies everyone.