There’s something primal and deeply satisfying about cooking over an open flame. The crackle of burning wood, the aroma of smoke mingling with sizzling ingredients — it’s a culinary experience that connects us to generations past.
At Aztec Grills, we believe fire is the most authentic and flavorful ingredient. But not all fire is created equal. The secret to unlocking truly memorable flavor lies in the wood you choose. For restaurants and serious chefs, mastering the art of wood-fired cooking is what separates the good from the legendary. It’s about more than just heat; it’s about crafting a signature flavor profile that gas or charcoal simply cannot replicate.
In this guide, we will explore the best types of wood for grilling, transforming your commercial grill into an instrument of culinary art. We understand the demands of a professional kitchen, the need for consistency, and the desire to create an unforgettable dining experience. That’s why we build the most durable and high-performance commercial grills for restaurants on the market. We’ll walk you through the nuances of different woods, from the robust intensity of hickory to the subtle sweetness of apple. We will also cover the types of wood you must avoid to protect your health, your equipment, and the quality of your food. Let’s fire up the conversation and discover how the right wood can elevate your grilling game to a professional level.
Choosing the Right Wood for Fueling Your Commercial Wood Grill
Selecting the right wood is a critical decision in live-fire cooking. The smoke produced by the wood imparts a distinct flavor onto the food, and different woods create vastly different results.
The first rule is to always use hardwoods from deciduous trees—those that lose their leaves in the fall. Hardwoods are dense, burn hotter and longer, and produce a clean, flavorful smoke. Softwoods, like pine or cedar, are full of resins and oils that produce a thick, acrid smoke that can ruin food and coat your commercial wood burning grill with a sooty, hard-to-clean residue.
The wood should be properly seasoned or dried. Green wood, which has a high moisture content, produces a lot of steam and smoldering, billowy smoke that imparts a bitter taste. Kiln-dried or air-dried wood that has been allowed to season for at least six to nine months is ideal.
You can use wood in several forms: logs for large fireboxes, chunks for adding to a charcoal base or for shorter cooking times, and wood chips for quick bursts of smoke. For most applications on a high-powered Wood buring grill, a combination of logs for a consistent coal bed and chunks for targeted smoke flavor works best.
Let’s look at the most popular and effective wood choices for your grill.
The Powerhouses | Bold & Strong Flavors
These woods have a strong, assertive flavor and are best suited for robust cuts of meat like beef brisket, pork shoulder, and wild game.
- Hickory: Perhaps the most classic American barbecue wood, hickory offers a strong, smoky, and bacon-like flavor. It’s a fantastic choice for pork, ribs, and beef. However, its potent flavor can be overwhelming, especially for poultry or fish. A little goes a long way, and it’s often best mixed with a milder wood like oak to balance its intensity. Using hickory on your commercial wood grill for restaurants can create that authentic, Southern-style barbecue flavor that customers crave.
- Mesquite: The king of Southwestern grilling, mesquite burns very hot and fast, producing an intensely earthy and bold smoke. It’s the go-to for Texas-style barbecue and is phenomenal for searing steaks and grilling other red meats. Because its flavor is so powerful, it’s best for short cooking times. Using it for long smokes can easily overpower the food, making it taste bitter. If you’re grilling thin cuts of meat quickly, mesquite is an excellent choice to impart a massive amount of flavor in a short time.
- Oak: If you’re looking for the most versatile, all-purpose grilling wood, oak is your answer. It provides a medium-to-strong smoke flavor that is less intense than hickory or mesquite but stronger than fruitwoods. Its clean, classic smoky flavor complements nearly everything—beef, lamb, pork, and even heartier fish like salmon or tuna. Red oak is particularly popular in Santa Maria-style barbecue. For any restaurant investing in a commercial wood grill, stocking oak is a smart move due to its wide-ranging applications and crowd-pleasing flavor.
The Middle Ground | Balanced & Versatile Flavors
These woods offer a more moderate smoke profile that is noticeable yet balanced, making them suitable for a wide variety of foods.
- Pecan: A member of the hickory family, pecan offers a similar flavor profile but is much more subtle, sweet, and nutty. It’s a wonderful, nuanced choice that burns cooler and slower than most other hardwoods. Pecan is fantastic for poultry, pork, and even for baking or roasting vegetables on the grill. It provides a rich, golden-brown color to chicken skin and is a favorite for smoked turkey.
- Alder: The traditional wood of the Pacific Northwest, alder has a light, delicate, and slightly sweet flavor. It is the definitive choice for grilling salmon and other delicate fish. Its subtle smokiness enhances the flavor of seafood and poultry without overpowering it. If your menu features a lot of fish, alder is an essential wood to have on hand for your commercial grill.
The Sweeter Side | Mild & Fruity Flavors
Fruitwoods produce a very mild, sweet smoke and are the perfect choice for delicate meats, poultry, and for adding a subtle smoky note to vegetables and cheeses.
- Apple: Applewood creates a light, fruity, and slightly sweet smoke that is incredibly mild. It takes time for the flavor to penetrate the meat, so it’s best for longer smokes. It pairs beautifully with pork and poultry, lending a gentle, sweet flavor and darkening the skin of the bird to a rich brown. Smoked ham or bacon finished with applewood is a true delicacy.
- Cherry: Cherry wood offers a sweet, mild flavor similar to apple but slightly more pronounced. It’s an excellent choice for chicken, turkey, ham, and pork. One of the unique benefits of cherry wood is the beautiful, dark reddish-mahogany finish it gives to meats. For visual appeal on the plate, cherry is hard to beat. It’s versatile enough to mix with stronger woods like hickory to create a more complex, layered flavor profile on your Wood buring grill.
The Types of Wood You Want to Avoid
Just as important as knowing which woods to use is knowing which ones to avoid. Using the wrong wood can be dangerous for your health, damage your equipment, and make your food completely inedible. When you operate a professional commercial wood burning grill, quality and safety are paramount.
Here is a definitive list of wood you should never, ever use for cooking:
- Softwoods: This is the most important category to avoid. Woods like Pine, Fir, Spruce, Redwood, and Cedar are high in terpenes and sap. When burned, this sap produces a thick, black, sooty smoke that imparts a bitter, chemical-like flavor to food. The soot can also coat the inside of your grill, and the fumes can be harmful if inhaled.
- Treated or Painted Wood: This is a major health hazard. Never use lumber from a construction site, old pallets, wood from furniture, or any wood that has been pressure-treated, painted, stained, or glued. These woods contain toxic chemicals (like arsenic, creosote, or lead) that release poisonous gases when burned. These toxins can be absorbed by your food and cause serious illness. Always use pure, natural, and untreated wood for cooking.
- Green Wood: Wood that has not been properly seasoned or dried has a high moisture content. It won’t burn efficiently and will produce a lot of steam and a thick, acrid smoke that tastes terrible. It smolders rather than burns, making it impossible to control the temperature of your commercial grill.
- Moldy Wood: Wood that has been stored in damp conditions can develop mold or fungus. Burning this wood can release spores into the air and onto your food, which can cause allergic reactions and add a musty, unpleasant flavor.
By sticking to quality, seasoned hardwoods, you protect your customers, your investment in a high-quality commercial grill for restaurants, and the reputation of your establishment.
Benefits of a Wood Burning Grill | Why Fire Is Flavor
In an era of culinary shortcuts, cooking over a live wood fire is a testament to quality and tradition. A commercial wood grill isn’t just another piece of kitchen equipment; it’s a centerpiece that provides flavor, theater, and versatility that other cooking methods can’t match.
- Unmatched Flavor: The most significant advantage is, without a doubt, the flavor. The smoke from the burning wood infuses the food with a complex, aromatic, and smoky taste that is impossible to replicate with gas or electric heat. Different woods allow you to create a signature flavor profile, making your dishes unique and memorable. Imagine serving a steak seared over oak or a piece of salmon delicately smoked with alder—these are flavors that create loyal customers.
- High-Heat Searing: Wood fires can generate incredibly high temperatures, often exceeding 900°F (480°C). This intense heat is perfect for creating a deep, flavorful crust on steaks, burgers, and chops through the Maillard reaction. This process of caramelizing the natural sugars and proteins in the meat is what creates that irresistible savory crust, while the inside remains juicy and tender.
- Versatility in Cooking: A well-designed commercial wood burning grill offers incredible versatility. You can use the intense heat directly over the flame for searing, or you can cook further away from the fire for slower roasting and smoking. Some models, like those we craft at Aztec Grills, can be configured with different surfaces, including a commercial flat grill area for cooking delicate items like vegetables, fish, or even breakfast foods, all while picking up that beautiful wood-fired essence.
- The “Wow” Factor: For restaurants, an open-flame commercial wood grill for restaurants is a powerful marketing tool. The sight and smell of food cooking over a live fire creates an engaging and appetizing atmosphere. It speaks to a commitment to craft and quality, justifying a premium price point and creating a memorable dining experience that extends beyond just the plate.
Order Your Wood Burning Grill with Aztec | Your Partner in Commercial Grilling
The journey from a simple flame to an extraordinary meal is paved with the right choices. As we’ve explored, the type of wood you use in your grill is not a minor detail—it is the very soul of the dish. It’s the ingredient that imparts a signature flavor, creates a captivating aroma, and elevates a simple piece of meat or vegetable into a culinary masterpiece. By choosing high-quality, seasoned hardwoods like oak, hickory, and apple, and by steadfastly avoiding harmful woods like pine or treated lumber, you set the stage for success.
Embracing the art of live-fire cooking with a commercial wood grill is a commitment to authenticity and superior flavor. It allows a chef to move beyond mere cooking and into the realm of artistry, creating unique and memorable experiences for every guest. The unmatched searing capabilities, the versatile cooking options, and the sheer theater of an open flame are what make a commercial wood burning grill an invaluable asset for any serious kitchen.
At Aztec Grills, we are proud to build the tools that empower this craft, providing the durable, reliable, and masterfully engineered grills that chefs trust to bring their fiery visions to life.
Understanding the nuances of wood is only half the battle; you also need a grill built to handle the rigors of a commercial kitchen and designed to give you ultimate control over the fire. That’s where we come in. At Aztec Grills, we don’t just build equipment; we forge culinary tools designed for chefs who are passionate about flavor.
We know that chefs and restaurant owners are looking for a reliable, powerful, and versatile commercial grill. Many of them find us when they search for the perfect ‘Wood buring grill’, and we are proud to deliver exactly what they need. Our grills are hand-crafted from heavy-gauge steel, built to withstand the intense heat of a continuous wood fire, day in and day out.
Every Aztec commercial wood burning grill is engineered for performance. From adjustable grill grates that allow you to control the distance from the heat to thoughtfully designed ventilation that gives you command over the fire’s intensity, our grills put you in charge. We work with our clients to create the perfect setup for their needs, whether it’s a standalone grill, a model with an integrated commercial flat grill, or a fully custom commercial wood grill for restaurants designed to be the show-stopping centerpiece of your kitchen.
Are you ready to harness the incredible flavor and performance of a true wood-fired grill? Our team of experts is here to help you select or design the perfect commercial grill for your restaurant. Stop dreaming about that perfect smoky flavor and start creating it.
Contact Aztec Grills today to discuss your custom commercial wood grill solution!
Frequently Asked Questions | Your Wood Grilling Queries Answered
Q. What is the best all-around wood to use in a commercial wood burning grill?
For its versatility and balanced flavor, oak is widely considered the best all-around wood. It provides a medium-level smoke that complements almost every type of food, from beef and pork to poultry and even heartier vegetables. It burns cleanly and provides a long-lasting, consistent heat source, making it a reliable and crowd-pleasing choice for any commercial grill for restaurants.
Q. Can I use a commercial flat grill surface on a wood-burning grill?
Absolutely. Many high-end commercial wood grill models, including custom designs from Aztec Grills, can incorporate a commercial flat grill (also known as a plancha). This provides incredible versatility, allowing you to sear steaks on the grates while simultaneously cooking delicate items like scallops, vegetables, or eggs on the solid flat top surface, all of which will be kissed by the authentic wood smoke flavor.
Q. Why should our restaurant choose a commercial wood grill for restaurants over a standard gas grill?
While gas grills offer convenience, a commercial wood grill for restaurants provides superior flavor, higher searing temperatures, and a unique dining experience that customers value. The authentic, smoky flavor imparted by wood cannot be replicated and allows you to create a signature menu. Furthermore, the visual appeal of live-fire cooking acts as a powerful marketing tool, justifying premium pricing and establishing your restaurant as a destination for high-quality, authentic cuisine.