11 Best Smelling Firewood To Make Your Campfire Amazing

Last updated on July 17th, 2020 at 10:08 pm

Everyone who loves camping must be keen to know about the Best smelling firewood. Whether it’s a campfire or bonfire both need good quality firewood and no camping adventure is complete without them. It’s not only the firewood but the wood that gives great flavor and fragrance is very important.

This article with guide you through the list of quality smelling firewood that you can use for the campfire. Good smelling firewood not only has the fragrance but it can also add a great aroma to the cooked food as well.

The best wood to burn

Very important to know what kind of wood you need to burn apart from the flavor or fragrance that wood has. An ideal wood for camping should be the one which burns well, provide heat and also with a good fragrance.

There are mainly 2 types of wood that can be split through an axe for firewood.

1. Seasoned Wood

Experienced outdoorsmen always want to take seasoned wood to burn because it can easily be lighted and saves you time. Ideal burning Wood should be seasoned for at least one year before it’s been taken to the market for selling purposes.

How to identify a Seasoned wood

You can easily identify by its color, seasoned wood normally looks gray and dusty from outside and white and dry if you look inside of it.

How Wood is seasoned

Wood can be seasoned by drying the moisture that is in the walls of wood cells, this process is taken very carefully so that wood itself is not damaged. You can check the seasoned wood by examining the ends of logs if they are dark in color and cracked its mean wood is seasoned.

Wood can be seasoned by exposing the stacked timber in the open air or through artificially drying so that the moisture gets dry.

Note:  Dry wood often has fungus or mold so you need to check before buying because the burning smell of such wood is not good at all. 

2. Green-Wood

Normally you find greenwood in the market which is less expensive as compared to dry wood. Greenwood can easily be identified because it normally comes in one color, unlike dry wood. You can easily feel like it came straight from the lumber mill.

The main disadvantage of green wood is that it’s difficult to light and doesn’t provide much heat because of the moisture in it. Greenwood also tends to smoke more than the dry wood which nobody likes when sitting near the campfire isn’t it?

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List of 11 Best Smelling Firewood

You can select any one from the list but take the food into consideration that you want to cook so that you can have an ideal burning wood flavor added to cooked food.

1. Hickory

Hickory is the most famous wood among the campers and it has many varieties. It has the typical classic fragrance of smoke that is normally associated with hickory wood. A cord of Hickory wood can produce the heat of around 28.6 million BTUs.Hickory wood not only used in making axe handles but also as fuel for log burners and wood stoves. There is a wide range of hickory wood used in states all of them produce classic fragrant aroma when burned.

2.Oak

Oakwood is widely used for heating purposes but can also be used in making furniture because of its strength. It produces less intense earthy smoke smell as compared to hickory wood. Oak wood can easily be used for construction but it takes around 150 years for a tree to produce wood for that purpose.

Oak wood comes in 2 variations Red and White, white oak comes in gray-brown color and red oak has reddish cast with gray-brown color.

3. Alder

Alder wood is known for its slightly sweet and delicate smoke flavor. Alder wood is widely used for decorative woodwork, doors and used in furniture, cabinetry, and edge-glued panels. Alder wood is classified as hardwood but it’s a bit soft and has the ability to burn quickly.
If you are looking to cook food quickly or smoking fish you should select Alder wood for the desired outcome.

4. Mesquite

Mesquite wood as the name suggests it provides the strong flavor of mesquites and is considered strong wood for dark meat. The smell is bit strong and tangy but mesquite can be classified as a typical smoke smell.
Remember strong mesquite wood flavor can overpower fish, ribs or mild poultry so it’s not ideal if you are cooking these.

5. Apple

Apple is considered ideal for seafood, pork, game birds, poultry, beef, and lamb. Wood provides a sweat mild fruity flavor similar to the apple which gets added while cooking. Applewood is widely used in small tool handles, turned items and other small specialty wood objects.
Tell you what the apple smoke is similar to what you experience while cooking apples or apple pie.

6. Cherry

Cherry wood, especially from the American black cherry fruit tree, is very famous. This wood is in demand by most woodworkers and furniture manufacturers because of its color and aging process.
Cherry is also popular for its campfire aromas. You can feel the rich smell even if you are splitting the cherry wood. Amazingly its long-lasting smell can even be felt if the fire is out.

7. Pear

Pearwood is very similar in many terms with apple. The applewood has an apple-like smell so it has a pear-like smell. As compared with apple wood it’s hard to find pear wood and if you are cooking or smoking it’s better to opt for applewood rather than a pear.
It is used in furniture, wood carving and for making carved blocks for woodcuts. The color of the wood is fleshy pink and it’s a very hardwood that can be worked with sharpest of the tools only.

8. Walnuts

Walnuts wood provides a very pleasant smoky aroma and similar to the hickory, it has a deep earthy smell. Woodworker love to have walnut for its color, tight grain orientation and strength. Walnut can provide great heat output like 22.2 million BTUs from a single cord.

9. Pecan

Pecan wood is ideal for smoking meat because it can easily be chopped into chunks and chips. As compared to hickory and mesquites its provides the mild sweat flavor but stronger than most of the fruitwood.

10. Cedar

Cedar is popular for its wonderful aroma and insect-repelling quality and amazingly wood emits oil that has sweat scent used in many colognes.
It has a compound called thujaplicin that is responsible for light and sweet smell that will make you feel fresh. The eastern red cedar provides a strong lingering scent that is used in a variety of household goods.

11. Pine

Pinewood is used widely by many camping experts not only it burns well but it provides the great sweat aroma that will make you feel fresh.

List of firewood that smell Bad

Conclusion

Best smelling wood should have qualities like
• It should be hard so that it can keep on burning for a longer duration
• Should smell good to add ideal flavor or aroma to cooked food
• It should be seasoned for at least a year

Although hardwood is expensive but it can compensate by burning for a longer time period. The best hardwood you can get is from madrone, ash, hickory, walnut and fruit trees like apple and cherry.

FAQS

What causes wood to smell?

As the combustion process breaks down the wood’s organic matter, it creates smoke. The unique compounds within the smoke are responsible for their unique aroma.

Does wood smell bad?

Yes, wood can really smell bad especially if the dry wood has fungus or mold. Apart from that, there are many other wood types that can produce a really bad smell like Buckeye, Ailanthus, etc.

Is the smell of wood harmful?

Yes, it can be harmful to elder people and children if exposed to it for a longer duration.

Why does my house smell like wood?

If you smell a musty or mold odor you need to go through a complete search if there is any water leakage or damp items. You need to improve your house ventilation to improve the situation.

What is the best firewood to burn?

Hardwood such as maple, oak, ash, and most fruit trees provide the best firewood for campfire.