To maximize your Chicago Brick Oven cooking experience, there‚Äôs nothing better than using a fine cooking wood — alder, apple, apricot, cherry, grape, hickory, lemon, maple, mesquite, nectarine, orange, peach, pear, pecan, plum, white oak.

Which kind of wood to use
All kinds of wood are suitable when they’re clean and dry, except resinous and treated woods, which are not recommended and can be dangerous to your health. Waste wood should not be used because your wood-burning oven is a cooking instrument, not an oven for heating.

The energy that comes from combustion doesn’t depend on the kind of wood you use, but on its degree of dryness. Dry hardwood is always preferable.

The best burning woods are arbor, ash, beech, bower, maple and oak. Soft woods, such as linden or poplar, create about 50% less heat than oak.

The ideal stacking period for wood is six months in the open and two years (up to three years for oak) in a dry, protected spot. The wood can also be dried in the oven after you make sure there are no sparks of coals left, so that the wood will not ignite.