The 4th of July is right around the corner! If you’re planning to spend the holiday around your fire pit, now is the time to order the firewood you need! Of course, that leaves you with a question: What’s the right firewood for your Independence Day celebration? The answer will depend largely on how you plan to spend your evening on the 4th of July. When deciding on which type of firewood to burn this holiday, there are two major factors you need to consider: the length of your celebration, and your menu.
Considering the Length of Your Fireside Get Together
The 4th of July is one of those holidays where you have lots of choices about how to spend your time. Maybe your family starts early with an Independence Day parade and takes the rest of the day to picnic by the firepit in the backyard until until it’s dark enough for fireworks. Alternatively, you may be the kind of person who celebrates the day off of work by sleeping in, and you don’t actually start celebrating until dinnertime. If the first option is more of your style, you’ll need a firewood for sale that will get you through the afternoon and the evening. Both oversized hickory and oversized oak are great options, because they they burn twice as long as standard firewood. If you’re really concerned about your fire pit burning out early, you may even opt for uncut rounds, which burn for three times as long.
What’s On Your Menu?
The firewood you choose may also depend on whether or not you plan to center your menu around your fire pit--and if you do, how you plan to do it. Here are a few of the options, along with some firewood selection recommendations:
- Standard hot dog cookout. On the 4th of July, you can’t go wrong with hot dogs--they’re simply a tried and true, All-American favorite. Not only does a hot dog really hit the spot on a hot July evening, but the meal also requires planning, since all you really have to do is supply the buns, ketchup, and mustard. If you’re planning for a lunch or dinner of hot dogs, you don’t necessarily need cooking firewood for your fire pit--kiln-dried oak or hickory will work just as well for the quick roasting process, and they’ll still impart your franks with a characteristically smoky fireside flavor. The one fire pit accessory you do want to have on hand is a set of roasting forks. Unlike the sticks on your lawn, roasting forks are perfectly straight, so they make it easy to grill your hot dog evenly. Plus, with roasting forks, you can roast two hot dogs at a time, so you can feed your guests faster.
- Steaks or burgers over grill grate. Another way to celebrate the 4th of July is to bring on the beef by grilling burgers or steaks on the grill grate over your fire pit. It’s a little more work than your standard hot dog, but you’ll be well-rewarded for your culinary efforts--especially if your choose cherry or pecan firewood for cooking for your fire pit. When you go with cooking wood, you’ll end up with far more flavorful meats than you would with a standard barbecue. Note that cherry will impart a more fruity flavor to your meat (it’s considered to be an apple wood substitute), while beef cooked over pecan wood will end more savory. Whichever way you go, your guests will be definitely impressed by how well your grilled meats turn out!
- Other All-American favorites. Even if you’re planning to use your fire pit to cook, your 4th of July menu doesn’t necessarily have to revolve around meat. If you have a grill grate for your fire pit, you can essentially treat it like a cast iron skillet, which means it will work for roasting corn, warming up tater tots, or even crisping up hand-sized apple pies in ramekins. If you’re casually using your fire pit for these 4th of July treats, either kiln-dried firewood or cooking firewood will give you great results.
- Pizza or flatbread: A creative alternative. If you’ve grown tired of the standard 4th of July fare, you may want to consider shaking it up by baking a pizza or flatbread over your fire pit this holiday. Consider topping your pizza with summer squash or zucchini, or even try making a sweet, red-white-and-blue flatbread by adding fresh fresh blueberries and strawberries and topping it with whipped cream! No matter what you’re topping, your crust will serve as the foundation for the treat, and to get the best possible crust, you should choose pizza cut cooking wood. Not only will the wood give your crust a hint of smoky flavor, but its extra-high burning temperature will also optimize the texture of your pizza crust or flat bread. As a result, your unique culinary creation will ensure that this 4th of July is one to remember!
The 4th of July is only days away, so visit our order page now to get what you need! And don’t forget to tag Cutting Edge Firewood on Instagram when you post photos of your holiday fun!
