WOOD TYPES & BTU

DIFFERENT WOOD TYPES AND THEIR BTU

We recommend dry, seasoned hardwood or fruit wood as the fuel for your Californo wood-fired oven.

Below you can see how much heat different woods give, in million BTU per cord (a cord is a stack of wood 4 ft × 4 ft × 8 ft). Values are approximate and vary with moisture.

HIGH BTU WOOD

COMMON NAME	MILLION BTU PER CORD
Osage Orange (Hedge)	32.9
Hickory	27.7
Hop Hornbeam (Ironwood)	27.3
Beech, Blue (Ironwood)	26.8
Black Birch	26.8
Black Locust	26.8

MEDIUM BTU WOOD

COMMON NAME	MILLION BTU PER CORD
Douglas Fir	21.4
Black Ash	19.1
Red Maple	18.7

LOW BTU WOOD

COMMON NAME	MILLION BTU PER CORD
Basswood	13.8
Cottonwood	13.5
White Cedar	12.2

Softwoods like pine, fir and cedar burn fast and leave resin and soot, so we don't recommend them for cooking. Never burn treated, painted or pressure-treated wood in your oven.