Loving Purchasing Pecan Wood in Bulk w/Photo
I started learning BBQ about 10 months ago using a Mini WSM. Since then, up until yesterday, I've always bought wood chunks by the bag at places such as Ace Hardware and Academy Sports.
Most of the time, the chunks are rather small and vary in size by quite a bit--usually end up with a lot of kindling sized pieces (about a 1/3rd of the bag usually).
I got tired of this and sought out on Craigslist some pecan wood in bulk, so I could buy it and chop it up according to my liking.
I found a guy selling 1 rick of pecan wood for $55, or $30 for half of a rick. Started a thread on it and got a lot of help thanks guys! Anyways I picked it up today--all we could fit in the little wagon was 1/2 a rick.
It was quite a drive there--about an hour each way, so it cost around $10 in gas. So that brings the total cost to about $40 for this 1/2 of a rick (4 foot x 4 foot x 1.5 feet deep).
I am going to be able to get some nice chunks out of this wood and look forward to cooking with it.
I did a little bit of math and realized just how much I am saving by going this route instead of buy wood chunks by the bag.
This 1/2 rick I bought is 24 cubic feet in volume. The other day I spent $4.99 at Academy Sports for a bag of pecan wood--1/3rd of a cubic foot per bag; with tax that is around $5.50 a bag. So I'd have to purchase 72 of these bags of pecan wood at Academy to equal the same amount of wood I got in this half a rick. 72 bags times $5.50 a bag is $396 dollars! I got this 1/2 rick for $40 dollars, soooooo the my smoking wood costs have now been cut by 90%!! -- 1/10th the cost!
So this is why I am LOVING this!
Now I just have to buy a small axe to split the wood once more (in most cases) and find a very safe way to cross cut the wood into 3 inch long chunks. I am considering getting the Black & Decker Aligator (thanks for the tip in the other thread!)
Hrmm.. if I only use this wood for wood chunks in a charcoal minion fire, this 1/2 rick should last me years... Hope it is good for that long! Gonna keep it off the ground and out of the rain--along with good airflow.
EDIT: After reading a bit in other threads, it appears that this wood will probably lose a lot of its flavor after 18 months. I suppose at that time I can turn the leftovers into lump. Or to use it up faster maybe when I BBQ with my WSM, I can build a minion charcoal fire with around 50% or more pecan chunks instead of the typical 3 or 4 chunks thrown in just for smoke. Either that or buy an offset or build a cob oven. I think my goal will be to buy and use up 1/2 rick of this pecan each year, having fresh wood each year.