How to burn bakhoor properly

Bakhoor is not incense sticks. It is wood, and wood does not want a flame. It wants heat underneath it, steady and low, so the resin melts out slowly instead of burning off in thirty seconds.

Get the coal right first

Light the coal and wait. It is ready when the black has gone and a grey ash has formed across the surface. If you can still see red glowing through, it is too hot and it will scorch the wood instead of warming it.

Scorched oud smells sharp and bitter. That burnt note people complain about is almost never the wood. It is the coal.

Use less than you think

Two or three pieces is enough for a majlis. A whole handful does not make the smell stronger, it makes it heavier, and it wastes wood you paid for by the gram.

• Mubakhar and Malaysian: two to three pieces, they catch quickly
• Maruki: one or two, it is dense and it carries
• Muattar: low coal only, or the cured oils burn off first

Move it through the house

Carry the mabkhara room to room rather than leaving it in one place. Pass it under a thobe or an abaya and through the corridor. The smell should meet a guest at the door, not sit in a cloud in one corner.

Ask before you buy

Any shop worth buying from will burn a piece for you before you pay. If they will not, that tells you something about the grade. Come to either branch in Al Maigliah and ask.