I love to cook for real fire! Whether it’s a gas grill, a charcoal grill, a grill for smokers, in a fireplace or even in my fireplace, cooking with fire is fun and creates unique and tasty aromas and flavors that greatly enhance many foods. But, of course, my most favorite way to cook is a real fire made of hardwood. While good charcoal and smoking cooking can certainly give you some nice wood-scented flavors, there is nothing like a real wood fire. There is something very primitive and romantic in it, going back to pre-revolutionary times when food was cooked over an open fire.
Most people do not use real wood to cook more, because technology has made life easier for us. Between gas stoves and grates and light charcoal, cooking with fire is fast, easy and pretty much hassle free these days. However, there is something to say during a leisurely day, creating a real fire, and then using this fire to cook your fried food perfectly. Sometimes I don't need “fast,” “light,” or minimal.
So for all like-minded people who want to get a little more primitive and more tasty, here are some tips on how to cook real firewood on the grill, fire pit, or even in your fireplace. It takes some time and it takes some practice to get right, but I think you will like the results!
Choose Good Hardwoods
The basis of a large wooden cooking - good firewood, which burns long, hot and emit delicious flavors. Do not save in this department! All the smoky, roasted flavor that you get in your food comes from your tree, so if you use a bad forest, your results will be bad. So what's bad? First of all, avoid conifers in general.
Conifer burns are light and burn, but do not burn for such a long time and have no tendency to develop long-term hot coals based on them. For example, conifers, like pine, also have a rather resinous structure, and many of them emit pine or other pungent odors, which, although not satisfactory, do not go well with food. You can use conifers to help start a fire, but what you really want for most of your firewood is good, seasoned hardwood.
Solid sheets are denser and will burn longer and hotter. They take longer to get started, but the extra work is worth it. There are tons of hardwood that make excellent fuel for cooking, some of which have very distinct and tasty flavors and aromas. Oak is very common, which gives a rich, smoky flavor. I prefer fruit and nut forests because they have a milder, almost sweet flavor. Some excellent options are the almond forest, the apple tree, the pear tree and the pecan tree, if you can find them. Most people know about mesquiches and hickorites for smoking, but they are also hardwood, which make excellent fuel. If you live in a vineyard, old vines make a great forest for quick fires!
Build your fire ahead
As I mentioned above, it may take some time to start a hardwood fire to really leave. In addition, since you want to cook as much as possible with coals, you want to give your fire the opportunity to burn as much as possible before throwing food from above. It can take quite a lot of time and depending on how much you plan to cook and how big your pit or grill is, it can take literally several hours to build a fire, continue to feed it to create a coal core, and then let large flames will burn before starting to cook. It should be noted that, although I usually prefer to do this kind of cooking wood fire in an open fire pit with a grill grate, most people do not understand that you can burn wood fire in most heavy coal grills, if they are big enough, I used large grills from charcoal Weber 22-1 / 2 for good effect, as well as some char-broil grills.
Cook with Ambers
As mentioned above, when cooking with real wood, cooking on hot coals is perfect. What for? The new fire that has just started does not emit much heat. In addition, large flames are emerging from the forest. If you lay the grill through this young fire, you will not get radiant heat, but instead you will have a large open flame sticking around your food. This is the cause of the disaster for cooking grill! Your food will not cook on the inside very quickly, but on the outside it will catch fire and burn quickly to crystal!
To avoid this and get the most out of your wood, do not rush and start early. Red glowing coals give out tons heat and do not have a big flame. If you are cooking in a fire pit or a large grill, start your fire early and continue adding wood for a while to create a deep core of hot, glowing red coals below. Then let the top wood burn as long as you barely have a flame left, just a big, deep pile of red coals. These coals emit a lot of heat and because they do not have a large flame, they are less likely to train your food to a crisp. Only then should you put the grill rack and add your food. If you cook a lot and the heat starts to die, mixing the coals with poker helps get more oxygen in the wood and increases the heat for a while. If you really need more fuel, you can add firewood to the side and only push it under the cooking area when it is burned and no longer has a large flame.
Cooking grill
One way to get a lot out of your grilled wood is to use a grill. There are various grill accessories that can be purchased at grill and camping stores. This is basically a large motorized or hand braid that rotates above your pit. This is an advantage for several reasons. First of all, for large roasts, such as whole poultry, pigs and other large roasts, it gives you a very even, constant cooking heat all over the meat, so that your food is succulent and even made.
In addition, for these large hot, laying them directly directly from the hot coals can burn the surface long before the interior is even warm. Finally, the grill can keep your food at a reasonable distance above your wooden fire so you can even cook over an open fire without burning food. If it is high enough, only the rising heat, not the actual flame, reaches your food, which rotates perfectly in aromatic smoke. Therefore, the cooking time is reduced, since you do not need to first burn the wood to coal, although some coals help to provide enough heat. For the grilled leg of the lamb and whole chicken and game birds, grilling over the fire pit is one of my favorites!
Fireplace stove
In winter, it is often too cold to cook outdoors. However, many of us have wonderful real wooden cooking right in our homes, although some of us are not aware of this. Most fireplaces are used exclusively for heat and atmosphere these days, but many years ago it was the main cooking zone in many homes. I love cooking the hearth, and it's not as difficult as many people think. For most types of fireplace preparation, special equipment is needed. There are fireplaces that hold the handle of a Dutch pot or kettle over your fire to make stews, soups or coffee. There is a grill grill, which basically is a lattice grid that imposes on your grill with firewood in the fireplace and allows the grill any number of products.
Also available are fireplace grills that sit right in front of the fireplace and slowly turn your roast meat. But if you do not want to invest in any additional equipment, there is always a cooked fireplace stove. Traditionally a way to roast a lamb leg in front of a fire, I adapted a string to fry several different types of roast, from the whole bird to the three-tip. All you need is a long piece of kitchen twine and a screw or hook set in your mantle above your fireplace. The weight of the roast slowly rotates it on the string, so you have a bad man's grill without a lot of additional equipment!
Alternative
Finally, if all of the above looks too much work and too much hassle, there are simpler alternatives for pouring smoke into wood into your food. The possibility of using smoking wood chips or pieces in a barbecue or a special grill for smokers is an option. A smoker can really give you rich smoke flavors in your foods. However, since you use standard coal or gas as a fuel source, you avoid a lot of the hassle of cooking with real wood.
I hope these tips will help you start cooking with real wood to bring your grill kitchen to a new level of pleasure and taste. Do not forget to always be safe when using any type of fire! Follow all the basic rules of fire safety to cook only your food!
