Do you love the idea of cooking over an open fire pit while relaxing and enjoying the chilly weather in a warm, cozy environment? We bet you do!
If you are an outdoor enthusiast who loves cooking and wants to enjoy the glowing flames of a cozy fireside, we have the perfect solution for you!
Firepit cooking gives you the opportunity to devour the campfire or BBQ foods while enjoying a mesmerizing outdoor fire experience with your friends and family. It elevates your fire experiences while offering you the pleasure of roasting S’mores or making a hearty BBQ.
Starting from grilled sandwiches, ham, and cheese, meat, or veggie kabobs to toasted burritos, you can cook almost any campfire food item over an open flame while enjoying your outdoor gatherings, picnics, parties, or even road trips.
If you are a beginner and keen to master the art of cooking over a fire pit, make sure to stick to the end! Today, we are going to provide you, a complete guide on fire pit cooking, including tips, tricks, recipes, and all the necessary information to offer you a pleasant, smooth, and effortless fire pit cooking experience.
What is Fire Pit Cooking?
A fire pit can be the source of warmth and heat for both your relaxation and cooking if you know how to utilize its features. A fire pit cooking is an entertaining activity where you turn your outdoor fire pit into a cooking station and enjoy your favorite BBQ or campfire foods with a warm, cozy fire ambience, side by side.
Types of Fire Pit Cooking
The prime advantage of cooking over a fire pit is that it allows you to go versatile with your cooking skill and try different things every other day!
Here, we will give you a basic idea regarding a few of the styles you may enjoy. We will also add a few tips here and there to make the process easier for you. Let’s get on with it!
1. Grilling
Grilling is the most common, popular, and easier method of cooking over a fire pit. With a few sessions, you can get quite a hold on it. Additionally, it’s an inclusive cooking style that brings a social experience to your outdoors. Your guests can get involved with your cooking activity, enjoy themselves while everyone can have a turn at grilling.
This cooking method involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, can be from above, below, or any side. The direct heat quickly sears the outer side of the food item, producing distinctive and pleasant flavors, even a nice crust.
You can generally grill food on a rack over an open flame using charcoal fire or ceramic briquettes heated by gas flames. As grilling requires a significant amount of direct, robust heat, it tends to be used for cooking meat and vegetables within a shorter time.
If your fire pit doesn’t come with a grill, there’s nothing to be worried about! You can always buy fire pit grills and attach them to your fire pit.
2. Roasting
Roasting is another style of cooking that can give you a refreshing cooking environment while enjoying the warmth of a fire pit.
This method involves dry heat where hot air covers the food, cooking it evenly from all sides at a temperature of at least 150° C. You can enhance the flavor of your food through caramelization and Maillard browning on the surface while roasting them.
Roasting requires more time than grilling, but the juicy, mouth-watering meat that would be waiting for you at the end of the cooking session will surely make it worth your time.
Kindly note, as roasting requires a bit of intense heat and some time, make sure you get yourself a quality fire pit to get your job done. A camp stove or fire pits from a similar category may appear to be too small to generate sufficient heat for your cooking purpose and disappoint you with the results.
Therefore, for roasting chickens, ducks, game birds, seasonal birds, etc., and getting a satisfying result with your cooking attempts, it would be best if you go for wood-burning fire pits or propane fire pits.
3. Brochette/ Skewers
Brochette is a popular French word used for a skewer. A skewer is basically a thin stick (can be metal or wood) that is used to hold pieces of food together.
Cooking with skewers is one of the most simple and hassle-free cooking styles. Skewers are used while grilling or roasting meats, veggies, fish, shrimp, pork, etc., and in other culinary applications.
The best part about cooking with skewers is that you can cook meat or veggies while your kids can also have their turn roasting marshmallows. This particular cooking method will allow everyone at the party or picnic to feel involved.
Apart from your backyard picnic, or patio parties, you can easily carry it to your bonfire gatherings, road trips, beachside, or any distant outdoor spot as well. However, you may not get excellent results while using it for the first few sessions. Don’t feel disheartened in such cases; it gets better with a few attempts.
To make your experience a bit better and smoother, here are a few tips!
- Make sure to rotate or change the side of the skewers from time to time to avoid over crisping/burning your food.
- Use the slices of onion, tomato, lemon, or potato- whatever you want to use as a backstop. Place a piece of meat, or shrimp on top of the sliced veggie pieces, then stab through it with the skewer. Be careful while stabbing. Try not to be overly forceful; it may ruin the shapes of the food items.
4. Rotisserie cooking
Rotisserie is an exquisite cooking style over open flames where meat is skewered on a spit (a long solid rod used to hold food while cooking or roasting). This method is a combination of roasting and using skewers, therefore also known as spit-roasting.
You can use this method for cooking large joints of meat or even an entire animal, such as seasonal birds, turkeys, pigs, etc. In this process of cooking, the rotation allows the meat to get heat evenly from every side and get cooked in its own juices. It also allows easy access for continuous basting.
However, rotisserie or spit-roasting may take quite some time. So, make sure you are well-prepared and have the patience to enjoy the delicious reward that will be waiting at the end of the cooking session. It can be a little challenging to master this style, but you can always check the online helping guides for mastering rotisserie!
5. Cooking in a pot
This one is the most straightforward style of all! If you want to warm your food or make chicken stew, curries- this is the ideal style for you. You may need a little more equipment with this style, but the result will definitely make it worth your effort.
One of the most popular ways of cooking with a pot is campfire tripod cooking, and you can watch this easy-to-follow instruction video on camp cooking over a tripod grill.
Types of Fire Pits you need for cooking
If you are looking forward to cooking over a fire pit, we would recommend you get a fire pit that is compatible enough to provide you a convenient cooking experience. In that case, you should definitely look into the review of BREEO fire pits.
The BREEO fire pits stand out among their competitors by offering high-end stainless steel with innovative design, efficient airflow technology, convenient features, flexibility, cooking accessories, and sustainability. With BREEO, you can turn your fire pit into a cooking station by simply attaching Outpost grills or customizing the fire pit with sear plates.
If you want to check a few other options as well, we got you covered! You can check this hand-picked collection of the top fire pits with grills of 2024 to find the ideal choice for enjoying outdoor cooking sessions along with fire experiences.
Not working? Keen to prepare a fire pit grill on your own and try it? In that case, you would love this detailed video on DIY Fire Pit Grill (Grilling a rump steak) to follow!
Tips for Cooking On Fire Pit
Excited to start your outdoor cooking journey? We got a few tips and tricks for you to make the experience better than ever!
1. Choose the right place
Before you set up your cooking station, you need to choose the ideal corner of your outdoor space. Avoid setting up your fire pit in a windy place as it may disrupt the process or cause a fire hazard. We would highly recommend you choose a place distant from any tree, branch, ceiling, or wall of infrastructure.
2. Choose the right fuel
Another prime advantage of cooking over a fire pit is that you can enjoy versatile styles according to your mood. If you love the traditional style with campfire smell and rustic quality, you will love to use wood as your fuel source. It will give you an intense flavor of the food while offering you a nostalgic, traditional fire environment.
With firewood, you have the chance to customize the flavor you want for whatever you are cooking. For example, the hickory is a hot, slow-burning variety of firewood that produces a strong and sweet flavor. You can use it for cooking and grilling ribs or pork tenderloins. You can also use oak as an alternative to hickory as it is also slow-burning but produces medium flavor.
You will easily find different types of firewood, such as almond wood, cherry wood, mesquite, hickory, etc., at any local at an affordable price range. It would be best to choose non-pine wood as your outdoor fire pit’s fuel source as they are dry enough to break easily and use.
There is also charcoal that you can use as an alternative to wood logs or firewood. If you need to control and set the right temperature for cooking, you may go for it.
Additionally, it is the best option to try grilling, and coal BBQ recipes, such as grilled Margherita pizza, smoked baby back ribs, smoked turkey, pork chops with cherry port sauce, BBQ pulled pork, etc
3. Get prepared with the necessary tools
Before starting your cooking process, get your hands on the necessary tools to make sure the process goes smoothly with the highest possibility of providing excellent results.
Here, we have prepared a shortlist consisting of all the essential tools to help you to achieve the primal experience with less effort and less inconvenience. Note down the items and grab them from online or your nearby local store.
Accessories for Cooking on Fire Pit
- Fire pit starters
- Fire poker stick
- Firewood holder
- Fire pit tongs
- Ash bucket with shovel and lid
- Roasting sticks
- BBQ grill gloves
- Cooking grate
4. Follow standard safety rules and regulations
Safety comes first. Before starting your cooking session, kindly take necessary precautions to avoid any fire hazard or mishap. It would be safe and sensible to choose a place distant from the forest, tree, hanging branches, tent, ceiling, or wall of any resident. Also, make sure no flammable material or substance is lying around your fire pit.
We would suggest you keep a bucket of water or fire extinguisher nearby in case things go left! Don’t forget to wear oven mitts to prevent burning your hands and an apron if you want to save your clothes.
Moreover, we would highly recommend following the standard fire pit safety rules and regulations to ensure a safe outdoor fire experience for you and your beloved ones.
5. Clean and Maintain
After every cooking session, it would be best to clean your fire pit along with all the fire pit accessories you have used while cooking. It will ensure the durability of your fire stove and maintain the quality of your dishes as well.
Here’s a tip! Clean and oil your cooking grate grill from time to time when not in use. It will prevent it from rusting and affecting the taste of your food.
If you are keen to maintain the quality of your fire pit, you will love to follow this detailed step-by-step guide on how to clean your fire pit. It will make the process a lot easier and faster for you.
6. Practice makes you perfect
Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get expected results after your first few attempts! There will be trial and error, and with each session, you will move forward towards getting your desired output. Therefore, browse through the online guides, follow the instructions, don’t hesitate to try new methods and techniques. If you are an outdoor enthusiast who loves cooking, you will definitely enjoy cooking over a fire pit while making mistakes and learning!
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are a few additional pieces of information on the Solo Stove that you might be interested to know!
1. What can you cook in a fire pit?
When it comes to making BBQ or campfire foods, there are tons of options for you to try! Here are a few simple yet delicious recipes that you can try at your picnic or outdoor parties:
- Chorizo Zucchini Chilli
- Oven/campfire pizza
- Campfire Pizza Cone
- French Toast
- Bread on a Stick
- Chicken Stew
- Grilled Chicken/beef Sandwich
- Meat or veggie kabobs
- Grilled Shrimp
- Nachos, Sliders, Hamburgers
- Toasted Burritos
2. Are fire pits good for cooking?
Fire pits can be a great source of warmth and coziness while bringing a social experience for you. Having a fire pit for both heating and cooking can provide you a primal satisfaction in chill weather. Over a fire pit, you can make chicken steak, hamburgers, nachos, burritos, stew- anything you name it! You can use firewood or coal given the kind of food you are cooking. Therefore, cooking over a fire pit can bring you a pleasant experience, and it’s definitely worth trying!
3. Can you cook pizza on a fire pit?
Yes, definitely you can. You can cook pizza on a fire pit, and in this case, you will need a fire pit with a curved lid. You can line the lid with aluminum foil, keeping the shiny side on the inside. Then, as you heat up your fire pit, the heat will be transferred around the pizza and reflect off the foil onto the top of the pizza.
You can also make your own DIY Pizza Oven following online videos and blogs on how to make a DIY Pizza Oven.
4. Can a fire pit be used as a BBQ?
Definitely, yes! You can use your fire pit to make BBQ foods just by attaching Outpost grills to it. Be on a camping adventure, road trip, or simply in your backyard; you can enjoy BBQ foods using your fire pit for grilling and roasting.
Conclusion
Let’s have a glance at what you have gathered so far.
If you have made it this far, you have got our detailed guide on fire pit cooking, including information such as different methods of fire pit cooking, types of fire pits you need for cooking, dos, and don’ts while cooking over a fire pit, along with a few additional information.
Cooking over a fire pit has its own appeal while offering you a warm, satisfying outdoor fire experience. If you want to enjoy the weather of fall, a 2-in-1 fire pit can serve your purpose with comfort and convenience. Therefore, get your ideal fire pit, arrange a picnic or party and enjoy delicious BBQ foods with your friends and family in a glowing fire environment.
So, did the guide get you excited for your outdoor cooking session? Have you found the answers you were looking for? If it helped you with the information you needed, we would be glad to know. Share your opinions with us and if there’s something more to add, let us know in the comment section. We would appreciate your feedback!
