There’s no doubt cooking with fire is badass. It looks cool, the food tastes great and it's raw, like getting back to your caveman roots. But most people don’t cook with a wood fire, outside of the occasional campfire.
So, if you’re looking to level up your bbq game with live fire cooking, here are some easy tips I wish I knew when I started out:
1. Seasoning your grill
Before you start cooking, make sure to properly season your cooking surface, which ensures it’s free of debris, prevents food from sticking, and adds extra flavour.
There’s many ways to season a grill. Here’s how I do it:
- Start your fire and get the surface area really hot
- Pour cooking oil on the grill - I recommend an oil with a high smoke point, such as avocado oil
- Cut a large onion in half
- Make sure the surface is hot
- Rub the onion in circular motions across the entire surface
Regularly cleaning and oiling your grill grates will help maintain their seasoning and prevent rusting. I also apply a coating of oil after every cook to further prevent rusting. Plus the onion adds extra flavour.
2. Quickly starting a fire
Ya ya, we can all build a fire. However, sometimes it’s nice to get a guaranteed fire started quickly. Like a push button starter on your gas BBQ.
- Choose the right kind of wood for your grill - hardwoods like maple, oak, hickory, or mesquite are popular choices for their rich flavors.
- Before piling on larger logs, use kindling, dry twigs, and newspaper or cardboard to get your base fire going.
- Make sure your wood is dry! Wet wood will not only not catch well, but will create more smoke and could impact flavour.
- Arrange your wood in a way that allows for good airflow to help the fire burn evenly.
- Instant Fire Starters, chimneys, and Doritos.
I personally use Instant Fire Starters, or a chimney with lump charcoal and a torch lighter.
3. Fire Management
How you manage your fire depends on your cooking method – over direct heat (grill), on a flat top (griddle), or in a smoker. Regardless of your cooking method, I recommend a probe thermometer that can give you both the food and ambient temperatures.
Here’s our top getting started tips for each method:
Direct heat:
Ex: fire table, fire pit, grill grate
- Only use coals for cooking.
- To create new coals, burn hardwood in a brassero box next to your cook.
- When the hot embers fall through the brassero box, slide them under your food with a fire rake.
- Keep a beer (or water) close by to manage flare ups.
- Keep the fire going to constantly create more embers and add as needed.
Flat tops:
Ex: plancha, discada, barrel cooker
- Create a big flame under the flat top to heat the surface – go nuclear!
- Thicker surfaces will require bigger fires.
Smoking:
Ex: offset smoker, reverse flow smoker
The name of the game is maintaining your cooking temperature while making clear smoke. The clear smoke is key, it's what creates that delicious smoky flavour.
- Make sure to use very dry hardwood! Damp wood creates dirty smoke, and is difficult to manage.
- Prep your wood by putting it next to the fire so that it heats up, this make it catch and produce clear smoke faster.
- The size of the fire depends on the temperature and size of the smoke chamber.
- I find it best to start with a smaller fire, see what temp it stabilizes and and slowly add more logs until it gets to the correct temperature.
- Keep an eye on your temperature in the smoke chamber and smoke color.
- If the temperature drops or the smoke starts going opaque, you should adjust your fire by adding more wood, moving things around, or opening the door to create more airflow.
- Don’t over manage your fire! Just let the fire do the work, quite often, it will self-correct.
Cooking with fire is an art and a science. There's definite dos and don’ts (the science side), but overall there's many creative ways to do it well (the art side)!