Fire pit
cooking
Different ways to
cook on fire pits
An outdoor fire pit in your patio or backyard
is an excellent place to spend the evenings with your family or
friends. It is a nice feeling to sit around the fire and enjoy
the dinner get together with your close friends and family
members.
 Firepits usually are permanent structures in
the patio or backyard, but nowadays we get portable
fire-pits also. Firepits are now even used for cooking and
hence people can not only enjoy the fire but also relish
some delicious grilled food. There are plenty of options
of fire pits available these days that can be bought
depending on the size, shape and the style that will aptly
suit your backyard or patio.
The different types of fire-pits that are readily available
or can be built are: portable fire pit, fire pits built on
table, cast iron fire pit, copper fire pit, or simple stone
fire pit. Most fire pits can be transformed into a nice
barbecue pit, which can be used for preparing various delicious
dishes.
These fire pit barbecue can use either wood fire or charcoal
for cooking food. Along with pits one should have a grill
grate, and a rotisserie or a tripod to make cooking easy and
enjoyable. On a grill fixed to the barbecue fire pit, one can
literally cook anything you want. While cooking on the barbecue
fire pit, one has the advantage of burning wood fire or
charcoal for heating the food on the grill. Fire pits, apart
from providing pleasure for people to sit around and enjoy a
good night’s party will also provide the warmth and great
aromas of the food being cooked.
The main advantage of fire pit cooking is
that it can serve the dual purpose of an outdoor fire pit as
well as, it can be used as a fire pit grill.
Also, the most famous cooking raw material, the firewood can
be used to add flavor to the fat juicy meat that is being
cooked.
Also different types of firewood namely cherry wood, oak,
almond wood etc, can de used to add varying flavors and aroma
to the food being cooked. Nowadays, larger fire pits are easily
available which will enable to cater to a larger gathering.
Charcoal can be another medium of fuel that can be used in fire
pit cooking.
As cooking on an outdoor firepit grill is fun, there are
different ways of cooking on the fire-pit which will enhance
the way one cooks. Skewer cooking is one of the oldest and the
simplest form of fire pit cooking. Cooking on the pit using
skewers, will just need the fire in the fire pit and no cooking
grill is needed. This will reduce the cost of a fire pit
considerably. One or two long skewers with wooden handles will
be sufficient enough for roasting sausages, hot dogs or
marshmallows in the open.
Some smaller birds like pigeons, quails etc can be easily
cooked over the fire pit with the help of skewers. Direct heat
grilling is another way of cooking on the fire pit. Here the
food is cooked directly over the heat source, rather than
cooking by circulating hot air over the food. This will be
similar to barbecue cooking. The direct heating grill will
enhance the speed of cooking of smaller food items like grilled
steak, marinated chicken breasts, pork or lamb chops, sausages,
hamburgers etc. The direct heat from the fire pit will help in
cooking the food faster to a fine golden brown caramelized
color with the meat looking crispy and juicy.
Indirect heat grilling is another way of cooking in a fire
pit.
Here, rather than heating the food directly with the help of
the open fire pit, the food is cooked slowly in the hot air
circulating the food.
This is a slow process, but there is no fear of the food
getting heavily roasted.
But to use indirect heat grill on the fire pit, it has to have
an area where there is no direct heat below it.
Also a solid lid is needed to cover the fire-pit for the
indirect heat grilling to function properly. This is done to
allow the food to be cooked in the circulating hot smoky air in
the fire pit grill. Ideally, indirect heat grilling is used to
cook whole chickens; tri- trip roasts etc which takes a long
time to cook in the outdoor fire pit.
Rotisserie cooking is a type of cooking on the outdoor
fire-pit where the food to be cooked is placed on a metal plate
of the rotisserie and is turned around manually or by the
motorized rotisserie.
The ultimate in slow grilling is achieved while using
rotisserie cooking method, where the food to be cooked will be
evenly roasted and browned all round. This is similar to
indirect heat grilling, with the only difference being that the
food has to be repeatedly flipped in indirect heat grill
whereas it simply turns on the rotisserie.
Finally, the simplest way of
cooking on the fire pit is to keep an iron pan over the grill
or directly in the fire. This is great for pan frying fish or
vegetables or for preparing soups and stews. All these
different types of cooking using a fire pit will surely be a
hit among your friends and families, as they will surely have a
nice time sitting around the fire pit as well as enjoying the
food cooking in it.
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