Fireplace cooking is ideal for the cold winter months when most of us won’t brave the frozen weather to grill outside. Just because the weather outside is frightful, but it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy wood fire grilled food. Fireplace cooking is a very interesting and relaxing.
However, with the development of our society, more and more people have never and ever cooked in their fireplace. There are many reasons to cause this trend happen. For example, we have no time to prepare food for ourselves because we are busy to make money. And we don’t know how to make food safely by using the fireplace and we even have no chance, though we have a fireplace in our home.
Yet cooking in the fireplace is not as hard as you image! And also it produces delicious food that can really impress your guests. Imaging you and your lover huddle around the warm fire alone, you guys watch the dinner cook on a real wood fire and you can smell the good flavor surround you.
Don’t you feel a complex emotion? Don’t you guys feel warm and comfortable in your heart? When mentioning about romance, cooking on your fireplace grill is the ultimate and there is nothing can be more romantic like doing that!
Fireplace cooking is one of the most primitive ways to cook food when we not take campfire cooking into consideration. Do you forget Little House on the Prairie? They cooked all their food in the fireplace. As you can see it is not old or obsolete for us. Hearth cooking is a great way to prepare many beautiful dishes! And I think cooking in a fireplace is a new trend to prepare dinner for important ones and also for our sincere friends and relatives.
As for the advantages of fireplace cooking, I would like to say it is an activity with so much fun and sweet romance. And by using the real wood fire, you can roast a chicken, a leg of lamb in front of a real warm fire. And the food will definitely taste different and much juicy than you make by using oven or other something.
If you want to make good taste roast dish, you will need many different type of special equipment, such as fireplace grill and etc.
Types of fireplace cooking
Hearth Cooking String-Turned Roasts
The all-time classic string-turned recipe for hearth cooking is string-turned leg of lamb. It is a recipe originating from the south of France. The gamey, rustic flavors of the tender lamb meat are perfectly cooked in front of a roaring fire.
My favorite roast food now is string-turned leg of lamb. I usually use a French ginger-tarragon marinade and serve this warm meal with a side dish of squash puree. After my first trying, I never think about to make this dish by using other ways and adding some seasons. If you get creative and have the same passion about roast food like me, there are plenty of other things you can string-turn in your fireplace.
Experiment with different meats and different marinades. I would like to set an example here, substitute other poultry for chicken. Guinea hens, pheasant, and duck can all be perfect enough cooked by string-turned hearth cooking too. I would go for more rustic, strongly flavored herbs though some thyme, savory and oregano.
You can also cook smaller game birds and poultry such as squab, game hens and quail. All you have to do is to think creatively. Get creative enough with your string trussing and you can hang several small birds in parallel! But remember that the smaller the bird, the faster it will cook! You really need to design before you start cook. Try getting creative and cook other roasts in front of your fireplace.
Pie Iron Cooking
Pie iron is a metal cooking device on the end of long handles which allows you to hold the iron in or near an open fire to cook food. It is named for its utility in cooking pies, these utensils can be handy to cook a number of things in a fire pit, campfire or in your fireplace.
The pie iron is basically two shallow metal bowls. Some of the pie iron is round and some are square. I would like square ones because I think round pie looks boring. As for how to use it, you can simply fill it up with any ingredients, close it up and cook it.
Fireplace cooking equipment
Fireplace grill
A fireplace grill is a grill specifically designed to allow you to cook delicious grilled foods on the wood fire and embers of your fireplace. Hearth cooking is a way to bring the joy and flavors of cooking with fire indoors.
There are several types of grills built for the fireplace including fireplace cooking rack you can use to cook more roast meat one time. As for the basic design, it is a frame which holds a grill grate over your firewood fire. This allows you to either cook directly on flames, or wait for your fire to die down and cook over the hot embers.
Fireplace grill can help you make perfect roast meat, vegetables and mushrooms. If you are just a green hand, you can use fireplace grills to prepare food.
Fireplace rotisserie
The most important and impressive fireplace cooking equipment is the fireplace rotisserie. Not only is it functional, evenly cooked, juicy roasts in your fireplace, but it is also impressive looking. Most people probably haven’t even considered that you can use a rotisserie to cook things in front of your fireplace, but this device not only makes hearth cooking possible, but easy and fun.
A fireplace rotisserie simply sits on the ground in front of your fireplace, easy, no mess and no installation necessary. They are versatile. Most fireplace rotisseries also come with two separated spits, so that you can cook two roasts at the same time. One can have your vegetable kabobs and the other can have your lamb.
Or one has a pork loin and the other has a chicken, as seen above. The combinations are endless. If you want your slow cooked roasts like whole chicken or other poultry. A rotisserie is a fireplace cooking accessory which is absolutely perfect for slow-cooked larger roasts!
Chestnut Roasting
Most of you have probably heard tales of exploding chestnuts and the danger of roasting chestnuts on an open fire. But you still can find most markets selling chestnuts when in holiday season. So how those people deal with the chestnut? It has puzzled me for a few years until I find chestnut roasting in the market.
Now I believe that chestnut roasting isn’t as dangerous as its reputation. If you know what you are doing, chestnut roasting can be a perfect fireplace cooking event in this winter, or any other time for that matter. You just need to follow some simple instructions and then you can get some perfectly cooked, toasty and tender roast chestnuts on an open fire. And they are perfect enough for you and your kids to enjoy.
Fireplace Cooking Accessories
Dutch oven
A campfire Dutch oven is a great way to expand your “cooking with fire” repertoire. A Dutch oven can be used in in any fireplace, on a campfire, a fire pit and even right on your grill. They allow you to season, boil, stew and braise like you would on your oven but right over your open fire! In fact there are different types of campfire Dutch oven. The most common type is a large cast iron pot with a heavy, tight-fitting lid.
If these have a metal handle they can be hung over a fire pit or campfire from a crane or campfire tripod. Alternatively, they can be hung over your fireplace fire by a fireplace crane. Some specially Dutch ovens and skillets are made with legs. These legs are specifically designed for using with an open fire.
These usually have a concave lid as well. And why they have legs and lids for they can help youuse your hot embers or coals to heat the pot. You can use a shovel to make a small pile of hot embers aside your fire or fire pit. Then you simply lower the Dutch oven or fireplace skillet on top of it.
Once your food is inside the pot and the lid is closed, you shovel some more hot coals on the lid to heat the pot thoroughly from top and bottom. You can keep adding hot coals as needed to keep your heat up through the cooking process. It is one of tools for you to make your fireplace food.
Skewers
Skewer cooking is one of the easiest ways to make delicious roast food. Anything you can stick on long skewers can be roasted by hand in the fire. While this is classic for roasting marshmallows, hot dogs and sausages, you can do a lot more if you get creative. There are two different types of skewer. One is wooden or bamboo skewer, the other is metal skewer which can be used for a long time if carefully preserved.