What You Need to Know About Outdoor Cooking
The main difference between indoor and outdoor cooking is the space is simply where you do it. Outdoor cooking can happen anywhere: at a campground, park, backyard, or even a tailgate. Today’s backyard outdoor kitchens can have basically the same amenities as indoor kitchens, and the experience isn’t quite as rustic as some people envision.
Sure, you can cook hot dogs and s’mores over a fire pit, but when it comes to more sophisticated dishes, you’ll want appliances and amenities that make it possible to cook great meals without constantly going in and out of the house. Cooking outdoors in your backyard is best done with a fully equipped outdoor kitchen even if you want to include open-fire cooking.
What Is Outdoor Cooking?
Human civilization began around outdoor cooking as our ancestors gathered around fire for safety. The fire used to cook meats made the food safe to eat and more delicious. Soon, more complex foods were created around the flame and recipes were born, driving entire civilizations forward. Much of this love for outdoor cooking remains today (the grill is a classic example). Meanwhile, modern technology has made some impressive leaps in improving the capabilities of outdoor cooking. From built-in grills to portable hibachi grills and even simple skewers for cooking over an open fire, the key is that if there’s a way to heat food, you will eat deliciously.
Can You Cook Food Outside?
Yes, cooking outside is possible in practically any situation. The location, equipment, ingredients, and company you have in your outdoor cooking experiences can create some of the best memories for everyone involved. Whether you choose to cook in the lavish comfort of your backyard, the social setting of a public park, or out in the wilderness while on a backpacking trip, outdoor cooking can always be enjoyable!
What Do You Need To Cook Outdoors?
The first thing you need to cook outdoors is a safe location to set up whatever form of cooking you’re doing. Essentially, outdoor cooking revolves around a heat source: an open fire, grill, smoker, wood-fired pizza oven, and so on.
If you’re planning on building a wood fire or using an open-flame grill, it’s vital to consider safety: or, what’s in the immediate vicinity that may catch fire. In your backyard, for instance, make sure you have a clearing of at least 10 feet in every direction of all tree branches, vines, and flammable manmade materials including the walls and eaves of the home. Also make sure to clear a 10 foot radius of any leaves and other plant debris from around the cooking location. This is especially important in areas going through a drought.
The next thing you need is the equipment to create a safe fire. This may be a rudimentary fire pit created by a ring of rocks in a clearing in your backyard. Many homeowners, however, have decided to build a much more comprehensive approach to outdoor cooking in their backyards. This could be a charcoal, propane, natural gas, or even wood-fired open flame grill, any of which is a classic fixture in backyards. In fact, fire (heat) is so important for outdoor cooking that many outdoor kitchens are designed to enhance the capabilities of the grill with additional appliances like smokers or pizza ovens.
The rest of the things you need for outdoor cooking depends on your family’s preferences when it comes to the level of luxury you enjoy, the type of foods you cook, the size and design of the outdoor space, and the kind of future you’re looking for in outdoor cooking. Cooking implements, utensils, spices and seasonings can be vastly different in various settings.
What Is An Outdoor Cooking Method?
Since the days of primitive fire pits, modern technology has greatly expanded the capabilities of outdoor cooking. A cooking method refers to the practice of applying heat to food using a certain technique. Each one of these cooking methods has different equipment and different safety requirements, but they all give your outdoor cooking some incredible potential. You’ll be amazed at the foods and experiences that these cooking methods can produce. Let’s go over the five best methods of outdoor cooking.
What Are The Five Types of Cooking Methods?
Grilling: Probably the image you see when you think of outdoor cooking, grilling is one of the most common ways to turn raw ingredients into incredible meals in an outdoor setting. Grilling involves suspending the ingredients on an iron grill just above a direct heat source. Grilling mainly involves wood, propane, natural gas, or charcoal as fuels. There are many types of grill units, from the most basic tabletop picnic grills to some really magnificent professional grills that can handle a high volume and crank out consistently delicious foods.
Charcoal grills require some patience and may take some time to start producing some reliable heat but once they’re ready, they produce consistent heat.
Wood grills need lots of tending, the right species of wood, and some decent experience to operate safely, but they can be quite rewarding.
Natural gas and propane grills provide a very consistent and controllable heat, making them the safest options - but some people will say that food cooked over gas doesn’t have the same smoky flavor as food cooked over charcoal or wood.
Roasting: Even older than grilling itself, roasting is an ingenious solution that involves holding the food on a spit (horizontal stick or spike) that is held over the fire by two other poles. Since heat can only be applied on one side of the food, the spit needs to turn or the food needs to be flipped to ensure an even roasting. A common method of roasting goes by the French word for roasting device: “rotisserie.” A modern rotisserie slowly turns the food so it’s evenly cooked on all sides. This is a great option for certain types of meats and can make some truly delicious meals. However, a rotisserie shouldn’t be your only outdoor cooking technique as you’ll need a different appliance to cook the other components of a balanced meal.
Boiling: Some of the best foods need to be broken down in boiling water before they’re enjoyed, such as potatoes or pasta. With the help of either an open flame from a fire pit, you can place a cast iron pot in the fire to get that water boiling quickly. This can be great for a camping experience, but many outdoor kitchens are designed to help in an easier way. The best option for boiling is some range burners that use natural gas or propane. Some grills come with a range burner attachment and some outdoor ovens are designed just like an indoor kitchen with the stove range on top.
Baking: This cooking method involves capturing substantial heat in either a masonry or steel chamber. Baking is an effective way of cooking outside, but it needs a permanent structure in place, with very few exceptions. In order to bake, you’ll need an oven. Some outdoor kitchen ovens are designed in a similar way to those found indoors, with a steel chamber and a tempered glass door holding in the natural gas-fueled heat. Other ovens have been taking the outdoor kitchen world by storm. An open-front pizza oven is too large and too hot to be kept inside a home without some strong and loud ventilation. However, pizza ovens make excellent additions to outdoor cooking in a backyard. Your pizza oven can be natural gas fired or wood fired and made from either steel or masonry. Masonry ovens are large, and not portable. You can find stainless steel pizza ovens designed for outdoor use, either wood- or gas-fueled. You may even be able to combine a wood-fired masonry pizza oven within the same unit as an outdoor fireplace to provide lots of ambient heat and atmosphere, as well as delicious foods.
Frying: This cooking method can provide some of the most delicious foods although they are rarely the most healthy foods available. Frying is best done either under a ventilation hood or outdoors. Frying involves applying heat to oil, which means that some serious safety measures must be in place in both indoor and outdoor settings. Tabletop fryers are powered by electricity, making them safe for the indoors although they should be under a closed shelter if used outdoors. Larger natural gas fryers should be kept underneath a ventilation hood in an outdoor kitchen. Pan frying is also possible with the help of natural gas burners.
What Are Some Unusual Methods Of Cooking Outdoors?
Sometimes the right outdoor cooking method is one that most homeowners haven’t considered for their backyard outdoor kitchens. Some of these methods are traditional or specific to a certain culture or environment. Experience in safe practices is necessary for each of these cooking practices. If you apply any of these cooking methods to your outdoor cooking, you’ll create some of the most exciting foods in your area.
Earth Oven: Many cultures around the world cook large meals by digging a hole, starting a fire in the hole, adding the food, then covering it. An earth oven will trap heat for up to 24 hours using either wood or coals. A typical earth oven uses the soil as the buffer between the chamber and the outside world. It’s one of the best ways you can cook a large meal for friends and family right in the safety of your backyard. However, this cooking method doesn’t add much to the aesthetics or design of an outdoor kitchen since it will be buried with dirt most of the time. Still - if you’re intrigued by alternative cooking methods, this could be a fun one to try.
Smoking: Sometimes cooking low and slow can provide some of your family’s favorite foods. A standalone steel smoker or a smoker attachment on your grill can be an incredible presence in your outdoor kitchen. Smoked meats, vegetables, cheese, and more are all part of a fantastic spread of culinary delights. Most smokers require a wood fire to tend to, although some are more automatic. One thing is for sure: when your smoker is going, no one will be able to resist the enticing aromas as meal time approaches.
How Do You Cook In The Woods?
Cooking in the woods can bring back some primitive instincts in people and almost everyone will find an enjoyable experience in the right conditions. The biggest factor determining the way you can cook in the woods is the location and proximity to modern cooking techniques. If you’re planning on cooking in a park campground close to your vehicle and there’s a grill available, you’ll just need to bring charcoal or wood, and get to cooking. If campground or picnic area grills aren’t available, there are many ways you can have a successful outdoor cooking session.
If you’re planning on cooking several miles into the forest on a backpacking trip, you have to keep in mind that everything needs to be carried in and carried out. Walking several miles carrying a dutch oven or even a mid-size portable grill (along with propane canisters or bags of charcoal) can get very exhausting very quickly. Backpacking stoves and cooking utensils are incredibly lightweight, but they will limit your cooking to whatever can be prepared in a frying pan or saucepan. You can cook on a fire pit, too; you’ll need a grate to set your pots and pans on, and of course the pots and pans themselves.
Backwoods cooking emphasizes using little or no modern equipment, instead focusing on what the forest environment can naturally provide. Wood directly from the forest is used in practically all backwoods cooking applications. Some backwoods cooks may bring basic backpacking equipment such as steel pots or aluminum foil; but this is where alternative methods come in, such as cooking over a previously-heated flat stone, or over an open fire.
Can You Cook Food On An Open Fire?
Cooking food on an open fire is one of the oldest ways of transforming raw ingredients into something edible. With a fire that’s fueled by either wood or charcoal, you can infuse your food with an incredible taste that only open fire can provide. You can also use natural gas or propane to fuel an open fire, though the requirements of these fuels will bring your open fire cooking much closer to grilling. Cooking food on an open fire can make some of the most enjoyable meals your friends and family have ever had.
Is Cooking Over An Open Fire Healthy?
Cooking over an open fire, also known as a live fire, can produce some of the most delicious foods out there. Three billion people around the developing world rely on an open fire for their daily meals. It’s one of the most basic forms of outdoor cooking out there, yet there are actually many health risks involved.
According to a National Geographic article published in 2017, the daily use of an open fire for cooked food can have several major health consequences. The two most harmful factors of an open fire are the sustained exposure to both wood smoke and extreme heat that a fire produces. Frequently breathing wood smoke is a factor that leads to “respiratory infections, eye damage, heart and lung disease, and lung cancer.” The article further states that one typical home wood fire can produce up to 400 cigarettes of smoke per hour. The extreme heat can even cause damage to skin, nerves, muscles, and blood vessels over time. Not to mention that the most dangerous part of a wood fire is the higher chance that the flames will reach beyond their designated fire pit and catch something else on fire; and flying sparks and embers also pose a serious wildfire risk.
Those with respiratory and cardiovascular conditions such as asthma and high blood pressure should refrain from spending too much time around an open fire. In small periods of time, being around an open fire won’t be harmful to the average person. The more time that’s spent around one, however, will eventually result in some serious health consequences. Natural gas, propane, and charcoal fired cooking is much safer due to the lack of smoke and a lesser chance of unregulated heat.
What Do You Need For Open Fire Cooking?
Cooking over an open fire isn’t something you should do without someone with experience. In order to make open fire cooking as safe as possible, it’s important to remember some basic techniques and requirements. Here are some of the important things to consider:
The choice of firewood matters. Some woods may burn much faster than others, producing a much higher intensity of heat that will quickly fizzle out. Pine wood is an excellent choice for firewood because it is widely available and burns quickly - however, aficionados will say that pine imparts a bitter aftertaste to food. Seasoned fruitwoods make the best options for open fire cooking. Never use freshly cut wood directly from a tree. This wood will still have lots of water and sap inside, producing huge amounts of smoke.
The choice of food matters. Meats with high fat content like bacon will splatter and have a high chance of causing the fire to flare up; cooking it on the sides of the fire pit will help reduce the heat and cook the meat more evenly.
Use the right equipment for your cooking so you don’t lose any of your food into the embers or ash.
The choice of location matters. Every open fire needs to have plenty of clearing space around the flames to avoid anything outside the fire pit catching aflame. The right location is going to be a place with a combination of protection from the elements as well as the clearing necessary for staying safe. An open and windy meadow, for instance, can cause a fire to burn too hot, generating dangerous sparks and flying embers.
Dig a fire pit, especially in dry areas. Dig into the soil to create a space for burning that is free of fallen organic matter like tree mulch or pine needles, which could cause the fire to move virtually underground and start a forest fire. The best materials to build a fire upon are rock or dry mineral soil.
The choice of equipment matters. When tending to an open fire, only steel utensils should be used. Plastic utensils will quickly melt when they come into contact with fire, and wood utensils can catch on fire.
When it comes to eating what you’ve cooked, choose paper plates if you are cooking over a wood fire (you can just burn them afterward). Otherwise, bring plastic or metal washable bowls and utensils. Reusable containers and plates are much better for the environment, but you’ll have to pack them in and pack them out.
The choice of clothing matters. An open fire can be quite dangerous if skin is left exposed or hanging clothing happens to sway into the flame. Jeans and steel-toed boots are excellent clothing options for your lower half as they will protect your skin and feet from the intense heat and potential sparks or flying embers. Make sure that the shirt, sweater, or jacket on your upper half stays closed and far away from the reach of the flame.
The right safety measures are essential. If possible, try to build an open fire within a short distance to a nearby creek or pond so you can quickly access water if need be. If there are no bodies of water nearby, keep a shovel and a full bucket of water, sand, or dirt near the fire pit so you can disperse the embers and extinguish the fire quickly if necessary.
Most of all, you’ll need patience. A good open fire in the outdoors doesn’t happen immediately. Even when the first sticks and logs are ignited, there is still plenty of time before a strong core of heat is created with embers. This inner part of the fire pit will keep your fire going for a long time, but it needs time and lots of tending for embers to form before you begin cooking.
What Does An Outdoor Kitchen Mean?
The outdoor kitchen is virtually the same as your indoor kitchen, except that it features appliances and amenities that can withstand weather. A backyard outdoor kitchen can become the anchor for a family’s outdoor lifestyle. As long as the weather allows, you can prepare, cook, and enjoy meals with your friends and family. You can craft meals from the simplest snacks all the way to lavish feasts made for royalty. When building an outdoor kitchen in your backyard, there are some important things to keep in mind.
Keep a solid budget: The budget for your outdoor kitchen is something that you should come up with before you start talking to landscaping designers. This number will guide the choices for your outdoor kitchen and surrounding dining space. Add up the cost of appliances as well as the materials for building the kitchen including wall units, pavers, lighting, a gas line, electricity, countertops, cabinetry, a grill, a sink, and more.
Choose the right appliances: The appliances in your outdoor kitchen, first and foremost, need to be weatherproofed and outdoor rated. Try to keep the outdoor kitchen focused on how you really cook and invest in high quality appliances for your style of cooking.
Find the perfect location: In many ways, the success of an outdoor kitchen depends on the perfect location in your landscape. If you choose an area too close to your home’s back door, it may limit the kinds of appliances you’ll be able to add to your outdoor kitchen. For instance, even a natural gas or propane grill needs to be at least six feet away from any vertical structure of the house to prevent fumes from entering the home. If the outdoor kitchen is too far away from the back door, it might be too cumbersome to carry food, drinks, plates, and equipment back and forth. The right location for your outdoor kitchen should be in an easily accessible part of your patio at a safe distance away from the home.
Work with the available space: Finding the perfect layout for your outdoor kitchen starts with working with the available space. If your backyard has lots of trees and variable elevations, a compact and cozy outdoor kitchen might work best when connected to a terraced patio. If your backyard is open and flat, consider using the island kitchen design to make the space feel grand and expansive.
Designate the four zones: When you plan the layout of your outdoor kitchen to include the four zones of function, you’re setting your outdoor kitchen up for success. One section should be for heat, as in the cooking appliances. One section should be for colds, as in the refrigeration appliances. One section should be for water, as in your sink and dishwashing area. The final section should be for dry storage so your plates, utensils, glasses, and shelf-stable foods are in a safe place.
Solidify the design scheme: The design of your outdoor kitchen entirely depends on the aesthetics of your home and landscape. If your home is rustic and traditional, use plenty of wood, brick, or natural stone in your outdoor kitchen. Work with the natural tones of wood and stone to give your outdoor kitchen a cozy feel. If your home is modern and contemporary, use the sleek textures of polished stone, chrome steel, and glass to guide the main look of the project. A modern outdoor kitchen design will take advantage of long, unbroken lines and minimalist textures.
Light with task lighting: Adding purposeful lighting to your outdoor kitchen will not only make it a safer place to be after the sun goes down, it will also make the space and structures much more beautiful. Use task lighting in the design of your outdoor kitchen to make sure that the preparation and cooking areas are brightly lit. The dining space will benefit from lower-intensity lighting to help provide a mood and atmosphere. And finally, accent lighting - such as downlights that accentuate the masonry walls of your kitchen - will add ambience and illuminate walking surfaces.
Ensure plenty of seating: Plan on allowing for enough seats for the number of people who typically use the space. You can use movable chairs and tables, but the best outdoor kitchens take advantage of masonry seat walls and tables for seating. For bigger parties, you can also include a gorgeous retaining wall that doubles as a casual sitting wall.
What Appliances Do I Need In My Outdoor Kitchen?
With a wide range of appliances to choose from, remember to always think about what kinds of foods your family likes the most and how you like to cook. Here are some of the best appliances you can put in an outdoor kitchen:
A grill: The right grill in your outdoor kitchen can produce some of your family’s all time favorites, such as hot dogs, burgers, steaks, shish kebabs, and many many more.
A fridge: You’ll need at least a small refrigeration unit in your outdoor kitchen to ensure that your drinks, cheeses, snacks, and meats stay cold. Also consider a wine cooler or a kegerator if you frequently host parties.
Range burners: To boil water, fry eggs, or brew some tea, you’ll need the assistance of a gas range burner, which you can place right next to your grill.
Pizza oven: No outdoor kitchen appliance can be more beautiful and magnetic than a pizza oven, which can provide your friends and family with delicious and bubbly pizzas.
Bar station: Crafting delicious drinks means always having the right beverages at hand.
Our top tip: stick to “your” basics: whatever you use most indoors, will translate to outdoor cooking as well. This way, your outdoor kitchen will be sleek and clutter-free, and designed for the way you cook and live.