Cooking w/ Fire
To me, cooking with fire is as wholesome, dynamic, grounding, and ‘real’ as cooking Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in the microwave is not. Admittedly, I was the kid mucking about with the fire while others were off napping, and was fascinated to watch family cook over fire on the weekends at the lake. But I grew up in the 80s, when food and food prep took a serious nose dive into the turf. Cooking with fire was so not cool. Microwaves. Microwaves were the radness of the future. 2-3 decades on, folk like Jamie Oliver are telling people to toss the gas grill, and learn to cook with wood and charcoal. My propane grill got decommissioned in 2004. And my microwave hit the bin in about 2003. I’m a believer.
I started down this path by smoking foods like bacon, salmon, sausages and jerky – putting the fire in a baking pan in my bbq, and smoking on the top racks. No, you do not need a fancy smoker to make fine smoked foods. Shortly thereafter I was throwing the bottom grill back on and grilling food over hardwood charcoal. Then rotisseried cured pork hocks, pork belly, and chicken entered my life. Then baking. Then I built my temp wood fired oven.
Part of my life purpose is to inspire people to cook with fire again. It’s life-giving. It should most certainly not be shelved until you next go camping. There is virtually zero barrier to entry, so you have no excuse. It’s a tad dangerous. It’s stimulating and powerful. It’s never the same twice, and therefore requires some creativity and ingenuity each time. Cooking with fire quite simply makes life better.
