Cooking Over An Open Fire With Burning Dinner
Here are three hard-and-fast rules for cooking over an open fire without burning your dinner.
1. Never cook over a fire.
As counter-intuitive as this sounds, open flames are like uncontrolled surges of heat. Instead, you want glowing coals; they heat evenly, and you can control the cooking temperature by raking more under your pot, or pushing some away.
2. Start your fire at least an hour before you need it.
Because you need coals to cook, you need to have a fire going for an hour or more before it will produce the coals you need.Check out this link here. Once your put your pot over the fire, allow for extra cooking time, as coals generally heat at a lower temperature than a stove or oven. A good rule of thumb is to add half again as much time as usual. So, if you like to cook your chili for two hours, allow three over an open fire.
3. Never put a pot directly on coals.
Use a legged pot, a trivet, or suspend your pot over the coals. If fire or coals come in direct contact with the bottom of your pot, your food will scorch. You can, however, put coals on top of a dutch oven; this will turn your pot into a mini convection oven and speed cooking.