Cooking with Fire: From Roasting on a Spit to Baking in a Tannur, Rediscovered Techniques and Recipes That Capture the Flavors of Wood-Fired Cooking

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Now, the function of a fire grill is much the same as a campfire: build fire, cook with fire. Where it differs, however, is the simple yet wonderful fact that you can use tough-as-nails cast-iron cookware on the grate. (I don’t recommend any other cookware, as the fire might damage it.) With this seemingly small alteration, a whole world of more convenient cookery will open up.

The long-term benefits of a cleaner-burning wood stove, even when fully accepted by a household, are uncertain. Stoves that burn cleanly and efficiently in the laboratory, under standardized conditions, may not sustain their performance over years of everyday use. Deep in the western highlands of Guatemala, where the Mayan language of Mam is spoken more frequently than Spanish, a series of long-running public-health studies has measured the effects of improved wood-burning cookstoves on childhood health. An international team of researchers led by Kirk Smith of the University of California, Berkeley, found that while the new stoves did improve household air quality and reduce the frequency of childhood illnesses such as pneumonia, the indoor air pollution was still far above guidelines set by the World Health Organization. The team, now led by Lisa Thompson of Emory University, recently studied if and how families can be encouraged to adopt three-burner gas stoves—which have a comparable carbon footprint and, of course, emit no smoke at all. Thompson and a network of collaborators are now expanding this research to India, Peru, and Rwanda, studying how gas-stove adoption—and associated improvements in household air quality—affects the health of mothers and children.It also goes without saying that wherever you choose for your fire, there should never ever be any trace that you were there. Make sure the fire is fully extinguished and any trace removed, and always have enough water with you to extinguish the fire just in case. Choosing the right wood In the 1970s, a major earthquake in Guatemala brought international aid groups to the country, where they learned about the health and environmental costs of open cooking fires. Since then, a diffuse network of engineers and philanthropists has invented and distributed hundreds of different kinds of improved stoves throughout the developing world, ranging from tiny, gas-powered camping stoves to wood-fired ranges large enough to feed a dozen. Thanks to an initial investment by StoveTeam International, Guerra now owns a factory in central Guatemala—one of several similar operations in Mexico and Central America—that manufactures eight types of improved cookstoves, and he sells them to both aid groups and individuals throughout the country. His very first stove, which he built by hand almost a decade ago, is still in daily use nearby, in Rosa de Sapeta’s kitchen. De Sapeta says that her family used to avoid the smoke-filled kitchen, but now, she says, “I have company when I cook.” With your fire so prepared, you can now cook several delightfully simple dishes. Potatoes can be roasted in their skins. Simply poke a few vent holes through the skins (so the potatoes don’t explode!), dig some trenches in white-hot ashes, and bury them until done. The outer skins will likely be burned to a crisp, but the inner white flesh will be delectable with just a pinch of salt. In my experience, the most useful fire for roasting vegetables and meat and cooking bread isn’t the roaring inferno that weekend woodland warriors are inclined to build, but a carefully controlled, barely flaming bed of coals. You want to heat the food, not the sky, when it comes to basic fire cooking.

The trouble with gas barbecues is the fact that it’s essentially the gas is just heating up a steel hotplate with a grill on it. You want to avoid that grill mark flavour because you’re literally just branding it.You can place almost any cooking metal or cooking vessel atop a woodstove, though I’ve found a pot with a lid works best. This keeps the heat working on your food, rather than escaping. A pot of water left uncovered may be steaming after half an hour, but a covered pot can come to a boil in less than 10 minutes. Ted, our resident fire-maker, gave us some tips on cooking with fire. There are two fuels we like to use — wood and charcoal. Before moving to St Kew Inn, you cooked in various notable kitchens around North Cornwall. What is it about cooking in Cornwall that you enjoy so much? Cooking over wood is the most primeval form of cooking there is, simple, yet paradoxically not as easy as the modern techniques we have become accustomed to, it remains an ancient artform, one which is immensely rewarding. There are many benefits to the occasional resurrection of these techniques as an experience.