# Open Hearth Cooking



## highlandview (Feb 15, 2007)

http://www.atasteofhistory.com/

I found this show on PBS. The chef cooks all his recipes on an open fire using cast iron and spider pans. He cooks historical recipes in historic places - Monticello, etc. You can watch the pilot on-line. They also sell his cookbook. I believe it is called City Tavern. It is a pretty educational and enjoyable show.


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

My sister gave me a "Colonial Cookbook" that has pretty neat recipes in it for cooking in the fireplace..

Less sugar in the desserts too.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

There is, or used to be, a gentleman who cooked over an open fire using the grills, dutchovens, etc...much like a chuckwagon would have cooked in the WILD WEST  (although it's unlikely they would have had cheescake brownies baked in the fire) It was shown on RFD the last time I saw it. 

ahh. http://www.campfirecafe.com/ 
They have quite a few videos uploaded, I see. Good info for open hearth cooking for today's lifestyle.


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## insocal (May 15, 2005)

The house I used to live in had a pot hook in the fireplace that I could have hung a dutch oven on if I had ever needed to cook and didn't have gas but that never happened. Only had a couple of power failures over the years (in hideous heat waves) and those were brief. 

But I would like to be able to cook over a fire if necessary. Got the dutch oven (actually a chicken fryer with both glass and iron lids). A trivet to hold a pan over flames would be nice.


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

the book Hearthside Cooking by Nancy Carter Crump is good too. She works at Colonial Williamsburg. She has researched old recipies, rewritten them with modern measurements, and tells how to make them on hearth, conventional, and microwave.

Good info on tools and equipment, fires, and preparation.


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## FarmerChick (Dec 28, 2009)

great little promo

I loved that kitchen.....can you imagine HOW HOT!

and those side cook boxes were cool.


LIke he said, cooking back then was hard work..lol


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## NCLee (Aug 4, 2009)

insocal said:


> The house I used to live in had a pot hook in the fireplace that I could have hung a dutch oven on if I had ever needed to cook and didn't have gas but that never happened. Only had a couple of power failures over the years (in hideous heat waves) and those were brief.
> 
> But I would like to be able to cook over a fire if necessary. Got the dutch oven (actually a chicken fryer with both glass and iron lids). A trivet to hold a pan over flames would be nice.


For hearth and backyard cooking you need a campstyle Dutch oven for best results. This is a oven with legs and a flat top to contain coals from the fire. It's set over a bed of coals raked out onto the hearth. Then more coals are heaped on the lid. The amount depends on the heat needed inside the oven. Same principle as a traditional kitchen oven. 

Another useful pan is a spider. This is frying pan with legs. It's set over a bed of coals. 

One of the best ways to learn hearth cooking is to setup a rustic "cowboy" style cooking area in the backyard. Doesn't take a lot of space. You can set up everything you need on approximately the space of a sheet of plywood. (As long as you have room enough to move around that area. 

Once you have a small spot dedicated to learning how to cook, order Roughing It Easy by Dian Thomas. I have the original vol 1 & 3, and this version. There's a lot of simple things you can use from around the home to get started. You don't have to rush out and buy a lot of "camping" equipment to use her book. Read the second review to see what I mean.
http://www.amazon.com/Roughing-Easy-Ideabook-Camping-Cooking/dp/0962125733

Once you hone your skills outdoors, it's easier to bring them inside to the fireplace. And, you can take many of your traditional kitchen recipes to both the fireplace and the backyard. While there are some things best done outside the kitchen, there's a lot more from your kitchen that'll work in all 3 places. 

Watch yard sales and flea markets (that's where I found 3 spiders) and other odds and ends that make cooking at the fireplace or in the backyard easier.

Hope this helps for those interested.
Lee


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## grams (Sep 10, 2004)

NCLee said:


> Another useful pan is a spider. This is frying pan with legs. It's set over a bed of coals.
> Lee


Actually that is a spider pan. A spider is just the legs which you can use to set any pan on to cook over an open fire.
They are very helpful as you can use the same cast iron, (or copper) you use on your cook stove even if you don't have a grate to cook on. ie a hearth instead of a pit outside with a grate over it.

I love my spider, but they can be hard to find if you don't know a blacksmith who can make you one.

Hey aren't you a blacksmith, make some up and go to living history events I bet you could sell some.


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## highlandview (Feb 15, 2007)

I have seen kitchens on cooking shows that have a hearth like that but at arm height. That would be so neat and much easier on the back.


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## beowoulf90 (Jan 13, 2004)

grams said:


> Actually that is a spider pan. A spider is just the legs which you can use to set any pan on to cook over an open fire.
> They are very helpful as you can use the same cast iron, (or copper) you use on your cook stove even if you don't have a grate to cook on. ie a hearth instead of a pit outside with a grate over it.
> 
> I love my spider, but they can be hard to find if you don't know a blacksmith who can make you one.
> ...


:goodjob: That would work for some, but then a lot of us already make our own gear.. The DW cooks meals for 20 or more over an open fire at our Civil War events... Of course she preps it at home first.. We do eat well at the events.. We have those in our unit that can do scrimshaw work, blacksmithing, sewing, weaving, knitting, wood working.. So we dont' buy mush, normally just trade each other for what we want or need...lol


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## Forest Breath (Oct 23, 2009)

When we bought our old farm this year we had no stove other than a propane stove I could cook one pot at a time on. This Fall, I had not gotten my wonderful wood cookstove yet. We lit up the fireplace in the center of the house and some of our fondest memories so far in our new home was me cooking our meals in the fireplace. It was the happiest I had been in months! 

I use to watch the Campfire Cafe' a lot when we had electric and a TV. There was also another one caled Cast Iron Cooking that was good as well. I saw an episode of one of those shows where the guys cut his finger cutting onions and he just put his hand to his side. After the commercial break, his hand was all wrapped up and he just told everyone he about cut his finger off. LOL

Edite to add: 

http://www.ceedubs.com/

that is the other one, and the guy I saw cut his finger!

I watched campfire Cafe' when Johnny Nix did it, not sure if he still does it or not.


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## Lyra (Sep 15, 2009)

I watched A Taste of History. It is pretty wicked.

I am still dreaming of getting a Rumford!!!! (Someday!)


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## NCLee (Aug 4, 2009)

grams said:


> Actually that is a spider pan. A spider is just the legs which you can use to set any pan on to cook over an open fire.
> They are very helpful as you can use the same cast iron, (or copper) you use on your cook stove even if you don't have a grate to cook on. ie a hearth instead of a pit outside with a grate over it.
> 
> I love my spider, but they can be hard to find if you don't know a blacksmith who can make you one.
> ...


Sorry, that's one skill that I don't have. (sigh)

However, I've used black pipe and fittings to make some things to use around a campfire. 

Lee


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## Trixters_muse (Jan 29, 2008)

We cook outdoors on an open fire a lot just because we enjoy it and it keeps from heating the kitchen in the summer and it warms up the living room in the winter if we cook over the fireplace.

We found it amusing that in the last season of the show "Top Chef" one of the challenges was to cook a gourmet meal over an open fire pit with a chuck wagon for supplies and coolers and limited supplies. Some of those chefs were REALLY out of their element and did not do so good. It was the girl who admitted she was raised on next to nothing that served one of the best dishes because she was used to cooking/ surviving rustically.


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## Junkman (Dec 17, 2005)

When we first joined HT, I asked for ideas of what to do with a supply of floor furnace grates. Needless to say, I got info on using them for grates over outside fire places. Although I have never had to use them, they are still in storage. (Also have a big pot of wire home brew stoppers we acquired somewhere. Just in a corner of a building full of "things we might need someday.") Well, who knows????


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## beowoulf90 (Jan 13, 2004)

Junkman said:


> When we first joined HT, I asked for ideas of what to do with a supply of floor furnace grates. Needless to say, I got info on using them for grates over outside fire places. Although I have never had to use them, they are still in storage. (Also have a big pot of wire home brew stoppers we acquired somewhere. Just in a corner of a building full of "things we might need someday.") Well, who knows????


:happy:
Well I have a piece of a fire escape landing that I cut to size for a grate over the fire. It is large, but handles the 2 15 inch cast iron skillets easily along with the dutch ovens.. But again we are cooking outdoors from spring till fall..


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## Carolyn (Jan 5, 2008)

learned from my dad-a many year Boy Scout leader and cook for hunting parties and in the winter when I was younger, our extended families would get together to sled and snowmobile ( very large extended family, at least 30 people) my dad would do all the cooking over an open fire-with all the extras, he prepared everything on site, except he might have marinaded the meat (usually vension) ahead of time. My 2 brothers and I learned a lot--my younger sister well--I don't know but things might kick in if needed.


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

old oven racks come in handy for campfire cooking


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