| Issue #37, December 8, 2006 |
Playing with Fire
There is something mystical about watching food being roasted on a blazing fire that fulfills some intuitive, and even primal, desire within us. However, with the introduction of wood-burning stoves in the early part of the Nineteenth Century, people abandoned their kitchen fireplaces. Why? Because, while rewarding in so many other ways, authentic fireplace cooking (where entire meals are cooked in the fireplace) was a tedious, time consuming, physically demanding, dirty, and a somewhat dangerous endeavor. Even before you began cooking, you had to skillfully build and maintain a very hot fire using heavy hardwood. Then you had to continuously poke about the fire, shoveling hot embers to and fro and dodge the occasional flying spark. Why bother?
The truth is, we enjoy building fires and we enjoy cooking. And although both are arguably unnecessary in today’s modern world, the pleasure and satisfaction of cooking food in the fireplace explains why many people are now rediscovering this lost art. While it is perhaps impractical to conjure up a full-blown kitchen in your home fireplace (the old ones were actually quite large and designed for that purpose), using a mechanical spit does provide a plausible compromise and a way to extend the pleasures of cooking directly with fire to the kitchen hearth.
Building a proper cooking fire is arguably the most important element of the cooking process. The single most important thing to remember when building a fire is not to allow any air to get underneath the logs. (You should use hardwoods such as oak, hickory, ash and cherry, as they burn longer and have a higher heat potential. Also, make sure that you use well-seasoned firewood since it starts easier, burns cleaner, and generates more heat.) By preventing a draft of air from passing through the fire, only the top surface and face of the wood will burn, creating a bed of glowing, hot embers which radiates a huge amount of heat into the room and not up the chimney.
Once you have your ash bed, building a proper, long-lasting fire is quite simple. Begin by placing a large log to the very rear of the fireplace. This log, appropriately called the “back log,” should measure eight to ten inches in diameter. Since it rests against the rear wall of the fireplace and burns only in the front, the back log protects the fireplace wall from being burned out. A perfect backlog will burn for many hours before having to be replaced.
Next, place a smaller log toward the front just behind the andirons or place it where the andiron would traditionally be. This fore log, should measure four to six inches in diameter and should be pressed into the ash bed to prevent air from escaping underneath. Crumple some newspaper and place it in the trough created between the two logs. Then pile kindling on top of the paper and light using a match.
Don’t skimp with the wood when starting the fire. Skimp later once your perfect fire gets going and all you need to do is to maintain the heat that is produced by the accumulation of the red-hot embers on the ash bed. (A rip roaring initial fire will produce a sufficient amount of embers to really start heating up most rooms.) At this early stage, there will be some spectacular flames shooting up as though a house were burning down. These high flames may look great but they actually throw out very little heat. Once the ember bed is established the flames will calm down, rising no more than a few inches above the logs.
To maintain a proper fire, feed it from both the front and the back. The largest log, always placed against the back wall, will burn the longest. When it is burned down in size, pull it toward the front and replace it with another large log. A good pair of sturdy fireplace tongs is indispensable for this work. Always remember to keep the backlog higher than the other logs because it is the burning embers on the front surface of the back log that throws the heat out into the room. By building the fire in this manner, you will be sending the heat into the room not up the chimney. Now you’re ready to start cooking!
If fireplace cooking is something that appeals to you, then I recommend buying The Magic of Fire or The Open Hearth Cookbook to discover what fireplace cooking was and is all about.
–Frank McChristian
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