Ideas for Cooking in an Open Fireplace

[@MovingMountainsMM]

During snowmageddon in Texas 2021 we placed concrete blocks in the fireplace and put the iron wood rack on those to raise them up. I used my cast iron pan and cast iron Dutch oven for cooking on that. It worked really well.

[@JaniceCrowell]

Do you have to be careful about what kind of concrete blocks?

[@trishthehomesteader9873]

Mary at Mary's Best (yt) talked about doing that too. It made me really wish I hadn't closed off my fireplace. It sounds fun - for a while. 🙂

[@MovingMountainsMM]

@@JaniceCrowell ummm… I don’t know 🤷‍♀️ Lol. We had no power or running water and we were hungry so… 😂

[@sharoncontini3284]

Resourceful

[@leslieanne447]

We used to warm up our food for lunch in foil and set them in our truck engines 😖 when I worked construction. When you are without, you find a way, not usually ideal but "life finds a way". Love these ideas for the fireplace.

[@printittx2]

Heidi, I think you and your husband do great things together. Love the show.

[@dean0502]

We have a fireplace, a Rumford style, and we cook in it all the time. We had cranes made by an Amish friend, and installed them on each side. We hang our campfire grill on the cranes, and cook meats, veggies, etc., or hang our cast iron pots with stewed meats or soups. We also use a large trivit when cooking with a cast iron skillet right on the fireplace floor. Just scoop some coals under it. If I didn’t have a trivit, I’d stack up a couple short rows of fire brick and shovel the coals in between with the same out come. Thanks for all your informative videos. God bless!

[@arthurleslie9669]

I've actually had the opportunity to experience cooking in one of those old huge fireplaces. My hat's off to all the ladies that cooked that way for so long. Interestingly, in a cookbook passed down from a time when cookbooks had "Receipts" instead of "Recipes" and cooking was done in a huge fireplace, part of the instructions included how and where to place it in reference to the fire in the fireplace. :)

[@RainCountryHomestead]

What a great treasure!

[@arthurleslie9669]

@@RainCountryHomestead .. Yes ... And it took me on a journey to learn what some of the language meant when it came to measurements we don't see today. In some cases it was using a particular style of glass to measure that was common at the time. It's been frustrating at times but loads of fun attempting to update to today's standards.

[@WendyK656]

Heidi, I have the same picture for outdoor cooking with the rocks around it. Heidi, you can dig a hole into your fire and put your potatoes in that hole and cove it with the embers. We have many Dutch ovens, and you can use a very big one to cook inside that Dutch oven we have cooked pies, roast, chicken with the ovens. We love Townsends as he shows how to cook back in the the 1700's We do a lot of rendezvous and learn from them and many bushcrafter. We also watch this as well Frontier Patriot, Early American, Heidi it is so good you touched on this issue and many things we can learn from Old.

[@shirleydeluca1387]

Would love that...ill have to wait til summer! May our Father in heaven bless you today!

[@blessedbloominghomestead9134]

We don't have a fireplace or a wood cook stove, so that leaves us with our fire pit, which we cook on all the time. We use 2 bed rails and 3 grill racks (Home Depot) special. I bought each of my kids a cast iron dutch oven, and 3 cast iron frying pans. We have cast iron cook offs, usually to a theme (any chicken dish, a dessert, anything Italian ...) Not only do my kids all excel at fire cooking, my grandchildren learned this skill also. It makes great family time, we all try different foods and vote on the best dish of the night. In a power outage (if it's too nasty to be outside), I have a 5 burner propane cook top, and a 2 burner propane camp stove. I would love to have a fireplace, but my house is small, and the cost to put one in vs the time we would actually need it here in Florida is a big consideration. Thanks for the tips on various cooking racks. I just bought a sadj and cast iron stand to go with our pit, but looked at several of the ones you showed. Many Blessings!!

[@thesaintmustwalkalone708]

Do you happen to have any links for yours? I'm wanting to learn to start cooking over a fire pit too!

[@lindachandler2293]

Oh, the memories 😊 Thank you so much for all the ideas and tips, especially for the ones who have never been caught in a grid down situation. 2 tips from me. First. If you are cooking in an open fire, quick things can be warmed in hot coals; slower things like baking small potatoes work better buried in a thick layer of the hottest ashes and it seems to take forever, so half way through it wouldn't hurt to move the potatoes etc. to more hot ashes as the cool food rapidly brings the initial temperature down. Second. Cooking inside our particular wood stove is the only one I can speak for; truly it's easier to fry the biscuits. Our stoveis long and has an end feed for the wood. If it's awfully cold and you are having to keep a big fire going all the time, it won't bake well inside and you don't have room. I think a cast iron dutch oven is the way to go. Time it for when the stove is hot, but down to almost all coals. Push the coals all the way to the back of the fire box, leaving the open grid of the stove to set the Dutch oven on. I have a sturdy poker with a hook. Half way through cooking turn the Dutch oven around. You can check at the turn for doneness, because without a thermometer, guessing and checking is the only way to know.

[@littlehouseinthebigwoods]

I cook on wood cook stove and over open fire in all cast iron. I use ash from fire. Sometimes I put jar rings in bottom then put another pan in that like for my breads. Something that's going to burn more easier. You can elevate you dutch ovens also by stacking on another dutch oven putting coals on top of first dutch oven then coal on lids of the top one. I like to have smaller fire place shovel available to put coals on the Dutch oven. Also lid lifter and good thick pot holder regular ones you might still get hands burnt. If you have a tripod s hooks can help raise and lower you dutch oven to. Longer stirring handles on utensils can be helpful to.

[@littlehouseinthebigwoods]

I meant to say coal from fire.

[@littlehouseinthebigwoods]

Also easier to have smaller pieces of wood to get better coals to put on top or under. Don't take as long to wait to get coals.

[@jmo2104]

Wow, several of the pictures you're showing are from my mother's books Hearthside Cooking. Interesting! I grew up cooking in the fireplace with her. She is an amazing woman. And yes the Tuscan grille that you show does fit into a standard fireplace.

[@CronesBones]

I have and LOVE that book! It’s one of my faves! ❤️ Best one out there!

[@jmo2104]

@@CronesBones you make me teary-eyed. Hang on to those books. she won't be with us much longer. I am so grateful that her knowledge is helping others.

[@CronesBones]

@@jmo2104 I even hunted down a vintage hardcover edition. ❤️ I have other books of a similar nature - and seriously they are garbage in comparison. I won’t part with it 😎. Sorry to hear she is not well. 😢

[@jmo2104]

@@CronesBones of one of the older editions I am on the cover in the background with my back to her cooking in the fire. I'm her daughter Jacqueline Gooding. Nice to meet you!

[@CronesBones]

@@jmo2104 I’ve got the one with her(?) in a colonial mob cap and white top with the dishes on the table. 😬

[@midsouthhomestead7527]

We have a woodstove with 2 levels. We bought an oven that sits on top. We have made cookies and casseroles. Also, my husband scooped the fire coals to the sides and baked potatoes in the center by wrapping them in foil. It took about an hour. He turned and rotated half way through. Soo, good.

[@kdbee6086]

I have an antique potbelly stove we used when I was little. We have cooked on the flat top of it before. With fireplaces like we have today (I've been studying mine lately) the challenge is keeping the flame low enough and a pile of hot coals to give you the vertical room to cook.

[@GoodTimesHomestead]

Love love love cooking over open fire. Our new place doesn’t have a fireplace or wood stove 😭 but there is a fire pit and we will have to build an outdoor kitchen. Woo!

[@cindypye578]

This is so helpful! Thank you!

[@LavenderandLinen]

How did I miss this??? I don’t have these fireplace cooking kits! Thank you for pointing this video out to me! I just clicked on your links and added some things to my cart for payday! I know this is a bit odd, but I do this stuff for fun too; not just when I “have to”. Lol. I can say that it gives me experience so that I don’t stress when the need arises, but truth be told, I just enjoy it!! 😄

[@maggiereese1053]

My Civil War reenacting cooking grate works in my fireplace so, it is just like cooking over my fire pit at a reenactment except I don't have to wear a corset LOL. Instead of fire dogs to hold the burning logs, we have a cradle and the cooking grate sits right on top of it. I want to get a cooking crane, that is what is holding up the spider kettle in your photo that looks like a hanging planter arm. Also, if you have spider kettles (the cast iron pots with three short legs that look like a witch's caldron) the reason they have legs is so you can pull hot coals out of the fire onto the hearth and put the kettle over them. You can bake biscuits in a dutch oven with a lid in the coals as well. If your lid is not flat, turn it upside down to stack hot coals on it. I have actually cooked in a fireplace like the one in your photos at a historic site when I was reenacting. Lots of work but the food tasted amazing.

[@phyrewillow6463]

One summer if Florida, we had a long power outage after a hurricane. We had a bit of grill charcoal, placed in an old coffee can with a couple holes punched for air flow. Little metal tripod place just over it held a frying pan. Easy to cook over, and only used a bit of fuel. We supplemented the fuel with bacon grease from our breakfast.

[@jmo2104]

The picture that you open up with on your video is from my mother's book. She will be excited to hear that it's being shown on KZbin. And you really don't cook straight in the roaring fire itself for most things. You use your hearth. You draw coals out onto the hearth and set your tripods/Dutch ovens on top of that and that's where you cook. Essentially creating a burner. And my favorite cooking utensil for the fire is the "tin kitchen" That is shown in a couple of the pictures. I'll teach you sometime if you'd like to learn :-) My greatest fear is that some of the knowledge that she passed on to me I have no one to pass on to. 45 years of experience right here.

[@CronesBones]

Your Mom’s book is AWESOME 🥰 My go-to hearth cookery book 👍

[@jmo2104]

@@CronesBones oh my gosh I can't tell you how good that makes me feel! I'm going to show her this. That will really uplift her spirits.

[@trishthehomesteader9873]

Thanks Heidi. 🙂 Just a tip if you're cooking over an open flame: lightly coat the outside of your pot (Not cast iron!) with dish soap and let it dry. It makes cleanup a breeze! Before I got my BBQ grill, I had put together a little rocket stove using a few bricks, a half cinder block and an old cooling rack. I kind of regret never having tried it out! 😁 Love and blessings! 🤗💜

[@RainCountryHomestead]

Nice tip! Thank you!

[@MsHomesteader]

My husband drew from Patrick's dehydrator design and made one with 9 shelves that will mount on the side of our wood cookstove (on the oven side, so not directly next to the firebox. I'm getting ready to dehydrate some citrus gifted to us from a friend in CA. I also cook over an open fire or in our charcoal fired grill (using wood, not charcoal) We even baked cookies one hot summer day on the grill, it just takes some watching.

[@jeffriffel4364]

Love bed frames always have them on hand. Don't have fireplace anymore but I have a gas grill, Coleman stove, wood smoker, dutch oven, and alcohol stoves.

[@midsouthhomestead7527]

Thank you so much for the video on cooking on a woodstove. We have used a lot of your tips. Lane and Rhonda

[@NicGiollaMhichil]

Cooking on an open fire was commonplace in rural Ireland 60+ years ago. There were cast iron brackets mounted to the sides of the hearth that you could swing in and out of the fire that were used to hang a cast iron pot over the flames for boiling/stewing as well as cast iron ovens, (Americans call them 'dutch ovens') on small legs, and you would sit the oven into the coals and into which you would place a cake of soda bread, replace the lid and cover with embers until the bread is ready. Nicer again is griddle-bread, the easiest bread you could make on a large, flat cast-iron plate, made in minutes with a few currants/raisins for flavour. There is nothing like a hot griddle-bread just off the griddle slathered in melted homemade salted butter with a hot cup of tea 😋

[@marthaanderson2346]

Thank you, Heidi. God bless y'all 🌺

[@sharewin6445]

Love your videos and tips! I wanted to share a survival tip I am using to get warm water to wash our hands during our electric outage we are experiencing in Tennessee from the recent ice storm. We have a generator but cycle it’s usage. I heat water on our gas stove and pour it into a 5 gallon Igloo cooler that I put on the vanity in the bathroom. It’s perfect for having warm water for washing hands.

[@lynettetucker544]

Hi Heidi I have a A camp stove and a single burner stove that I had to use at one time or another it came in handy I still have them both.

[@brazilian-lady9175]

Great video!! When I was growing up. I used to help my mother cooking like that...

[@AsintheDaysofNoah]

Thanks for getting us thinking!

[@thevictorianedge5465]

Heidi there is a wonderful channel I found recently on yt named Early American. A young couple actually living in a cabin and trying to live dress eat etc like the past. Justine cooks in an open fireplace and has some neat ways of doing that.

[@COWELLGIRL]

I love this

[@djnana1156]

When I have to use tin foil I put parchment paper on top than wrap it up.

[@RainCountryHomestead]

Good plan!

[@sharoncontini3284]

Great idea

[@LG-gw6xw]

I bought a tiny solar oven and haven’t used it once. I have got to do that. At least boil water. Where I live in the desert, we don’t have a lot of firewood. So I need to get used to a solar oven.

[@nosaltiesandrooshere7488]

Herzliche Grüße aus Österreich! Greetings from Austria! 👍 Danke fürs Hochladen! 👍 Thanks for uploading! 👍 Very good and beautiful, thank you! 👍 Sehr gut und schön, danke!

[@rebeccalindner2349]

I do a lot of hearth cooking as a caretaker of an 18th century museum (my homestead waiting room). We have a huge hearth I've done a lot of burn it to learn it. The Dutch oven is amazing for quiche and baking. I use the coals under and in top i find it's a more even bake. The crane arm is great for heating water and such but needs alot of supervision. I have a tin kitchen (reflection oven) that sits in front fire that works great for meats.

[@nooncube]

Those 3 legged pots cook very well we use them a lot in africa

[@HeyHeyAlabama]

I've cooked on a free standing wood stove but I haven't tried it inside the insert we have now. It does have a 'shelf' of sorts above the doors and I've left water there to heat. I've thought about some of the things you mentioned. Maybe someone will comment like you said, or share their page or channel.

[@fourdayhomestead2839]

Pie irons work for mini pies (fruit or meat), sandwiches & other stuff. They're available in camping section of most stores that carry that stuff.

[@brightstarr57]

Great ideas! Thanks!

[@his-sweetie]

Thanks you.

[@ediemurray1692]

Ty

[@4tressfortified]

In a pinch, find three stones of similar sizes, or bricks; arrange them like a tripod to provide a stable structure for a pot, or a grill!!! Light the fire inside the tripod and sit your pot on it and start cooking. Good for Inside your fireplace, out in the backyard, or at a camp site. They have used this simple method to cook for thousands of years in Africa, and they are still using it today in many African villages !!!

[@cindyp.9030]

During a power outage that last 3-4 days, we used the fireplace to heat one room of the house and closed off all of the adjoining rooms, and heated water and whatever food we could on our gas BBQ. My parents home was all electric and it was winter.

[@kellylacroix8145]

I lived in Lake Tahoe a few years back and we lost electricity for seven days we put a pizza stone on top of our woodstove and cook Swedish meatballs it worked great

[@SomewhereInIndiana1816]

great information, thanks!

[@DarrenMalin]

here in the UK in my parents house we found the original 18 century kitchen fireplace hidden behind some godawful 1960 paneling it is 6 feet wide and 5 feet tall. My parents installed a AGA cooker wood stove in it with a back boiler. In winter mum cooks on it and it heats the whole house.

[@MichaelR58]

Good video , thanks for sharing ,God bless !

[@jeaniepartridge6701]

Great info!

[@Wildevis]

Melissa K Norris had a great video recently about cooking and baking on top of a wood stove by turning a dutch oven upside down and making a kind of an oven space. She baked a mini pie by putting the pie dish on top of 2 layers of preserve top rings to not let it sit directly on top of the stove top

[@lcrim8442]

I have used a round kerosene heater before to warm/cook on and kept a very light weight pot of water on. I used a small pan that didn't have any melting or wooden handle. If my meal was in a can, I would take all the paper off the outside of the can, open and sit it on top of the heater. Safety is first for everyone, especially any one trying this way. Make sure there is a extra large open area around it. Do not leave it unattended and don't let your food boil over onto or into the heater and don't put any pots and pans weighing more than very light weight item onto the kerosene heaters. Learn everything about your keresene heater model. How to take apart, clean, and change the wick. Have a fire alarm for oxygen depletion sensors detector. Last time I did this was in the 1980's and I am sure the kerosene heaters styles have change ( fuel cost is expensive today) and may not be any round heaters anymore in the 2022's. Be safe in whatever you are able to use to cook and keep warm.

[@cindys.w.8566]

Our high will be 39* Sunday I'll be cooking a 7 lb pork butt onto of our cast iron stove we use for heating the house. I cook my turkeys on it that way as well. Baked potatoes will be cooked inside the stove... going to be a great meal at this house Sunday night.

[@MimsysGarden]

Awesome!💚

[@crowznest438]

Old fireplaces - "very tall, very open" AND very smoky. I still love old cooking fireplaces, though.

[@christines2787]

We moved to a much smaller house with 2 acres this year. We had a slab poured and have an outside kitchen that we use almost daily. Saves money over using propane. We didn't find one method that works for everything we need to do.

[@jujufirefly]

Hello Heidi. In another video about health supplements you mention a video you made about supplements for soil in the garden. Could you tell me what that video is called please? Thank you :) PS we love our fuel stove - it heats our house water and has an oven and we cook in it and on it when it's lit. It's a Rayburn, English brand.

[@RainCountryHomestead]

I believe this is the video you are asking about: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m2TLaIV4mruAoNk

[@jujufirefly]

@@RainCountryHomestead lovely. Thanks Heidi :)

[@fourdayhomestead2839]

Open fire cooking can be found on Townsends youtube channel.

[@toimccormick9405]

🙏

[@jennyhicks1116]

Do u have a dehydrating milk video?

[@RainCountryHomestead]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/lWPOgGmrir2jqLM

[@deborahandrews9728]

Check out Early American and Frontier Patriot KZbin channels. They do all their cooking in a open fireplace. This is a married couple who are reenactors. Great channels and she uses authentic early American recipes. I encourage everyone to watch them.

[@wilberthoracetrunnelljr.2193]

Where did you buy your Nasturtium Leaf from ?

[@RainCountryHomestead]

I don't, I grow it. From what I understand the dried leaves are hard to find but it is easy to find seeds and most people can grow nasturtium without issue

[@amparocampos8529]

Will cooking indoors in the fireplace create more build-up on the walls?? What do I need to do for safe cooking?

[@wesleyrobbins]

I recommend The Magic of Fire by William Rubel all about hearth cooking.

[@rachelarundale1060]

Do you know how I can heat my home please hun i don’t have a fireplace is there a safe way to put in a fire that won’t cost the earth? X

[@RainCountryHomestead]

You may find some helpful ideas in here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXvHn3WAZbSUaJI

[@aprilthomas9494]

For outside, building a rocket stove simple if using bricks

[@RainCountryHomestead]

Yep, I talk about that in my videos on off grid ways of cooking but this was focused on indoor fire place cooking since I did not speak of that one in my other videos (linked in the description box). I even have several videos from 2016-2018 of me cooking on our rocket stove but I have not pulled it out in the past few years. I hope to do that again this summer. It is pointless at any other time of the year when we already have a fire going in the wood stove

[@wnose]

Fireplaces are terrible for efficiency - about 60% of the heat just disappears up the chimney. Of course if it's the only thing you have, then you just do with what you have. But new wood stoves are terriffic, near 80% efficiency and you can cook on the surface. Can also improvise a grill and bake.

[@RainCountryHomestead]

Yes, the point of this video was for people to be able to make the best with what they have because not everyone can afford to do what we did with our woodstove.

[@DavidTyner-u8n]

Aluminum foil is usually not aluminum look it up

[@RainCountryHomestead]

"Aluminum foil is made from an aluminum alloy which contains between 92 and 99 percent aluminum. Usually between 0.00017 and 0.0059 inches thick, foil is produced in many widths and strengths for literally hundreds of applications. It is used to manufacture thermal insulation for the construction industry, fin stock for air conditioners, electrical coils for transformers, capacitors for radios and televisions, insulation for storage tanks, decorative products, and containers and packaging. The popularity of aluminum foil for so many applications is due to several major advantages, one of the foremost being that the raw materials necessary for its manufacture are plentiful. Aluminum foil is inexpensive, durable, non-toxic, and greaseproof. In addition, it resists chemical attack and provides excellent electrical and non-magnetic shielding" Seems like it would be silly to call it aluminum foil if it was made from something else entirely

[@themosthigh_wil3945]

Shalom.. Luke 24:20-21 KJVS [20] And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. [21] But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. 🌪

[@ambientac7795]

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