Outdoor Cooking Awakens Primitive Impulses and Sharpens Vacation Appetites
All the world likes to return to the primitive at times. In most cases this return takes the form of cooking and eating a meal outdoors. There is something about a fire outdoors that awakens impulses lost in us ages ago. And a well cooked outdoor meal makes hearty vacation appetites even keener.
Since the purpose of your vacation home is to get closer to nature, you should plan to get the most out of it by providing facilities for cooking and eating at least some of your meals in the open. On the other hand, you will want to arrange to have greater convenience than the open fire on the surface of the ground that served your ancestors long ago. The outdoor grill, or an outdoor fireplace with a grill built in, provides the comfort and facilities that the modern generation demands.
This barbecue grill and fireplace built in the stump of a great redwood looks as if the tree had actually grown around it. From the E. D. Thompson summer home at Ben Lomond, California.
This barbecue layout consists of grill, oven, and separate fireplace. The oven is heated by the draft from the fireplace or barbecue, which passes around it, but it may also have a separate firebox. Note the handy adjustable grill, which is one of several types sold by Pacific Coast manufacturers.
An isolated area surrounded by trees and shrubbery makes an ideal setting for the outdoor fireplace. Be sure, however, that there is no dense growth overhead to interfere with the draft. Large logs make rustic seats, one on each side. Place the rough table about ten feet away with split logs for benches.
Outdoor grills range from the simplest form U-shaped brick cooking place, covered with a heavy steel screening, to huge affairs of brick or stone with chimneys and dampers, Dutch ovens built into the sides, warming places for plates, and perhaps a roaring separate fireplace to soften the chill of the evening air. All of them are relatively easy to build and reasonably inexpensive. However, you must keep the fire hazards in mind, and in the National Forests, before you begin to build, have your forest officer approve your plan and location.
Construction of the outdoor fireplace is much the same as that of an indoor one except that the chimney and flue are not carried to such a height. Nor does the footing need to be as thick unless your fireplace is very heavy. A concrete base eight inches thick with four inches of this above ground is usually ample. You may use the chimney of your cabin fireplace for your outdoor fireplace or grill but be sure to provide a separate flue.
Here is a combination outdoor fireplace and grill large enough to cook for the neighborhood. After the steaks are broiled, large logs can be rolled in to provide a roaring fire for the evening. The grill can be supported by a three-sided frame of firebricks built up to the proper height.
The feature of this barbecue and oven is a sliding fire pan. The fire may be used to heat the oven until the coals are ready and then slid across under the grill, or with two pans both grill and oven may be heated at the same time.
To make this barbecue pit, a framework was built up of an old barrel and scrap lumber and then covered with concrete. A slow fire burned out the wood when the concrete had hardened. It is set on a platform of concrete and bricks against a rough chimney of rock.
This barbecue of stone is built with the firebox and grill at a convenient height. A chimney is desirable but not necessary. Note the device for raising and lowering the grill.
There are several methods of adapting the outdoor fireplace to cooking. The simplest is to provide yourself with a pair of rather high andirons and a grill to lay over the top of them. The grill may also be hinged to rear of the fireplace or you may install sliding adjustable grill as illustrated. A pot and crane adds to the appearance as well as the utility of the outdoor fireplace.
The design of the barbecue grill or outdoor stove is a matter for your own taste. For comfort’s sake you will want to have the grill top about the height of your kitchen stove. Build up the firebox so that when the coals are glowing, they will be about eight inches below the grill, which should be made of ³/₁₆-inch steel rods spaced about one inch apart in a metal frame. A groove or seat for the grill may be made in the masonry, or you may provide supports by imbedding projecting pieces of iron in the firebox walls. A piece of sheet steel laid over the grill will provide a fry plate when one is needed.
A chimney is a good addition to a grill of this type. It not only adds some architectural character but it will draw off fumes and give a better draft to your fire. And if you want even more efficiency, you can include some sort of damper arrangement to control the draught.
This outdoor stove is simple to construct and may be used for cooking over flame or broiling over live coals. You can make it even simpler by omitting the chimney and the door on the front of the firebox.
For roasts over the coals a revolving spit is indispensable. A half-inch iron bar can be bent in the form of a crank at one end, sharpened at the other, and set in a pair of bearings or saddles designed to straddle the walls of the firepit.
You don’t have to wait for good outdoor weather to enjoy grilled steaks if your fireplace is equipped with a hinged grill that hooks up out of the way when the fireplace is not being used for cooking. For this type of grill use ¼-inch rods spaced about 1¼ inches apart. The andirons, or metal legs attached to the grill, keep it at the right height from the floor.
A pot and crane add interest to the cabin fireplace, whether it is indoors or out. Any wrought iron shop can make this crane. You might even get it done by the country blacksmith.
Another way to convert an ordinary fireplace into a barbecue is to install a sliding grill. By providing additional slides you may adjust the height from the coals. Two types of metal slides are shown. Don’t forget, when having the grill made, to adjust its shape to the side walls of the fireplace and to allow for heat expansion.
A barbecue belt is a great convenience in keeping important accessories handy when you are cooking in the open. You can make one of leather or oilcloth or several thicknesses of cotton material interlined with buckram. Make pockets to hold the salt and pepper shakers, provide clasps for your pot holders and loops to hold your fork and spoon. Now you are ready to cook. If you prefer, you can build these features into a chef’s apron.
Fireplace tools that stay up out of the way when not in use may be hand forged by any good blacksmith or wrought iron worker. A simple bracket with projecting prongs, as illustrated, is fastened to the fireplace wall and each tool hangs by a collar. Rough forged tools are more in keeping with the cabin effect than the factory-finished kind. If the maker is skillful enough, the heads may be made in various designs. Animal heads are popular.
Discarded railroad rails make excellent material for hand-forged andirons that are heavy enough and crude enough for any cabin. Simply have the blacksmith turn up one end of each piece of rail. If you want to be more original, you can have the end forged into some special design, as shown.
The old-fashioned California ranch-type dinner gong will round up the family from far and near when the meal is ready. Any blacksmith can forge one of octagonal tempered steel. Suspend it by a steel wire from a wrought iron bracket.
A handy supply of wood is a great convenience in the cabin. So, plan a woodbox when you plan the fireplace. Here is one built in the fireplace wall. You can put a door on it, if you wish, but the exposed wood does not look out of place in the cabin. Don’t overlook the possibility of a two-way woodbox that can be filled from the outside or from the garage or wherever the wood is stored.