10 Fire Cooking Gear Must Haves
For the past 3 years, I have been asked non-stop what pieces of equipment I love using and where people get them. Well, today I am finally answering your questions. While it might have taken me a while to pen this response, hopefully you will find all of these 10 Fire Cooking Gear Must Haves essential and beneficial to your cooking experience! Here we go: 1. Fire Cooking Gear 101: Rotisserie The key to getting good, delicious and juicy food is using a rotisserie. I love mine, and think that you should have one too! The rotisserie does two things really well: it gets an even cook on your food and self bastes the meat at the same time. Because the idea behind a rotisserie is that you secure your meat to a skewer and let it rotate around the fire, the meat will often get an amazingly even crust while cooking. This is perfect for picanha or turkey legs where it is tough to evenly cook all sides of the meat with just simple grilling. The other benefit is that it self bastes the meat. While the rotisserie is rotating, the meat is cooking and letting out its juices. Because the meat is rotating back into itself, you end up having the juices stay on the meat without falling off into the fire. This means juicier and tender meat! You can easily get a great rotisserie on Amazon and attach it to your grill. This is the one that I have been using for a long time! 2. Churrasco Swords Ahh, the fabled churrasco sword. Like a blend of a kebab skewer and a massive broadsword, this awesome piece of metal is a fun fire cooking gear essential. The key reason for using a churrasco sword is because it can cook large amounts of meat and it gets an amazing crust just like the rotisserie. The idea behind the churrasco swords is that you skewer chunks of meat onto it, secure them using food safe wire and slowly cook it over the coals until it is nice and tender. My only major tip is to safely punch a hole in the meat using a knife so you can easily glide the sword into the meat when you are ready to cook. Add to you fire cooking gear with some swords here! 3. Kebab Skewers are the best Fire Cooking equipment One of my staple pieces in fire cooking gear is a good kebab skewer. Getting a good skewer to have on the grill is essential because you will use them way more than you realize. I use my skewers often (if you haven’t been able to notice) because they get insane flavor onto the meat and make flipping the meat so simple. When you skewer your lamb steaks or shrimp, make sure to try and cook them over just coals. This will help to encrust the flavor of the food onto the meat without losing it to the flames. Another thing I like to do is avoid using a grill grate when I have skewers. Grill grates can sometimes take the outer crust of the meat off when cooking; therefore, I try to cook with my skewers untouched so to keep all the flavor on the meat! Here are my favorite skewers to use! 4. A Good Fire Cooking Pit Having a great fire pit is essential these days. The Breeo X and Outpost are the ones to go with in my opinion! Breeo makes a variety of fire pits that are all amazing, but the X Series stands above the rest. It is the perfect combination of a fire pit and a grill all at the same time. With the use of its “smoke-less” design, you end up having less smoke around the pit as it re-combusts underneath the fire to create a cleaner heat. You also have an adjustable grill grate that is perfect for searing steaks on a high heat or gently sauteeing veggies in cast iron. And if that was not enough, you have the high heat sear pad on the outside of the pit to quickly cook burgers, brats or more steak. Plus when you are all done cooking, just take off the grill post and grate to have a full functioning fire pit to sit around at the end of the night. But wait, there is more! And if you are interested in getting out into nature and grilling, then the brand new Breeo Outpost is your pick. This portable grill uses the same integrated design as the X, but is able to stand on its own (literally). It is the most adventurous of Breeo’s grill line. Here is where you can grab yourself a Breeo X and the Breeo Outpost! 5. Sauce Pan & Brush No outdoor fire cooking equipment is complete without a sauce pan and brush! My Lodge Cast Iron Sauce Pan and brush combo is the best to use for basting my meats over fire. Just simmer your sauce or leftover marinade in the pan for 5-10 minutes and you are ready to baste! I love basting meat too because it keeps the food moist and adds additional flavor. The outside crust of the meat should have moisture on it so it does not dry out, and the basting method helps with that! Plus it reinforces the flavor onto the food so that you get an extra punch of deliciousness. Get the Lodge Sauce Pan and Brush here! 6. Himalayan Salt Block Have you ever cooked on a salt block? If not, then you are totally missing out. This chunk of Himalayan pink salt heats up to high temperatures and retains it well. It lets you cook on it like it’s a cast iron skillet! And the best part is that it adds tons of great flavor since it is a block of salt! I like to use my salt blocks by slowly heating them up in my oven first before adding them to the fire. Why do I do that? Well since it is a chunk of salt, if it is not heated up properly then it can crack and break. Once the block has heated up to 450F, I then add it to the grill and get to cooking. Once you are done cooking, just scrape it off and let it cool down. Rinse with hot water and store it. You can reuse your salt block for up to 2 years if you treat it well! Find a great salt block here! 7. Lump Charcoal & Wood The secret to good tasting food is adding good lump charcoal in your fire cooking gear bag. Lump charcoal gives off amazing real wood smoke and fire flavor without any of the adhesives or chemicals that other briquettes might. It is a clean fuel that creates insane crusts and flavor on your meat. My favorite lump charcoal has to be Cowboy Charcoal. It is a very versatile fuel that you can use in your fire pit or on the grill anytime of the year. It can be hot in 15 minutes, and will make some delicious meals when you combine it with their wood chunks or their pit wood. FYI: Chunks and chips go great for smoking along with the pit wood! Get some Cowboy Charcoal here now! 8. Cast Iron Stand The infamous Lodge Cast Iron Stand is one of my favorite fire cooking pieces of equipment to use on my pit. It is simple to set up and lasts a while against the high heat. The idea is to build a fire, then break it down to add the cast iron stand. Next you build the fire around the stand and add the skillet on top. You can easily cook shrimp, scallops and more right in the skillet. Why is it so awesome? Because it allows you to elevate the skillet above the fire to control temperature and keep a hotter fire. With more elevation means more airflow for the wood. You can easily build up the fire for really hot sears on steak or scallops or let it die down so you can slowly simmer food too. The cast iron is excellent to use with large fire cooking skillets, woks, himalyan salt blocks or any skillet style device. Buy it now! 9. Asado Cross Another infamous piece of fire cooking equipment is the asado cross! Cook whole lambs and more on this massive chunk of metal that you easily lean over the fire. It is a crazy centerpiece for most of my fire cooking parties, and also pushes me out of the box when it comes to cooking. This fire cooking equipment comes out of South America where they cook like this often. Guacho’s (South American Cowboys) would cook large chunks of meat over slow burning fires until they were soft and tender. You can now try to be a backyard gaucho with one of these crosses. Build a fire in a fire pit and then secure your meat onto the asado cross! Slowly cook it over the coals for multiple hours until it is nice and tender. Grab yourself a cross and try a couple of my recipes using it now. 10. Good Spices Last but certainly not least, is having great spices for grilling. This is an essential piece of fire cooking gear. As many of you know, I love Spiceology and really love my five personally created spice blends! There are a ton of great rubs and spices on Spiceology that you can choose from including a couple from Matt Crawford of @sasquatchbbq and Adam McKenzie of @thisjewcanque. I personally love the five that I have created: Chipotle Garlic, Tennessee Smoke, Maple Bourbon, Nashville Hot Chicken and Hatch Chile. They all make delicious steak, chicken, pork and seafood recipes for those that are adventurous with their flavors. Try them now individually or grab the whole Wolf Pack! Get Outside, Grab Some Fire Cooking Gear and Cook Whether you are stuck at home needing some inspiration or just wanting some delicious food, there has never been a better time to get outside and cook over the fire pit. It is a place where people can reconnect and call back memories of the past. It gives us hope in the present, and ultimately helps instill peace that the future is bright. So grab yourself some good fire cooking equipment and get adventurous. Derek Wolf Derek is the driving force behind Over the Fire Cooking. He started cooking with live fire in 2016 and decided to start a social media page so his friends and family could follow the journey. Fast forward to today and Over the Fire Cooking has spread across multiple platforms with millions now following Derek's fire cooking journey. He's a southern fellow who enjoys everything from classic BBQ to Central and South American inspired dishes. Whatever he's cooking up, it's guaranteed to be so freakin' delicious!