New to cooking with fire? The best friends behind the wildly popular TikTok account @menwiththepot, Slawek Kalkraut and Krzysztof Szymanski—who make epic food in the backwoods of Ireland—share their top tips.
Start in your backyard.
Get comfortable cooking over an open flame in a familiar environment, where you have access to plenty of tools and ingredients. All you need is a steel grate. (Oh, before lighting up, check your local laws. Some places have restrictions on backyard fires.)
Cast iron is king.
Other than a sharp knife, a cast-iron pan or pot is essential. It’s durable, retains heat beautifully, and is easy to clean.
Missing a tool? Make one!
Packing a kitchen’s worth of tools into the outdoors is impossible. So, look around. Need a steak tenderizer? Use a stone. A spit? Grab a stick.
(Try not to) add fuel to the fire.
Cooking fires can be quite small. (Head here to learn how to build a proper one.) If your food is taking forever to cook, it most likely just needs to get closer to the hot coals. Adjust your grate and then assess.
Leave no trace.
Only cook in specified campfire areas and pack out all trash (including the oft-forgotten small stuff like bottle caps and wrappers) and food scraps. Remember to completely douse your fire with water and mix any ashes and extinguished embers with soil.
