Fire Cook With Me

In the backyard is an old, crumbling brick barbeque which we thought we'd rebuild. But why wait? Fire now, fire NOW!!

After a couple of nights of learning to construct wood fires (with and without gasoline) and hours of playing the always fun game of "let's see what happens when we throw this in the fire", it was time to break out the old Dutch oven.



What to make? Why, beef stew goulash, of course.



He's ALIVE! The long-dormant Boy Scout arises once again!



Cheers to the mighty Dutch oven and the mightier fire and the mightiest Foodgoat, who singlehandedly chopped the wood that feeds it!



Cooking this way is not quite the same as cooking on the range. Is it medium? High? Medium high? I have no idea. How can we stir, how can we check for doneness, with it covered with burning coals like this? Eh, it's probably medium. We'll cook it for an hour.



Remember that beer in Foodgoat's hand? Turns out that while la cerveza is a fine sous chef in the controlled climate of indoor cooking, it's a lousy partner in the cooking with fire business. My guess is that the fire ran a little hotter than medium. Is the pot supposed to glow red?