Outdoor cooking is "real cooking". In fact, it's more challenging than hanging about an electric eye or stable gas flame.
With outdoor cooking, you are in charge of, and responsible for, EVERY aspect of the cook. Not only do you have to have your recipe ingredients, but you must be able to build and maintain a steady fire. Further, you must know what type of fire to apply to your recipe. And beyond that, you must also become adept at positioning your food over the fire. Type of fire and placement on said fire are critical…..much more so than simply tossing something into a pre-heated oven or plopping it down onto an electric eye.
And if you further challenge yourself to the art of low and slow cooking, then you must also have good equipment (a smoker) and you must know it inside and out and know how to work that unit to control air flow, fire temp, smoke production, etc. Learning to run a smoker makes any oven dish look like child's play.
With a kettle grill, you can cook everything from meatloaf to lasagna, mushrooms to green beans, and beyond. With a smoker, you can take cheap cuts of meats that most would let soak in a crock-pot overnight and turn it into the most tender and flavorful meat you've ever had. With an Outdoor Dutch Oven (Campfire DO), you can bake biscuits, cobblers, and pies, make stews and chilis, roasted meats, veggies, and more. With a simple fire in the ground and a roll of aluminum foil, you can make some the of the most incredible quick-braised meats around.
Long before there was electricity, man was cooking with fire. Nearly every recipe we have today was at one point cooked with fire. Whether our ancestors used open flame, ground pits, spits, Dutch Ovens, or wood fired stoves, fire is how they cooked.
Cooking with fire today can produce a superior product, not only in texture but also in flavor. An oven will never impart a hint of smokey flavor to your food. Cooking with fire today is a challenge to ourselves that produces amazing and flavorful food….food that you simply will not get from an oven or stovetop. It also saves electricity, doesn't heat up your house, and becomes a focal point for gatherings.
And……
It's fun to play with fire!