Yeast Free Cooking Manual/Cookbook!

A Delicious Cookbook full of great cooking tips, easy, yet yummy recipes and a healthy eating guide to combat Autism, Candida, Fibromyalgia, Food Allergies, Arthritis, and more! Also includes a complete guide to a Yeast Free Diet.

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Diabetic Cooking Guide

Essential Guide to Planning, Shopping and Cooking

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Laxmi's Authentic Indian Home Cooking 700 Recipes

With Laxmi's eBook you will cook with recipes that is Genuinely Indian. It is the food that we Indians make in our homes not the food that we eat in 5 Star Restaurants. Laxmi will show you the art of making Indian curry that is Healthy, delicious & tasty.

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How To Use A Cooking Recipe

A cooking recipe is a series of instructions on how to prepare a meal. It will list down the ingredients required as well as preparation instruction and other useful information to make your cooking a success. By following the instructions the cooking recipe, you will be able to come up with new dishes. Cooking recipes are used not only by novice but by professional chefs around the world.

In order to take full advantage of the cooking recipe, it got to be used in the right way. Many people do not know how to use a cooking recipe correctly. They usually jump right in and before you know it, faces problem with their cooking.

Browse Through The Cooking Recipe

The right way is to browse through the cooking recipe briefly from the beginning to the end. Familiarize yourself with the methods or processes involved and try to visualize it in your mind. After you have understood what is needed out of you do you start it. By taking this initial step, you will save yourself from trouble because you can give the recipe a miss if it's too difficult to cook. It will spare you the embarrassment of failure. You will also be able to plan what to buy before actually starting to cook. Therefore it is important to browse through your cooking recipe before you actually begin cooking.

Preparing The Ingredients

After the preliminary reading of the cooking recipe you will have a general idea of how the dish is cooked and what ingredients to buy. Make sure that all the ingredients are ready before you begin your cooking adventure. It is very frustrating to realize that you have run out of the ingredients half-way through your cooking. You will loose all the momentum and enthusiasm once this happen.

You will also need to have the right type of ingredients. For example, if the cooking recipe says prepared mustard, do not assume that you can substitute it with dried mustard. They are two completely different ingredients and substituting one for the other will have disastrous effect on your cooking. Another thing worth mentioning is make sure you have enough of the ingredients. Double check to ensure that you have enough of everything before you starts to cook. Imagine what will happen if you don't have enough flour when baking a sponge cake!

Have The Equipment/Utensil Ready

Just as important and often overlooked is to have all the equipment and utensils ready before cooking. If you do not have the equipment or utensil, try borrowing them from your friends. You might only need to use the utensil mentioned in the cooking recipe once and so it is cheaper to borrow. If your friends do not have the items you are looking for or if you foresee that you are going to use it more than once, then buy it. Also, check that the equipment or utensil is in working order before starting your cooking.

Conclusion

Cooking is great fun for many people. It can foster relationships and improve family bonding. In order cook great dishes, you must make sure that you have followed the cooking recipe closely.

If you need more information on Cooking, please visit my website at http://www.outdoorcookingclasses.com [http://www.outdoorcookingclasses.com/cooking-index/]. Some of my latest articles includes Outdoor Cooking [http://www.outdoorcookingclasses.com/cooking/outdoor-cooking/] and Cooking Classes [http://www.outdoorcookingclasses.com/cooking/cooking-classes/].

Cooking - The Basics

I have been cooking for approx 40 years, and can produce mediocre, passable and excellent meals, depending on my mood, ingredients and motivation. I have found that most cooks tend to categorize their meals in the same way and it will be near on impossible to cook home meals every day of your life without sometimes (or often) producing just "filling the gap" meals.
The first steps to cooking often seems like a daunting task to the inexperienced cook. Looking at pictures of prepared dishes can be intimidating to a novice and create the feeling of being too advanced to attempt without help or assistance. There are a few basic principles involved in cooking that has not changed over the years and getting to know these principles is the first step towards being successful in your kitchen, without stress.
In spite of new techniques and cooking methods, these guidelines have never failed, i.e. beef, lamb and chicken can all successfully be cooked with onion, tomato and garlic (safe meals) and by adding wine, cream or yogurt, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and a few herbs can be turned into "impress meals." Fish can impress without adding anything because it has such a distinctive flavor and aroma, although by adding a few simple ingredients like wine and cream can become real "wow" meals. It is so satisfying to experiment and produce a tasty dish, all it needs is a bit of courage and a glass of fine wine for settling the nerves.
When you start learning to cook get into the habit of smelling what you intend adding to your meat or vegetables. The stronger the smell, the less you need to add to enhance a simple dish. Garlic, pepper, herbs, soy sauce and wine or balsamic vinegar are so popular in cooking, but so often when used without restraint it can overpower whatever you are cooking. Rule of thumb is always, "less is better." It is easy to add a touch more than to try and disguise the overuse of flavorings. Test your dish while it is cooking by smell, if one aroma comes across stronger than the rest, it is probably too much.
Another tip in cooking, don't cook anything you don't particularly like eating yourself. I have found that I cook the things I love eating far better than those my guests expect to have on an "impress" plate. In this category artichokes are top of my list, my palate rejects the flavor and I will avoid cooking it at all costs.
Each item, meat or vegetables, has its own distinctive taste. An inexperienced cook should concentrate on cooking them individually to maintain their own favor rather than mixing what does not always combine well. Personally I would rather eat carrots that taste of carrot instead of heavy wine and spices or herbs. Although some combinations can really produce a "wow" meal, it takes some experimenting to achieve if you are not cooking from a recipe.
Now to recap; onion, tomato and garlic for the basis of most meat dishes. The adding of herbs and spices should be controlled by smell. Strong smell, use less. Taste and smell the dish while cooking. This gives a very good indication of the strength of your additives. And finally, stay with what you enjoy eating but by adding a little wine, cream or yogurt you can turn the dish into a "wow" dish and no longer be regarded as a beginner when it comes to cooking for others.









For more in-depth information, tips and guides on learning how to cook or to bring your cooking skills to the next level you can visit the authors website at http://www.guidetocooking.co.uk where you will find an assortment of cooking techniques from around the world.

Five Tips to Improve Your Grill Cooking

Just about everyone loves great grilled food. Cooking in the outdoors and the smokey, rich flavors of food cooked over a hot fire make for both great food and great times. However, most people know very little about how to really get the most out of their grill. Sure, we can all fire it up and cook up a mean hot dog or burger, but grilling is capable of so much more! To really make the most of your barbecue, you need to be comfortable both with the operation of your grill as well as basic grill cooking principles which help to ensure the best results.

The purpose of this article is not to teach you everything there is to know about grilling. Instead, I have chosen five things that seem to be missing from many grillers' repertoire. There are also misconceptions and misinformation that gets perpetuated about grilling which I want to help correct. With these tips, you can hopefully start to take your grilling to a new level.

Get Your Grill Hot Enough

A basic mistake I see grillers make is not knowing how to manage their grill heat. I've seen so many people struggle to get their food to cook right and all they needed was more heat in the first place. Whether you use a charcoal chimney, charcoal iron or even lighter fluid to get your fuel going, make sure you start out with enough briquettes. How much do you need? That all depends on the size of your grill. However, people seem to often underestimate the amount of charcoal they need. Once your coals are glowing red and covered with ash, spread them out on the charcoal grate.

After putting the grilling grate on, your coals should be giving off enough heat that it is very uncomfortable to hold your hand about four inches over the grill for more than a few seconds. If it is not hot enough, simply add more briquettes and wait a bit for them to get started. It is much easier to adjust your heat at this early stage before adding any food to the grill. Later on, you will be struggling with food that simply will not cook or is not developing that nice caramelized surface you are looking for. If you are using a gas grill, many take a while to warm up, particularly those that have lava rocks or ceramic briquettes in them to hold heat. Start your fire early and let it warm up a while with the lid closed before throwing on your food. You should hear a nice sizzle when your food is added. If not, your grill was probably not hot enough yet.

Use Good Fuel

People with nice cars are willing to spend a bit extra for higher octane gasoline. If you are serious about your grilled food, and you have bought some nice meat and other ingredients to cook, you should take the same viewpoint! Don't skimp on your fuel, it is what is cooking your food and is almost as important to good cooking as is the raw ingredients! Most charcoal grillers use the basic briquette charcoal you can find in huge bags in any grocery store. Sure, they supply heat and light easily, but do you really want that cooking your food? Most of them are not made from real hardwoods so there is no natural wood aroma and flavor imparted to your food.

Also, most of them use chemical binders and kerosene-like petroleum products. All those chemicals can have weird aromas and who knows what they do to your health! Instead, use real, natural, lump hardwood charcoals. The pieces look like real chunks of wood which have been charcoalized. They have no additives and are made only from real hardwoods like mesquite, hickory and oak. They give off good, intense heat. They tend to be more expensive than the cheap briquette charcoal, but it is worth it! Also, for added smoke flavor, consider adding smoking wood chips or chunks to your grill. In either a charcoal grill or a gas grill, smoking woods add aromatic smoke that helps to flavor your meat. Many types such as mesquite, hickory, pecan and apple wood are available in most grilling supply stores.

Use Your Grill Lid

Many grill owners treat their grill lid as if it is just a cover to protect the grill between uses. Rather, the lid is one of the most important parts to the functioning of your grill! For high-heat searing of meats, your grill lid does not need to be on. But for cooking foods thoroughly, leaving your grill open causes several problems. With the grill open, the only significant heat your food is exposed to is the direct radiant heat coming up from the heat source. While this high, direct heat is good for searing the surface of the meat, it is not good for cooking the center.

By the time the middle of your food is done, the undersurface will be charred into oblivion! By closing the lid on your grill, you retain ambient heat and smoke, which swirls around inside your grill, surrounding your cooking food, much like convection heat does in your oven. This allows for more even roasting of larger cuts of meat that you want to cook through. So for everything but the thinnest cuts that you just want to sear briefly, close that lid! Check your food and move it minimally, allowing all that great ambient heat to roast your food to its succulent best!

Indirect Heat Cooking

A similar concept to the using of your grill lid to roast foods is the use of indirect heat. Direct heat is the high heat that foods are subjected to from the direct radiant heat from the heat source just below. But as I've said already, this high heat can burn food quickly. Foods that need time to cook through completely, like chicken, turkey or pork roasts, can take quite some time to cook. By the time the middle is cooked, the outside is charcoal! Rather than using direct heat, create a spot on your grill that does not have charcoal (or a burner) directly beneath it. Some people push the charcoal into two piles on either side of the grill, others simply push it all to one side. Your food is then placed in the area that does not have heat directly below it.

Rather than the direct radiant heat cooking your food, the ambient heat which builds up in your barbecue slowly roasts the food without exposing the surface to high direct heat that could burn it. Again, remember to close your lid! You wouldn't roast a chicken in your oven with the door open would you? With this method, you can cook larger roasts for extended periods of time without burning them. Not only do you avoid burning the surface, you also get more succulent, tender and juicy roasts that don't dry out as easily! I strongly recommend this method for any larger roasts that you want to cook through to the middle at least somewhat. This includes whole poultry, ribs, pork roasts, leg of lamb and others.

Let Your Meat Rest (Before and After)

This tip is really two in one! Before cooking most meats, particularly beef steaks, it is best to take the meat out of the refrigerator a while before you are going to start cooking. The goal is for the meat to come up to about room temperature before throwing it on the grill. Why? These types of cuts are usually served only slightly done in the middle, as for a rare, medium-rare or medium done steak. If you throw a cold steak on the grill, the middle will take quite a long time to warm up. In the meantime you may burn the surface. A good thick steak only needs a few minutes per side to get a nice sear with grill marks. But you don't want the center of your meat to still be cold! By making sure that the meat is up to room temperature first, you can more quickly hit the desired interior temperature (and thus doneness) so that the outside and inside of your steak are perfectly done at the same time. That brings us to the second part of this tip.

After your meat is cooked to your liking, don't just drop it on a plate and serve! Most cuts of meat will benefit from a rest period, sitting on a serving tray, covered by foil in a warm spot, after taking it off the grill. The larger the piece of meat, the longer the rest it needs. The reason for this is that when you take meat off the grill, the surface is the most hot with the center a bit cooler. For this reason, moisture in the meat is moving toward the surface. Serving right away leads to an inhomogeneous piece of meat, with the texture and temperature varying from surface to middle.

After resting, the moisture and temperature equilibrate so that you have a uniform, succulent piece of meat that is ready to serve and enjoy. The interior will even continue to cook a bit while resting as the heat equilibrates throughout the meat. While small steaks may only need 5 to 10 minutes of rest, a large roast, like a leg of lamb, can benefit from a half hour or more!

I hope these tips help to improve your grill cooking. Try them out next time you fire up your barbecue! Enjoy!

Josh Dusick is the editor of the Fire Pit and Grilling Guru website at http://www.firepit-and-grilling-guru.com where you can get information about grills, barbecues, fire pits, indoor grills, firewood, charcoal, grill and fire pit cooking, cooking in your fireplace, grill food and wine pairing and even how to build an outdoor fire pit. Take your cooking with fire to the next level!

WoW Cooking Guide

My favorite online game to play is WoW (World of Warcraft) and that is why I am writing this short WoW cooking guide article. I am going to show you a brief overview of the cooking skill in the game WoW. When I say WoW I am referring to the MMORPG World of Warcraft and that is how I will be referring it through out this article.

OK the first thing you will have to do to start cooking in WoW is to visit a cooking trainer to learn the skill. Most of the major cities in the game have cooking trainers and you can get directions to them by asking a guard in the city. Once you find the trainer you will want to learn the apprentice cooking skill and all the recipes you can learn at the moment. You will also want to learn the skill to build a fire so you can cook just about any where you want. This can come in handy if you are out farming material to cook with and are not near a fire source to cook with. You will need to carry a flint and tender and some simple wood in your inventory to build a fire after you learn the skill.

OK now that you have learned all your skills you can buy some ingredients from a cooking supplies vendor and you should be ready to start cooking. You can also buy the flint and tender and the simple wood to build your own fire from the cooking supplies vendor. Just remember that when you reach certain levels you will be able to learn new recipes and you will have to visit the cooking trainer to learn these new recipes.

To gain skill points you will need to make items that you can cook and this will raise your skill points. You can see these items by opening your cooking interface and the cooking icon to do this should be in your spell book. When you open this interface you will notice some things are color coded with orange, yellow, green, or maybe even gray. As you cook items these will change as your skill level goes up. You will want to try and cook items that are colored orange to guarantee skill points that way will gain a point for each item cooked. If you cook items that are yellow or green you are not guaranteed a skill point. If you cook items that are gray you will gain no skill points because your cooking skill level is to high for these items.

There is six different level classes in WoW cooking that you will have to gain as you progress. These different levels are attained by reaching certain skill levels in cooking. You will learn these levels from a cooking trainer once you reach these skill levels. Here is a brief over view of the different levels:

1-75 Apprentice (Visit trainer)
75-150 Journeyman (Visit trainer)
150-225 Expert (Purchase the book called Expert Cookbook from a NPC vendor)
225-300 Artisan (must complete quest)
300-375 Master (Purchase the book called Master Cookbook from NPC vendor in outlands)
375-450 Grand Master (Visit trainer in Northrend)

In order to learn the expert cooking skill you will need to purchase the Expert Cookbook. You can get this book in Shadowprey Village in Desolace (Horde) or at Silverwind Refuge in Ashenvale (Alliance). There should be a NPC vendor in these two areas to purchase it from.

In order to learn the artisan cooking skill you must complete some quests. The cooking trainer named Zamja in Ogrimmar (Horde) is where you should be able to start the quests. If you are alliance a NPC named Daryl Riknussun in Ironforge should be able to help. You will need a 225 Cooking skill to start the quests and a minimum player level of 35 to learn artisan cookin.

You can learn master cooking from a book sold by cooking trainers in Hellfire Peninsula. The horde can buy their book from a NPC named Baxter in Thrallmar. The alliance can get there book from Gaston in Honor Hold.

You can learn the grand master skill from cooking trainers in Northrend. Just visit your factions cooking trainer.

OK that is a quick over view of the cooking profession in the game wow. I hope this wow cooking guide has helped you get a better understanding of the wow cooking profession. If you enjoyed this guide and would like more info on the wow cooking profession I recommend this site: Wow Cooking Guide

The cooking profession is a great way to make more gold in WOW so I would recommend leveling it up.
For more info visit here: Wow Cooking Guide And More

7 Biggest Mistakes in Southern Cooking

There is Southern Cooking and then there is SOUTHERN COOKING! You can follow a recipe and still come out with a dish that does not resemble what the recipe intended. The reason is technique and the little secrets that are not included in the recipe.

Technique is as important as the ingredients and proper technique helps you avoid the following common mistakes made by novice cooks. You can find many free Southern recipes on the internet, but few web sites provide the additional information needed to to be a real Southern cook. So when you find a site that does, bookmark it and stick with it for your Southern recipes. (See Resource Box below for recommendation).

7 Biggest Mistakes:

1. Failure to Properly Preheat Oven When Baking.

Have you ever made cornbread that came out soft and crumbly without a crust? Or biscuits that did not rise and have a gray color? It was probably due to the fact that your oven was not properly preheated. When baking, the crust is set in the first 10 minutes. So, if you want a nice, golden crust on your cornbread, be sure to get the oven up to 400 degrees before you put the cornbread in.

Ovens vary in how long it takes to reach a given temperature. Some ovens will reach 400 degrees in 4-5 minutes. Some will take as long as 15 minutes. A good practice is to get a thermometer (any food thermometer that goes up to 425 degrees will work) and time how long it takes your oven to reach 250, 350, 400 and 425 degrees. Write it down and keep it handy if you can not remember. Then always allow the alloted time to reach the desired temperature before beginning your baking.

2. Undercooked Vegetables

Keep in mind we are talking about Southern cooking. Not Chinese or West Coast casseroles. Many vegetables, Southern Style, are cooked considerably longer than most people tend to cook them. Specifically, green beans are cooked until soft and dark green in color. They are not crunchy and bright green. Okra and green tomatoes, are cooked until some burned edges appear and are very crunchy. As a general rule boiled vegetables are cooked until very tender and fried foods are cooked until crunchy (this goes for cornbread, fried chicken and pork chops, too).

3. Failure to Use Cast Iron

I have never researched all the reasons why, but Southern cooking is best cooked in cast iron cook-ware. The cast iron holds and transfers heat unlike any other type metal. Food just does not cook the same in aluminum or steel. Especially cornbread. Besides, it is the traditional way to cook Southern.

Older cast iron tends to have problems with rust and food sticking, but the newer cook-ware comes already cured (seasoned) so it is not as much a problem. However, it is not difficult to cure your cast iron if you have an older style. You can get complete, free instructions in the web referrals below.

4. Failure to Use Onions and Bacon

Onions and bacon (or bacon grease) are used extensively in Southern cooking. Some cooks, however, stray away form cooking real Southern because they (or family members) do not like onions and/or concerns about the fat content in bacon.

They do this because they fail to understand the reason for using bacon and onions. They are NOT in the recipe so that you taste onions or bacon. They are there only to provide subtle flavor. A unique Southern flavor. If you do not like onions, use only a small amount and remove the onion from the dish before serving (put onion in cheesecloth while cooking and it is easy to remove). If you are concerned about the calorie content of bacon, do not use whole bacon. Just add 1/2 tsp of grease from previously cooked bacon. And, accept the fact that Southern cooking is not inherently low fat. It is meant to be flavorful and robust. So, use that bacon and onion for real Southern dishes.

5. Overworking Dough

Southern breads are meant to be light and fluffy. Even cornbread should not be heavy and solid. Many Southern cooks never learn how to make good biscuits. And homemade Southern Biscuits are the trademark of good Southern cooks.

Three errors cause bad biscuits (and other breads). First, do not overwork the dough. Biscuit dough should only be kneaded three times. No more. Just enough to shape it for cutting out the biscuits.

Second, when cutting the dough, do not push down and twist the biscuit cutter. Push straight down and straight back up. Twisting compacts the edges of the dough and causes uneven cooking.

Third, remember the previous mistake above...preheat your oven. A cold oven can result in flat, hard biscuits.

6. Yellow Cornmeal and Sugar in cornbread

Everyone has their own preference, but, please do not use yellow cornmeal in cornbread. It may be mental, but it just does not taste the same as white cornmeal. Besides it looks funny. And, NEVER, NEVER put sugar in cornbread if you want authentic Southern cornbread. Cornbread is bread to accompany a meal. It is not dessert. It is not cake! It is BREAD. So, if you like sweet cornbread...go ahead and use your sugar...but, do not call it Southern Cornbread!

7. Failure to Use buttermilk

All good Southern cooks use buttermilk in everything except desserts. Regular milk does not add the flavor that buttermilk does. Especially in any dish with cornmeal (cornbread, hush puppies, tamale pie, etc.). If you do not have buttermilk, you can make a reasonable substitute by stirring 1 tablespoon of white vinegar in a cup of regular milk. Allow to sit for a minute before use.

These are some of the most common mistakes (or lack of Southern cooking technique) made in Southern cooking. You can ignore all of them and make eatable food, but it will not be traditional Southern. Even some good Southern cooks fail to comply with all the above, but they have probably developed a variation of these same techniques.

So, get in that kitchen, fire up the stove and make your family a real Southern dinner tonight.

Ken Miller is a free lance writer and webmaster for http://www.olsouthrecipes.com, Southern Recipes - Southern Cooking, where you can find FREE recipes for the most popular, authentic Southern dishes like fried chicken, fried okra, biscuits and gravy, cornbread and many more.

Tips For Cooking With Real Firewood

I love to cook over real fire! Whether on a gas grill, charcoal grill, smoker grill, fire pit or even in my fireplace, cooking with fire is fun and creates unique and delicious aromas and flavors that enhance many foods greatly. But by far my very favorite way to cook is over a real hardwood firewood fire. While good charcoal and smoker cooking can certainly give you some nice char-broiled wood flavors, there is nothing quite like a real wood fire. There is something very primitive and romantic about it, harking back to pre-modern times when food was all cooked over an open wood fire.

Most people do not take advantage of real wood to cook anymore because technology has made things easier for us. Between gas stoves and grills and easy to light charcoal, cooking with fire is quick, easy and pretty much hassle free nowadays. However, there is something to be said for a leisurely afternoon, building a real fire and then using that fire to perfectly cook your grilled meal. Sometimes I don't want "quick", "easy" or the bare minimum.

So for all those like-minded grillers out there, those who want to get a little more primitive and a lot more delicious, here are some tips for how to cook with real firewood on your grill, fire pit or even in your fireplace. It takes some time and it take some practice to get right, but I think you will love the results!

Choose Good Hardwoods

At the heart of great wood cooking is good firewood which burns long, hot and gives off savory aromas. Don't skimp in this department! All of the smoky, grilled flavor that you get in your food comes from your wood so if you use bad wood, your results will be bad. So what is bad? First of all, avoid softwoods in general.

Softwoods burn easily and hot but don't burn as long and don't tend to develop long-lasting hot embers at their core. Softwoods, like pine for example, also tend to be fairly resinous and many give off piney or other sharp smells which, while not unpleasant, do not pair well with food. You can use softwoods to help get your fire started, but what you really want for the majority of your firewood is good, seasoned hardwoods.

Hardwoods are denser and will burn longer and hotter. They take longer to get started, but the extra work is worth it. There are dozens of hardwoods that make great fuel for cooking, some of which have very distinct and delicious aromas and flavors. Oak is very common, which gives off a rich, smokey aroma. I prefer fruit and nut woods as they tend to have a milder, almost sweet, aroma. Some excellent choices are almond wood, apple wood, pear wood, and pecan wood, if you can find them. Most people know about mesquite and hickory for smoking, but they are also hardwoods which make excellent fuel. If you happen to live on a vineyard, old grape vine cuttings make great wood for quick fires!

Build Your Fire Ahead

As I mentioned above, starting a hardwood fire can take some time to really get going. In addition, because you want to cook with embers as much as possible, you want to give your fire a chance to burn down as much as possible before you throw food on top. This can take quite a long time and depending on how much you are planning to cook and how big your fire pit or grill is, this can take literally several hours to build the fire, keep feeding it to build up a core of embers, and then let the large flames die down before starting to cook. Of note, while I generally prefer to do this type of wood fire cooking on an outdoor fire pit with a grill grate, most people don't realize that you can burn a wood fire in most heavy duty charcoal grills as long as it is big enough. I have used the large Weber 22-1/2" charcoal kettle grills to good effect as well as some Char-Broil charcoal grills.

Cook with Embers

As mentioned above, when cooking with real firewood, cooking over the hot embers is ideal. Why? A new fire, which has just been started does not give off much heat. Additionally, there are large flames coming up from the wood. If you lay a grill grate across this young fire, you will not get much radiant heat and instead will have big open flames lapping up around your food. This spells disaster for grill cooking! Your food will not cook on the inside very fast and the outside will catch fire and get burned to a crisp in no time!

To avoid this and to get the most of your firewood, take your time and start early. Red glowing embers give off tons of heat and don't have big flames. If cooking in a fire pit or large grill, start your fire early and keep adding wood for a while to build up a deep core of hot, glowing red embers at the bottom. Then let the top wood burn down until you barely have any flames left, just a big, deep pile of red embers. These embers give off a lot of heat and because they don't have large flames, they are less likely to char your food to a crisp. Only then should you lay your grill grate across and add your food. If you are cooking a lot and the heat starts to die down, stirring the embers with a poker helps to get more oxygen to the wood and will increase the heat for a while. If you really need more fuel, you can add firewood to the side and only push it over, under the cooking area, when it has burned down and no longer has large flames.

Rotisserie Cooking

One way to get a lot out of your wood fire cooking is to use a rotisserie. There are various rotisserie contraptions that can be purchased at grilling and camping supply stores. These are basically a large motorized or hand-turned spit that rotates over your fire pit. This is advantages for several reasons. First of all, for large roasts, such as whole poultry, pigs, and other large roasts, it gives you a very even, consistent cooking heat throughout the meat so that your food stays succulent and evenly done.

Also, for these larger roasts, laying them directly over hot embers can burn the surface long before the interior is even warm. Finally, the rotisserie can hold your food a considerable distance above your wood fire so that you can even cook over open flames without your food burning. If high enough, only the rising heat, not the actual flames, reaches your food, which is perfectly rotated in the aromatic smoke. Therefore, prep time is reduced as you don't have to burn your wood down to embers first, although some embers help to supply adequate heat. For grilled leg of lamb and whole chicken and game birds, rotisserie cooking over a fire pit is one of my favorites!

Fireplace Cooking

In the winter it is often too cold outside to cook outdoors. However, many of us have a wonderful real wood cooking area right in our homes, although some of us don't realize it. Most fireplaces are used exclusively for heat and ambiance these days, but years ago it was the primary cooking area in many houses. I love hearth cooking and it is not as difficult as most people think. For most types of fireplace cooking, special equipment is needed. There are fireplace cranes available which hold a handled Dutch oven pot or kettle over your fire to cook stews, soups or coffee. Fireplace grills are available which is basically a grill grate that sits over your firewood grate in the fireplace and allows you to grill any number of foods.

Even fireplace rotisseries are available which sit just in front of the fireplace and slowly turn your roast meats. But if you don't want to invest in any extra equipment, there is always string-turned fireplace cooking. Traditionally a way to roast a leg of lamb in front of the fire, I have adapted string-turning to roast a number of different types of roasts, from whole poultry to tri-tip. All you need is a long piece of kitchen twine and a screw or hook installed in your mantle above your fireplace. The weight of the roast slowly spins it on the string so that you have a poor man's rotisserie without a lot of extra equipment!

An Alternative

Finally, if all of the above seems like too much work and too much hassle there are easier alternatives to infuse wood smoke flavor into your food. Using smoking wood chips or chunks in either a barbecue or dedicated smoker grill is an option. Smoker cooking can really give you rich, aromatic smoke flavors in your foods. However, because you are using standard charcoal or gas as a fuel source, you avoid much of the hassle of cooking with real firewood.

I hope these tips help to get you started cooking with real firewood to bring your grill cooking to a new level of fun and flavor. Remember to always be safe when using fire of any type! Follow all basic fire safety rules so that only your food gets cooked!

Josh Dusick is the editor of the Fire Pit and Grilling Guru website at http://www.firepit-and-grilling-guru.com where you can get information about grills, barbecues, fire pits, indoor grills, firewood, charcoal, grill and fire pit cooking, cooking in your fireplace, grill food and wine pairing and even how to build an outdoor fire pit. Take your cooking with fire to the next level!