Can I turn my fire pit into a grill?

[laohaire]

I have a firepit, just the typical round type we bought at Target a few years ago. (Unfortunately it hasn't gotten nearly as much use out of it as intended).

Hubby would like to grill food. I hesitate to eat a lot of food grilled by chemical-doused charcoal. So I wonder if I could get him to grill over a wood fire. I mean, how great would that be?

Is there some sort of grill attachment I could buy (that wouldn't be a fortune...) that I could fit over a fire pit?

[ivymae]

Yup - we just bought a 'replacement' round grill from Ace. Measure how large the top of yours is, and ask them if they have one that size (or a little larger, so it overhangs a bit, depending on the style of your pit). Ours was $10, but there are cheaper and mroe expensive options...

Also, since most pits are not very deep, you'll want to burn down your wood to coals before you cook over them, so you're not burning the outside of your food before the inside is done.

Also, if you burn the wood down to coals, you can also put a cast iron dutch oven in the coals/on the grill and cook out there. Lovely when it is hot and you don't want to warm up the house.

[laohaire]

Originally Posted by ivymae

Yup - we just bought a 'replacement' round grill from Ace. Measure how large the top of yours is, and ask them if they have one that size (or a little larger, so it overhangs a bit, depending on the style of your pit). Ours was $10, but there are cheaper and mroe expensive options...

Also, since most pits are not very deep, you'll want to burn down your wood to coals before you cook over them, so you're not burning the outside of your food before the inside is done.

Also, if you burn the wood down to coals, you can also put a cast iron dutch oven in the coals/on the grill and cook out there. Lovely when it is hot and you don't want to warm up the house.

Great advice!!!!! Thanks!!

So you're doing this too? How long does it take to get the fire going? Are you guys lighting the fire without chemicals?

I guess charcoal takes about 20 minutes - but it's light and walk away.

Just trying to convince DH to make the extra effort.

[apcanadianmamma]

About the chemicals. My husband is a frequent charcoal griller and he never uses any type of chermical fire starter. We both find that it impacts the taste of the food and we don't like it. What he uses is a charcoal chimney. http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/chimney.html

The other thing that he makes sure to use is really good quality charcoal. The kind we use we have to buy at our local butcher and it is made with Quebec hardwood (we are in Canada). We find the Kingsford charcoal and other brands like that to add a strange aftertaste to the food. Apparently the origin of the cheaper brands of charcoal can be iffy as well.

HTH.

[laohaire]

DH would love the chimney.

That's good to know that not all charcoal is chemical-infused. I thought all of it was.

I'm still thinking that chemical-free charcoal is going to be expensive... whereas we live in the forest so we have lots of wood options. I'm open the charcoal but still leaning toward wood.

I assume I can use charcoal in my fire pit? Sure why not? (Just a shame to buy a whole grill when we have the pit and can just get a grill grate for $10).

[apcanadianmamma]

Originally Posted by laohaire

I assume I can use charcoal in my fire pit? Sure why not? (Just a shame to buy a whole grill when we have the pit and can just get a grill grate for $10).

I can't see why you couldn't. All the charcoal is is a heat source and as long as the grate doesn't touch the coals I don't see why it would be an issue.

For sure though the charcoal we use is a lot more expensive than the stuff you can buy at big box stores etc. It does last for a long time.

I do know that my husband actually does add various types of hard wood to add flavour to whatever he is grilling. He is still using mainly charcoal with the wood to add flavour. He also does this when he is smoking something (I'm not a huge fan of smoking for flavour though so he generally sticks to grilling)

Admittedly I am not the expert of this though (I just eat what he makes lol) I will ask him what he thinks about using just wood for grilling. I can't see why it wouldn't work...I mean what did they do years ago to cook?

Kelly

[laohaire]

I've been Googling around and sure enough, there are all sorts of wood grilling enthusiasts. I'm handing this one over to my hubby now. I figured out it's possible, now he can develop the skill

It's weird, why do women tend to cook in the kitchen and men outside? But though we're hardly rigid about sex roles, it's assumed my DH will do the grilling. I actually don't really want to, and I can't explain why. And he'll have fun with it. Oh, well, it works, it's a way we can both contribute to cooking.

[apcanadianmamma]

haha...same here. I have absolutely no desire to use the grill. For him it is almost a hobby. He enjoys getting the fire started and experimenting with different flavours etc. Hey I'm not going to complain