A while back, I bought a folding firepit. I took it to Pennsic the year I camped solo and never used it - it seemed like it would be too much trouble to build and tend a fire just for myself. I've been wanting to get more practice in with campfire cooking, because at the site is not the best time to realize you don't know what you are doing and will be eating cold cereal for dinner. So I took the thing out to the back concrete patio, put some kindling in it, and lit it up. I had on-hand a sturdy pottery bowl with broth, oatmeal, cooked chicken, and vegetables. I covered it with an aluminum dish from my mess kit. I've cooked with this bowl before on Coleman stove and on charcoal, but not wood coals. I also put my lightweight cooking grate up, over the firebowl.
Lesson One: Wind is a thing. My kindling was kiln-dried, and it wasn't raining, so I thought getting fire would be simple. And it wasn't hard, but the heat was going everywhere but up to the bowl!
Lesson Two: Coals are hot. I burned about 12 sticks or so of 1" kindling to coals, then got rid of the cooking grate and put the bowl and its cover right onto the coals. I was worried the coals would go cold before the soup heated and the oatmeal cooked. NOT A PROBLEM. When I peeked under the cover after a few minutes, it was at a rapid boil. Clearly, this is why a tripod with adjustable chain is helpful to have.
Lesson Three: Get two BBQ gloves. The bowl was hard to handle with just one - to get leverage, I just about put the dirty glove-thumb in the soup a few times.
Lesson Four: Keep stirring! I stirred almost constantly once I saw how high the boil was, and I still got a layer of toasted/burned oatmeal on the bottom. On the other hand, the toasted oatmeal was delicious, so...?
Lesson Five: Use a bigger bowl. I could have fit in more greens, and the bowl would have been easier to handle, if I'd used a slightly bigger one. As it was, the cooking bowl was the serving bowl, and so it was pretty much topped up.
Lesson Six: Evidently, wood fire puts out way more soot than charcoal. The bowl was red and black before; it's all black now!
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