HOW TO: Top 10 Tips for Cooking on Wood on your Sea Island Forge Kettle
Chef, entrepreneur, and open-fire cooking expert Anya Fernald weighs in to set you up for Kettle cooking success. For more tips, videos and recipes from Anya, visit our Kettle Cooking page.
1) Build and Manage Your Fire Slowly, Don’t Rush It
The fire is your main ingredient and you need to get it right. Start with a large wood fire to build coals, feed fresh logs gradually to the fire so the fire breathes and settles and then once the orange flames have died down, cook over the embers, not over flames. Maintain multiple heat zones for different cooking stages – to do this, I like to push my large embers and logs to one side of the kettle and leave the other side naturally at a lower temperature. You should never cook over high, dancing flames that you have at the start of a wood fire. Instead, build the fire, let it burn down, and cook over glowing embers/coals for the best, most controlled heat. I recommend you light a fire a couple hours ahead so it can mature into a proper bed of coals.
2) Don’t turn your food too often
Leave food undisturbed cooking over the embers to create a deep, crisp crust – only flip once, maybe twice. Fire rewards patience. When you flip often, you disrupt crust formation as a great sear (the Maillard crust) needs steady, direct heat. If you flip constantly, the surface never stays in contact with the hot grate long enough to brown deeply. On a wood or charcoal fire especially, flipping will cause whatever you are cooking to lose heat and need longer cook times. If you flip early or repeatedly, it will tear, stick, ruin your grill or grate pattern and lose juices or bark as food releases naturally from the grill when the crust is formed.
3) Less seasoning, more fire
Because fire brings strong flavor, you can use good ingredients with simple seasoning and let the natural smoke do much of the work to bring rich flavor to your dish – no need for a thick spice crust. Over-complicating with heavy sauces can overpower the elemental flavor from wood smoke and meat — simplicity keeps the fire’s signature taste front and center. Many seasoning mixes are rich in sugars and make your meats and vegetables susceptible to quick burning, another reason to avoid using them over hot coals.
4) Embrace the sensory experience — fire cooking engages all senses
Did you know that the crackling light of the fire mimics the natural rhythms our brains evolved with? Your brain interprets these signals to relax and the activate our parasympathetic (“rest-and-digest”) system. It’s similar to why we relax watching waves or clouds and you combine that with the natural relaxation of listening to a crackling fire – with noises in a frequency range associated with ASMR-like soothing responses. There’s actually a lot of science supporting the relaxing effects of being by a fire! So, relax and enjoy it and use your time cooking fireside to downregulate and improve your mood for days to come.
5) Learn your woods and find one you love
Different woods give different heat and aroma: oak has strong heat, clean flavor; fruitwoods bring a sweet and delicate smoke and almond and pecan woods give food a rich and nutty flavor. Find something that works with the way you cook and remember that the bigger the logs the bigger the chunks of hot embers you have to work with.
6) Dry the surface of your food
Wet surfaces steam; dry surfaces brown. A layer of moisture on the exterior of your protein or vegetable is the enemy of developing a good crust. Pat meat dry with a clean towel, let fish air-dry in the fridge for an hour, and wipe un-oiled vegetables before they hit the grill (or before you dress them with oil). When the exterior is dry, the heat from the embers can do its work instantly — creating better sear, better caramelization, and a more confident, flavorful crust. This one small step makes an enormous difference in texture.
7) Harness Contrast: Charred crust + Tender Interior
One of the great pleasures of wood-fire cooking is contrast: charred edges with tender centers. Use the hottest zone of your coals to develop color, crust, and a little smoke-kissed bitterness. Then slide the ingredient to medium embers to finish gently, preserving juiciness and texture. This two-zone approach works for nearly everything — steak, eggplant, peaches, pork chops, whole fish. Remember to divide your cook into two phases: blister first, cook through second.
8) Rest everything
Steaks, whole fish, chickens, vegetables, fruit — everything tastes better with a rest. Fire cooking is intense, and the surface heat can drive juices toward the center. A rest allows moisture to redistribute and lets the smoke flavor settle into the food. Even a few minutes makes a huge difference. For whole birds or roasts, rest longer. The fire has done its powerful work; resting brings the balance.
9) Use your tools, but don’t crowd the fire
Grates, planchas, skewers, tripods, chains, and cast iron all behave differently over wood heat. Use them strategically — but give everything space. Crowding traps steam, blocks airflow, and drops your grate temperature. Leave gaps between ingredients so heat can circulate and flames can breathe. And remember that cast iron or steel retains heat far longer over a wood fire — preheat it well, treat it with care, and let it help you build crust and confidence.
10) Taste the fire, not the smoke
Great wood-fire cooking is about heat and aroma — not heavy smoke.A clean fire will give you clean flavor. Use dry, seasoned wood; avoid smoldering logs or damp fuel; and keep your fire oxygen-rich. Thin, blue smoke gives subtle complexity. Thick white smoke makes food taste harsh or acrid. If you want more flavor, use fresh herbs or citrus peels on the embers instead of over-smoking.
Anya Fernald is a chef and entrepreneur with a specialization in open fire cooking. Anya’s career began in Italy, where she worked as a cheesemaker and learned from farm chefs in Sicily, Tuscany and Piedmont. Anya was a judge on Iron Chef America from 2009 to 2019 and currently has a thriving social media presence creating recipes at the intersection of health and home cooking. She also operates a protein drink company that makes beverages based on fresh liquid whey - coming full circle on her cheesemaking roots.
