The Backyard Fire Cookbook

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About the Book

As the companion title to the bestselling The New Camp Cookbook, The Backyard Fire Cookbook brings the thrill of cooking outside over an open flame closer to home: right in the comfort of your backyard, side yard, patio, or wherever you can carve out a little space for a fire.

First, this is what the book is not: It is not a book about low-and-slow barbecue, and you won’t find overnight marinades or complicated recipes, either. It’s not the type of BBQ book that’s full of hunks of meat on spits, gobs of sauce, endless rubs, or “secret recipes.”

What the book is, is a modern-day cookbook that encourages easy, accessible grilling that you look forward to doing on a weeknight because, well, food just tastes better outside. It’s how the rest of us grill, and it’s for people who enjoy sharing hot meals with great company around a warm fire.

You’ll learn — and master — basic to advanced grilling techniques including ember roasting, charcoal grilling, plank grilling, cooking in foil packets, and cooking with cast iron. You’ll get inspired to assemble your own outdoor kitchen without spending a ton of money, and find new ways of sparking a flame anytime anyone asks, “What’s for dinner?”

For adventurous cooks who love the drama that fire adds to a meal, let The Backyard Fire Cookbook be your guide to the pleasures of eating and cooking outside under the open sky.

What’s Inside

The Basics

70+ recipes
Full-color photos, including step-by-step pictorials for fire-building and special cooking techniques
Hardcover, 208 pages
Published by Harvard Common Press
ISBN: 0760363439
Release date: May 14, 2019

Chapters

Getting Started
Back to Basics: The Fire Pit
It’s a Wrap: Foil Packets
Iron Chef: Pots, Pans, and Planchas
Under Cover: The Grill
Up in Smoke: Plank Grilling
Resources

Special Features

Easy-to-compare chart of various wood types and flavors
“Grill Hacks” and “Hot Tips” throughout the book
How to stock an outdoor grill kitchen
How to build the ultimate cooking fire
How to start grilling without a grill
Easy and inexpensive DIY fire pit tutorial with photos
Firestarting shortcuts and fire safety tips
Step-by-step guide to grilling more efficiently
And more!

Praise for The Backyard Fire Cookbook

Real ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reviews from Amazon

“This book was so much more than I was prepared for — deliciously wonderful! It covers topics I had not begun to consider and gave me valuable insight from someone who clearly enjoys cooking with fire, eating unusual foods, and discovering new ways to prepare a feast!”

— Laura S.

“Oh, I’ve been looking forward to this one, especially after Ly’s masterful campfire cookbook. Sure enough, she brings it home to cook on a smaller-scale fire in a pit, using foil, fireproof pans (i.e. Dutch ovens), a grill, or a plank and emphasizes the ease and non-vigilancy of her style of cooking outdoors through diagrams, hot tips, and plainspoken instructions.”

— Kristine Fisher

“What can I say about the recipes other than these aren’t ordinary “grill a hot dog or hamburger” type meals. I tried the Smoky Ember-Roasted Eggplant Dip, Grilled Brie with Sweet Cherry Sauce, Juicy Jumbo Creole Shrimp, and Spicy Grilled Shrimp on Avocado Toast (all delicious). It has been really cool and rainy spring on Long Island, but with over 70 recipes, I can guarantee that I will be trying many more (especially when my garden starts giving me a lot of veggies). There is enough detail for you to feel confident whether you are cooking on a fire pit or grill, and the author really seemed passionate about the whole process.”

— Renee