Cooking with Fire: From Roasting on a Spit to Baking in a Tannur, Rediscovered Techniques and Recipes That Capture the Flavors of Wood-Fired Cooking

Bought this as a gift. After a few weeks was able to look through it and dang, I am impressed. Has a variety of recipes that one would not always think of. Both the recipient and I are very happy with the book.

When was the last time you really read a cookbook from cover to cover???? Well, Cooking with Fire is guaranteed to draw you in and make you think, "Gosh, maybe I should build a roasting hearth in my backyard even though I've never wanted one!!!"Obviously, the author, Paula Marcoux has researched this topic thoroughly. Additionally, however, she is able to convey the history of cooking with fire in an easy going, folksy manner, while intermingling mildly snarky and witty comments and yet remaining incredibly articulate and erudite. This proves true and is consistent throughout the book on all topics from Toasting Cheese to the more complex Twine-Roast Leg of Lamb to Building the Oven!!.A previous reviewer criticized such simple recipes like how to toast a marshmallow. Well, it seems to me, the reviewer missed the point of the recipe which is that learning how to really toast a marshmallow provides you with the basic knowledge and understanding for many other more complex recipes about cooking with fire.Seriously, after reading the section on How to Make an Efficient and Pleasant Roasting Hearth, I could not stop thinking about where and when I could build one myself. It just all made so much sense!!!So, be prepared to be drawn into this beautifully photographed, well written and researched cookbook. You will not be disappointed.

I’m thrilled to have a book with such content but am annoyed with the authors writing style- it’s too flowery- it gets in the way of clear information. Seems she try’s too hard to show her command of clever, seemingly never-ending verbiage-This makes it more difficult to actualize the technical skills required to accomplish what the author is wanting to share.

Love cooking over fire! Really detailed, easy to digest directions and a lot of variety. Book is a great size and well constructed. Have read a lot of books like this over the years and this is absolutely my new favorite.

I saw the author on “Man, Food, Fire” . It was one of the best episodes I had seen. I was curious about her because I love food and archeology. She explains things well. I love the plans and recipes. The author is quite clear. One of my favorite books.

While I tend to go straight to the recipes and pictures in cookbooks, I actually couldn't stop READING "cooking with fire". It is a fun, fascinating,and enlightening read. I'm certainly not a food historian, but this book made me think about food in a completely different way. This book DOES have great, mouthwatering recipes, and gorgeous pictures, but this is the first cookbook I would buy as a gift for someone because it reads so well.The author Paula Marcoux has a distinct and engaging voice that you want to spend more time with. This book will help any outdoor cooking, from barbecue to fire pit, and would make a terrific gift for anyone who camps, goes to the beach, toasts marshmallows, grills meat, and likes to try something new. If you love food, you will love this book, which will make you laugh, think, and get wicked hungry!

Cooking With Fire is an amazing book. It's not a cookbook really, or a history of humankind's relationship with fire, food, and cooking, really, or a riff on what can happen when you decide to cook something over a fire, really, or some fascinating glimpses into other cultures and eons and what they cooked and how; it is all of these things and more. This book is truly a treasure. It is extremely well written, funny and enjoyable on many levels. Ms. Marcoux has boundless enthusiasm for her subject and she conveys it admirably. Now I have to go back to selecting rocks and laying them for the neolithic fire pit I am building in my yard. If you only buy one book this year, buy this one.

Lots of info.

Very useful book, showing you what you can use outdoors to cook various foods. It gives advice about the tools you need first, then throughout the book gives you sections on various cooking methods, showing what you can cook with each method and giving fantastic recipes along the way. The most helpful thing is the methods, how to build different set ups for cooking, and how to do it with easy to source materials in a post apocalyptic scenario.This book is very big and heavy and would NOT be suitable for your BOB, so please read it before TEOTWAWKI, get the tools and the skills before you need them. It has a lot of useful pictures showing you how to do certain things, but of course there's quite a few pretty pictures of the cooked food and it's very recipe heavy. It depends what you want to use the book for really, it would make an excellent gift really for anyone who likes to camp or bbq or similar.It is very useful to preppers, although you may heavily fail to have all the ingredients for many of the recipes, I guess it depends what you have in your stores but I only have very basic ingredients, for example I do not have rice vinegar, lemon peel, cinnamon sticks or freshly grated parmigiano reggiano. I think it kinda assumes you are camping next to a 24 hour asda or something, I'm not sure people take so many ingredients on camping trips. That's the only downside to the book, I'd still recommend it for preppers.

This was a gift for my husband who already cooks with fire quite a lot (hot smoking, experiments with wood, uses fire pit/chiminea, low and slow BBQ etc) but he has found it useful for new ideas and likes the book.

Great

Great book

Wonderful book that overdelivers by covering the subject at hand so well and so thoroughly. Fascinating information throughout and charmingly written to boot!