How to Cook Over a Fire Pit

Cook over a fire pit using skewers. Skewers should be at least 2 feet long with wooden or rubber handles to diminish the transfer of heat from the skewer tip. Skewer cooking is a simple and traditional form of fire-pit cooking, ideal for roasting sausages, hot dogs, smaller birds such as quail and marshmallows. Hold the skewer tip over the fire, just a few inches above the flames. Rotate the skewer to roast all sides of the food, waiting until it is golden-brown and fully cooked.

Bake foods with a fire pit using aluminum foil. Wrap a double layer of aluminum foil around foods such as marinated meats and potatoes. Hold the wrapped food with cooking tongs and carefully place it in an area of the fire where there are coals and embers. Do not place items directly in the flames. You want to expose the food to the heat but not the scorching flames. Check on your food regularly to see when it is fully cooked. Preparation time might vary depending on the food type and size, as well as the heat of the embers.

Grill foods with your fire pit using a standard grill rack. Make a small fire and place a ring of large flat rocks of similar size around it. This will serve as the frame for the grill. Carefully put the grill rack over the fire, resting each end on the ring of rocks. Use cooking tongs to place meats, vegetables or anything else you want to cook on the grill rack over the fire pit. Flip the food over regularly until both sides are fully cooked.

Follow the same process of building a ring of rocks around the fire pit and placing a grill rack over it if you want to boil foods. Place a flame-resistant pot on top of the grill rack and add your ingredients to the pot. This method is essentially the same as heating foods on a stove with a cooking pot. Carefully remove the pot from the fire after cooking using tongs and oven mitts.