Guides

Step-by-step guides for every way to cook outside, from your first chimney of charcoal to a 12-hour brisket. Pick one and get cooking.

9 guides

Preheat, launch, turn, repeat. A beginner's walkthrough of your first pizza in an outdoor oven, and the three mistakes that ruin most first pies.

A high-heat dough that won't burn at 900°F. One bowl, four ingredients, and an overnight rest, with weights, timings, and shaping tips.

The full 12-hour playbook: trimming, seasoning, the stall, wrapping, and the probe-tender finish. Written for your first brisket, not your fiftieth.

Where to probe, when to check, and the temps that actually matter. The 15-minute skill that fixes overcooked chicken and underdone brisket forever.

Turn a bare steel flat-top into a slick black cooking surface. The first seasoning, the daily wipe-down, and how to fix sticky or rusty spots.

Chimney starters, two-zone fires, and vent control: the fundamentals that make charcoal easy. No lighter fluid required (or wanted).

Light it, dial the vents, and let the ceramic do the work. Temperature control, low-and-slow setup, and the burp that saves your eyebrows.

Real cooking over real flames: building a coal bed, managing heat zones, and the gear that makes open-fire food taste incredible instead of scorched.

Coals on top, coals underneath, dinner in the middle. How to bake, braise, and roast at a campsite with one cast-iron pot.