Cooking Over a Firepit (Propane or Natural Gas)
We all know that cooking on your wood burning fire pit is a lovely way to make delicious food and get a bit more functionality out of your fire pit. But for those of us with a gas fire pit we can’t help but ask - can I cook on a gas fire pit?
Let’s dive straight in and find out…
What type of gas is my fire pit?
First, let’s get to grips with the different types of gas fire pits that are currently on offer.
There are two primary types of gas fire pit:
Propane – also known as liquid propane is basically petroleum gas stored at high pressure (which is what makes it a liquid).
Natural gas – this is the gas you get from the mains supply. If you have a gas supply running to your house then you will almost certainly be using it for your heating and your gas hobs.
Each type has its own pro’s and cons, which we have explored in a lot more detail.
Can I cook with Propane
The simple answer is you can indeed cook with your propane gas fire pit.
In fact, if you have a gas BBQ then it will most likely be running on liquid propane.
Propane burns nice and hot, which is great for cooking and burns cleanly meaning it won’t leave your food with any toxins or bad taste.
Can I cook with Natural Gas?
Similarly, a natural gas fire pit can absolutely be cooked on. After all, it’s the same fuel that’s used for your gas hob in your kitchen.
Again, natural gas burns nice and hot, which is ideal for food.
How to cook over a gas fire pit?
In order to cook on your gas fire pit, you’ll need to buy a few additional bits of equipment or accessories. What accessories depends on what and how you want to cook.
There are four primary ways of cooking on your fire pit. Let’s dig into them.
Grill – This is your classic BBQ style grill that sits over the top of the fire. Firepit grills are readily available, and there is every chance that your brand of fire pit has its own bespoke grill. If not then you ideally want something that is freestanding, and that you can control the height.
Rotisserie – rotisserie cooking is one of our most favourite ways to cook outdoors and on our fire pits. Slow-cooked and rotated it’s a fantastic way to add a depth of flavour to your food.
Stick – This is your classic western movie style of cooking; a bit of food at the end of a stick hovered above the fire. It will also no doubt make you think of toasting marshmallows. Yum!
Pot cooking – pot cooking over a fire pit is exactly as it sounds, heating a pot with the fire from the fire pit. This is ideal if you are wanting to make a stew or a soup outside, or even push the boat out and make a nice curry.
Things to avoid when cooking on a gas fire pit
An important thing to bear in mind is that not all gas fire pits will be designed to be able to cook on.
Many gas fire pits come with additional decoration or design like lava rocks, fake wood, safety shields etc. All of these will make cooking on your gas fire pit more difficult.
The key to being able to cook on your gas fire pit is being able to get the food close enough to the source of the heat. For some fire pits, this just isn’t possible (though if all you want to do is toast a marshmallow or two then you shouldn’t have a problem!).
On top of that, if there is one thing that you want to avoid at all costs is getting any sort of food, liquid, or any sort of residue on your gas fire pit’s valves. This isn’t necessarily an easy thing to do if you are cooking directly over the fire.
Why do you want to avoid this? There are a couple of reasons:
- Your valves may get clogged – this will reduce the heat from your fire and decrease its efficiency. For natural gas and propane, there is also the worry of the fuel not being burned efficiently too which in turn produces carbon monoxide, which can be very dangerous when built up in enclosed spaces of any sort.
- Hard to clean off – food and residue hitting the fire source will be very hard to clean off as it will be scorched onto the metal.
Final Thoughts
As we said above, fire is fire at the end of the day, and using the fire from your gas fire pit is fine to cook with.
Depending on the design of your fire pit cooking might be easier or harder to achieve. If you have a simple open fire, however, then you shouldn’t have any problem and will be able to find plenty of accessories to help you facilitate turning your gas fire pit into a versatile outdoor kitchen.
Of course, if you’re looking for that authentic BBQ flavouring that comes from the smoke of burning a good hardwood then a gas fire pit won’t give you that sadly, but you can’t always have everything!
