Operating tips:
Warning: your fireplace was not designed as a cooking appliance. Fat that is burned while cooking can collect on your
chimney walls and become an unnatural fire hazard. If you use this grill heavily and cook fatty foods, have your
chimney checked regularly throughout the season.
Before you use the grill for the first time.
1. Check your fireplace, chimney and damper. We recommend having your fireplace and chimney system
examined yearly by a professional chimney sweep. Make sure that your firebricks and mortar are sound and that
your damper is working properly and you have sufficient draw and airflow to operate safely.
2. Follow the first-time cleaning instructions above.
Protection. We suggest using heavy gloves (either special fireplace gloves or oven gloves or mits) when cooking in the
fireplace. In addition, because of the high heat, we recommend using tools (forks, spatulas, cleaning brush, tongs, etc.
that are as long as possible both for comfort and to protect from injury (all available at http://spitjack.com).
Arranging the fire. It’s a good idea to create zones of heat for cooking. Ideally, there could be a hot zone where searing
and high-heat cooking would take place, a medium zone where food would cook less intensely and slower, and a zone
with no direct heat or live coals underneath (usually toward the back of the grill over the drip pan). This area is used for
resting, finishing or warming food and for relocating foods that are causing flare-ups.. It’s not as easy to create these
zones with a fireplace fire as it is with a typical outdoor gill.
Adjusting the grill height. Another way to regulate heat is to move the grill grate up or down using the 3 levels set on
the grill stand. The setup of the fire (how high the logs are stacked, whether a log grate is used) and the intensity of the
fire will determine when and when to adjust the height of the grill grate.
General. We echo Steven Raichlen’s basic advice: “always keep the grill hot, clean and lubricated”.
1. Let the grill get hot before placing anything on it. Preheating the grill will cook the food faster, more efficiently,
and give the food a better appearance (grill marks).
2. When the grill is hot, make sure it is clean form any burnt or crusted residue from the last cooking. Use a scraper
and/or an abrasive scouring tool to clean the grill surface.
3. Just before cooking, pace some vegetable oil on a clean cloth and wipe the grill surface. You can use your
cleaning tool to do this. This last step help keeps certain foods (proteins) from sticking to the grill. Clean and
lubricate as often as needed while cooking to get the best results.
Cooking tips:
Once you have set up your system and become familiar with the operational techniques described above, cooking on
your fireplace grill is really no different than cooking on any other grill setup. There are many good sources of grill
cooking information in books, online, and from your neighbors. Here are a couple from us:
1. Smoking. Ironically it’s not that easy to get a good smoke flavor on your foods when cooking in a fireplace.
Cooking should be done over a mature fire in which the smoke has burned off and only the embers remain. We
suggest adding a few soaked wood chips or chunks directly under the food. You can even try placing a deep lid
(like a wok cover) over the food to capture the smoke for a more intense flavor. This technique also works if you
want to create a more oven-like effect or accelerate cooking time.
2. We use the grill in tandem with our fireplace rotisserie. While our finished roast is “resting” we insert the grill,
dip some garlic rubbed bread slices in the drippings and quickly grill them for service.
Cleaning & maintenance:
