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I have a standard type of barbecue on long legs. It has a rack that goes over it and a lid. How could I alter it to use it for baking something rustic like bread or pizza, and what can be used instead of buying charcoal?

I think it'd be pretty tricky. I assume it's one of those usual metal ones, right? The thing is that a BBQ is more for applying direct heat (straight up, from the hot coals/ashes) whereas for baking bread I think you'd need a more even heat which is usually provided by the heat-retaining bricks and coals surrounding the loaf. I suppose it'd be akin to trying to make bread using the grill setting on a conventional kitchen oven.

If you were to try it, I think you could probably get a good fire going, then when you have really hot ashes or coals, place something like a pizza stone on top of the metal rack (or a handily-sized non-glazed thick tile or stone slab), and when it's nicely heated up you could place the bread/pizza on top and close the lid. That could work. Not sure you could bake a crusty bloomer on it, but it might work for things like pizza, flatbreads, lahmacun, etc. Certainly worth a try!

Mike

Dear SDA,

For a few years, in my previous incarnation as a primary teacher, we'd regularly get gypsy children in school for the winter. They told me their mothers would use an open fire as heat source and when the embers were glowing hot they'd stand a metal, lidded bucket in them. In the bottom of this they placed a plate, upside down, so that there was a gap between the base of the bucket and plate and then put the dough on the plate. The lid went on top of the bucket, embers put on top of the lid and remaining embers raked up the sides of the bucket. The method they described sounded like using a dutch oven, or what, in Ireland, used to be called a Bastable Oven. (Used for baking soda bread.)

It might make your barbie a bit unstable and a fire risk but you could give it a try .....

Love and Peace
Jim

It seemed like a good idea, but doesn't seem all that practical now!

Is the lid attached by a hinge? I once wired a basket to the lid of a grill to turn it into a reflector oven. It worked, although it was too close to the coals to get the heat even, so I'd have to turn what I was baking every 5 minutes or so. Still, I could bake anything that way, as long as the pan I used fit in the basket. Google reflector ovens to see what they're like.

sda wrote:I have a standard type of barbecue on long legs. It has a rack that goes over it and a lid. How could I alter it to use it for baking something rustic like bread or pizza, and what can be used instead of buying charcoal?

I think that this is one of those instances when the answer is, "If you want to get to there, I wouldn't start from here". You could build a brick and slab oven, or a cob oven, and use the barbecue (minus legs, rack and lid) as a fire tray. But if you go that route you don't need a firetray anyway, and it means dismantling the barbecue.

For charcoal, have you considered making your own? I've seen a little gizmo that looks a little like a drainpipe that you fill with the wood and "cook" in an open fire until the wood gas is driven off and you're left with homemade charcoal.

If the barbecue is large enough, you could use it as the firepit for a biscuit tin oven, but a) you'll only be able to bake small things in it, and b) you'll need to pile embers on the top of the tin. I've baked yeast bread over a campfire by using a cast-iron pan to hold the dough, topped with a biscuit tin. The pan sat on a bed of embers and I put more on top of the biscuit tin. The bread was good, although the bottom was burned a little. I've now got a Bosnian Sac, which is designed to go over a campfire and is arranged to hold coals on the top too. A Dutch Oven would be nice too.