Outdoor living and cooking may be au fait at the moment in a sophisticated modern way, but this is definitely primitive living. But it is primitive only as modern furniture is primitive—in a functional way. We habitually sit smugly in an artistically landscaped garden and watch elaborate morsels being prepared for us on a barbecue unit perfectly appointed with all the gadgets of modern living. We are prone to be quite amused by such a performance and to feel that we are really roughing it and enjoying a novelty in modern life.
Not at all. Any form of outdoor eating follows the century-old customs and traditions of all peoples. Our forebears perfected techniques and designs which have never been surpassed. We are merely placing these things in modern settings and making the few additions due to natural evolution and progress. Modernizing ancient customs is the order of the day in many fields, and outdoor living is not the exception.
A brief consideration of the historical background of our patio and garden living might be in order. Primitive man, learning that flavor could be enhanced by cooking after he had discovered and tamed fire, is undoubtedly the earliest advocate of today's vogue. Then the romantic history of the caravaneers on the road to Samarkand and Cathay added to the record. These hardy adventurers were of necessity great outdoor cooks and eaters. With camel dung for fuel and with only limited supplies, these early ambassadors of civilization brought to us in the Western world priceless food secrets which are still the basis of our menus and diets. The Polynesians as well have for unrecorded eons roasted animals in rock-lined pits. Their procedure and their ideas of enhancing flavor with herbs and leaves hold a fascination for us. Cooking in great kettles hung over a fire on a tripod was common usage in central Europe and is still done by a great number of the peoples who inhabit that continent.
Our pioneer ancestors in this country cooked over simple campfires with only the crudest type of equipment to aid them. It was they who discovered many of our native foods. To be sure, domestication has perfected these foods, but our debt to the outdoor cooks who built this country is tremendous. But from all these primitive methods and difficult beginnings have come fine dishes and a sturdy history of simple, hearty food that was, often as not, memorable.
Today, if we wander the length and breadth of the Western hemisphere, we can find many techniques of alfresco cookery and numerous styles of equipment. In the lonely prairie wastes of the pampas the widely publicized Gauchos are enthusiastic and hearty diners in the open air. With their open fires and forked sticks or metal supports, they prepare some of the finest foods of the country, a few of which have become national dishes. Asado con cuero, beef roasted in the hide over slow fire, and cordero al asador, a whole lamb spitted and roasted over glowing coals until crisp and flavorful, are two Gaucho specialties which have become nationally popular. Earth ovens, built into the ground so that they may be covered with hot coals for roasting and baking, are common to the Argentine as well.
Uruguay and Brazil are partial to roasts and birds cooked on spits over the coals and to practically any form of outdoor cookery. In Brazil, the churrasco, originally a thick steak spitted over the coals, has developed into such a popular favorite that an adaptation of it may be found in many restaurants in the cities. There are several unique inns which make a feature of their own barbecue trench with various types of meat cooking over the coals in the center of the room or patio. Here one may choose the particular type of meat he desires and watch it cut from the spit and served in a second or two. Each restaurant also specializes in a certain variation of what we would call a barbecue sauce, that accompanies the meat. Throughout all the tropical Americas and in our own Southwest, the simple and functional method of coals, spit, and forked sticks or irons for support is continually prevalent and has been for several centuries. It is difficult to equal or surpass this method for sheer flavor and efficiency. One of our pleasantest memories is lechon asado as it is prepared in the Caribbean Islands. A whole pig, spitted and partially filled with hot rocks, is roasted over gentle coals of guayaba wood and brushed continually with a nose-tickling and flavorful sauce that contains sour oranges and herbs as well as oil and other seasonings. Perfectly cooked it is, with crisp skin and juicy meat, a treat for any appetite.
It is easy to build a simple cooking unit of this type in the garden or patio and add a few modern touches to make it more efficient. A long, low trench for fire and stainless steel spit may be the most perfect type of equipment for your needs. You may even find a motor that will turn the spit in ideal rhythm, thus saving a great deal of labor. You can also use flat grills in this arrangement for steaks and chops and smaller items, and if you wish to cook stews and chowders outdoors, you can hang kettles from the spit, too.
Many people prefer the outdoor fireplace to the outdoor kitchen. Such fireplaces may be elaborate in construction and completely equipped for all types of cooking. These may be outfitted with either a homemade grill or one of the many commercial units set into the fireplace framework. Many are built with a simple firebox with a few sections of flue lining added and iron bars cemented into the stones for cooking surface. In northern climates these fireplaces should be built down below the frost line and should be planned to agree with the prevailing winds to insure the smoke being blown away from the eating space rather than right into the faces of guests—a most unfortunate occurrence which quite often happens.
One of the most effective and still exceedingly functional stoves we have ever seen was designed and built in his own garden by a well-known Palm Beach builder and contractor. This outdoor range is as simple to build and to operate as any we have known. It has served parties of six, and with equal case has provided for a hundred people in an evening. Basically, it is a large, square chimney of bricks about four feet high. There is a good-sized firebox with a grill over it which may be used to grill four or five steaks or six chickens split for broiling at one time. Under the firebox is ample storage space. A most workable and imaginative addition to this range is a stainless-steel top with a welded edge made to fit over the grill. This has a small vent with a section of stovepipe for proper draw from the fire. On this flat cooking surface one can cook a large number of hamburgers, ham or bacon and eggs, hot cakes—an endless repertoire of fine food to tempt hearty outdoor appetites. If you entertain in numbers that really require assembly-line production, this is certainly ideal.
There still are many people who feel that the outdoor cooking and eating area must be architecturally a part of the entire scheme of the home and grounds. For these people a true fireplace type of cooking space is almost obligatory, and they should consult an architect or good contractor to help in its construction. If you do build such a spot for your outdoor living, it should have an adjacent living and eating spot, proper landscaping, and such conveniences as proper wiring, water outlets, a spot for refrigeration, and all other equipment to make it as easy to use as an indoor room.
Fireplaces of such elaborate design are usually built of brick or stone, depending on which better compliments the house. Naturally, there should be a flagged or brick patio, and the entire cooking unit would have to be designed to withstand all sorts of weather and be planned and constructed so that smoke would not fill the eating and living area. You would in all probability use commercial grill units, which abound, in the fireplace.
We have become a strong supporter of a particular type of vertical grill with spit, which has been on the market for a number of years and which has proved itself to be as fine an appliance as has yet been designed for roasting, grilling, and broiling. It follows the principle of the fireplaces still in use after centuries in many European houses, and is as simple to use as a modern electric range. There is a good-sized vertical firebox for coals and grills that hang in front for broiling or grilling. Stainless-steel spits, motor-driven if you wish, will roast anything from a quail to a small pig and do it with a minimum of effort and a maximum of results. Easy to clean and maintain, this is to us the ideal source of fire for outdoor cooking.
Another one, perhaps more acceptable to your needs, is a horizontal grill with a spit which may be built into any fireplace and which offers about the same type of accommodation. This has many points to recommend it and will give a great deal of satisfaction to anyone who seriously plans an outdoor living space for relaxation and fun.
If you really wish to have a complete and elegant outdoor room, you will be interested in one of several we have seen which seems to cover every need. It was planned in a large patio. There was a large fireplace with fuel box and supply closet flanking it at the sides. The supply closet was as well stocked as the kitchen shelves in the house. A second unit next to this had a fine worktable and a sink with large sink boards. At right angles to this fine installation was another space devoted to a four-burner electric stove with an oven and a full-sized electric refrigerator. There were also drawers for equipment and closets for dishes so that this room could be completely independent of the house. No running to the kitchen for ice, a can opener, or an extra plate. It was right there. Shutoffs for the utilities and folding waterproof covers with fine insulation made all the perishable equipment impervious to all kinds of weather. What a joy this spot was to the owners and to their many guests. Plenty of tables and chairs and small side tables dotted the patio so that one felt he was experiencing a substantial quality of true living, rather than just a momentary relaxation.
Naturally, not all of us are in a position to develop such a complete area for play, but there is much to toy with in the idea. It is conceivably possible, even if one has a limited amount of money to build and providing the climate is agreeable, to plan an important outdoor living and cooking unit that will take care of a great many of one's entertaining and living problems. Somehow food always tastes better and appetites are keener in the open, and to be able to live in a patio or outdoor room would be the ultimate in pleasurable existence. It has the same fascination as the outdoor restaurants in France and Italy.
For those who like to stop on the road and broil a steak or who have a pint-sized garden or terrace, there are many kinds of equipment and a good many appliances that will provide excellent meals and a great deal of amusement as well. Perhaps we are too enthusiastic about the vertical grill, but we do find it is an ideal source of cooking heat for anyone. These may be found in a small portable size as well as the larger one which needs so much space. Both the vertical and horizontal grills can be carried along in a car or set up temporarily in a garden, and can also be used in the fireplace indoors, come winter or spring. And there are the good old funnel-shaped grills with grating at the top which have given satisfaction for years and which, for small units, are difficult to equal and impossible to surpass.
As a matter of fact the simpler the equipment, the better off you are. The market is flooded each year with gadgets of all sorts and trick devices that look smart and which are often a great disappointment when used extensively. Good food and good cooking can be accomplished with simple and functional appliances and a minimum of gadgetry. The simplest forms of stoves, as we have stated before, have served for centuries as reliable aids in cookery. Our secret for satisfactory results and ease in operation is to have little to clutter up the worktable, but to have that little of the finest. A fine grill, excellent knives, two or three good long-handled forks, some tongs, and a good cutting board are essentials. Utensils and additions to these basic necessities are what you have to figure out for your own individual problem. It is a question of choosing the proper props after you have made up your repertoire for the season.
One subject which always causes a great deal of discussion among enthusiastic outdoor cooks is that of fuel. Naturally, we are all aware of the fine results to be achieved with charcoal and with the briquettes which have come more and more to the fore in the last few years. Nothing gives quite the flavor to broiled meats that charcoal lends. It is distinctive and tempting. But there is a long brief to present in favor of well-seasoned hickory or applewood or oak. For a large grill, any of these woods will burn down to magnificent coals for cooking and will season the foods being cooked with a smoky flavor of individuality. Need we warn you again that it is the coals that do the fine cooking and that to use flame is torture to yourself and to the meat or fowl being cooked. One of the first mistakes made by every outdoor chef who is not accustomed to the technique is trying to cook over flames instead of achieving a sound bed of coals.
Success in the field of outdoor cookery—and mind you, one can achieve startlingly good dishes this way—depends, as does every form of cookery, on three or four fundamentals: good workable equipment; care in preparation; the very best of raw materials; and last but certainly not the least important, the will to do it and thorough enjoyment of the process and the results.