Cooking on a Stick

STEP ONE: GATHER YOUR MATERIALS

Start by stocking up your cooler. The fun thing about cooking on a stick is its versatility — you can put pretty much anything on there. We like to use seasonal vegetables from Balsam Farms or Amber Waves Farm, marinated meat from Red Horse Market, Applegate or Boar’s Head hot dogs, s’mores kits from Fine and Raw Chocolate, or Dandies Vegan Marshmallows (or go classic with the Campfire Giant Roasters, the extra-large ones!).

Next, gather the essentials: a fire pit, wood, a lighter, kindling or a starter, a bucket for water, skewers, a headlamp, a thermometer, plates and cutlery, condiments, a roll of paper towels, a trash bag, sweatshirts, and a bathing suit in case you get the urge to jump in the water.

STEP TWO: BUILD A FIRE

Town and village regulations dictate that beach bonfires must be kept in a metal container; most people use a galvanized-steel tub because it’s light and it cools off quickly. You can find one at any South Fork hardware store. You also need to keep a five-gallon bucket of water nearby (within 10 feet of the fire). Fires must be extinguished with water — not just sand — and the charred remains need to be hauled away rather than dumped or just left on the beach. Coals can stay hot until the following day and barefoot beachgoers are not infrequently burned.

We use the water bucket to carry materials onto the beach so we never forget it, and then fill it up in the ocean before lighting the fire. Pro tip: You can soak your skewers in this water so that they don’t burn while you’re roasting your food.

Wood needs to be dry in order to burn, and there are two types of dried wood you can choose from: seasoned wood and kiln-dried wood. Seasoning wood involves letting it dry out for a couple of months after splitting it. You can find this wood at a roadside firewood stand for sale by the bundle or in bulk from local firewood companies. Kiln-dried wood is treated quickly with heat at a processing facility, and it’s sold commercially outside of grocery stores. Kiln drying eliminates bugs, so it can be stored inside. Food can be cooked over either type.

You can also choose between softwood and hardwood. Softwood comes mainly from coniferous trees and burns more quickly, so it’s best for starting your fire. Hardwood comes mainly from deciduous trees, and because it burns slower, it’s best used to feed the fire once it’s already burning to infuse flavors, like cherry or hickory, into food.

To light the fire, incorporate starter wood or a ball or two of crumpled newspaper under the twigs. There are eco-friendly starters, like fatwood, that you can buy rather than using a more toxic variety. Starters burn off quickly, so it’s safe to cook food over your fire after a few minutes regardless of the brand.

Stack the wood like a tepee or a log cabin so that air can flow between the logs. Building a fire relies on the combination of elements: Heat must interact with fuel from the wood and oxygen from the air. 

STEP THREE: ROAST YOUR FOOD

Puncture your food in its gravitational center. Hold your skewer over the hot coals rather than the flames so that the outside doesn’t burn before the inside can cook through. Rotate the skewer consistently so you get an even roast.
If an item falls off the stick into the pit, don’t worry — it will disintegrate into ash!

Make sure that raw meat has been cooked all the way through before consumption. Beef, pork, veal and lamb steaks, chops and roasts should reach 145 degrees Fahrenheit, and ground meats should reach 160.

At a recent bonfire, we tested a variety of foods to see which worked best. Our results:

Hot dog: An unbeatable classic: Fits on the skewer easily; develops a nice browning on the outer layer while maintaining inner juiciness; pre-cooked, so it’s ready quickly without risk of raw meat consumption; bun acts as a perfect vessel — no need for slicing, which increases the risk of contamination by sand. 10/10

Pineapple: A staple in kebabs and al pastor, the pineapple is no stranger to fire. The smokiness of the charred flesh pairs beautifully with its sweetness. For one of our testers, though, the concept of hot fruit was a turnoff. 8/10

Shishito peppers: These take a long time to cook — the first batch was almost completely raw on the inside, despite visibly blistered skin. But with patience and a healthy amount of salt, the second batch of peppers was one of our favorite items of the night. They absorb the fire’s flavors prodigiously. 8/10

Asparagus: Difficult to pierce with the skewers. The stalks splinter if you insert the sticks lengthwise, and if you poke them through the middle, it’s hard to get an even roast. Each bite was either crunchy or burnt. 3/10

Cherry tomatoes: The blistered outsides, the tender insides … outstanding. Heat evaporates their high moisture content and draws out sweetness and umami in its wake. Cut them up and serve them on top of the hot dogs for a luxurious ketchup-substitute. 9/10

Whole onion: It was too heavy for the skewer, so testers put it directly in the coals. The outer layer looked promising after a few minutes of intermittent flipping with tongs, but the inside remained raw. Next time around, testers would wrap it in foil. 3/10

Taffy: The roast made no difference in texture or taste of these industrially engineered candies — they were neither better nor worse than straight from the package. 2/10

Pickle: While no impressive new flavors or textures surfaced through exposure to heat, the pickle exceeded testers’ expectations for its ability to retain moisture. 4/10

Halloumi: The hearty cheese proved surprisingly fickle. It crumbled when testers tried to put it on the stick, and without the proper seasoning and fry pan, it was defined by a squeaky texture, and emitted sounds reminiscent of walking in wet shoes. 2/10

Skirt steak: The thinly sliced, raw meat was too pendulous to maintain consistent contact with the heat, and took too long to cook. Testers got impatient and ate a steak that was half raw but still tasty, thanks to the quality of the meat and marinade. Testers developed both E. coli and salmonella. (Not really, but don’t try this at home or you might.) 6/10

Cookie dough: Testers blindly hoped that a cookie would emerge from the dough’s exposure to fire, but instead of taking a solid form it melted into the firepit. Testers tried to balance the dough on a makeshift spatula composed of multiple sticks held side by side, but still, the dough stayed steadfast in its commitment to viscosity. Desperate now, testers balanced it on a dirty shovel, but it slid into the fire. Manipulating the sticky, hot dough was surprisingly unappetizing. 0/10

Marshmallows: Quality varies based on the emotional maturity of the cook. An impatient temperament runs the risk of scorching the marshmallow’s outer layer before the inside can cook properly, or accidentally brushing it up against wood and coals. The overly cautious end up with a cowardly light-brown roast on an overly firm marshmallow. The key is to get close to the heat while avoiding direct flame and hold it there long enough that 
the inside gets puffy and the outside develops a crisp, golden-brown shell. Sliding scale.