Cooking and boiling water safely over a fire

Embers radiate heat, much like a hotplate or a radiator. This heat is even and easy to control: more embers under the pot means more heat, raking embers aside means less. Flames, by contrast, leap up irregularly, spread heat unevenly and leave a lot of soot.

For embers to form, the fire has to burn for a while. How long depends on the wood and the weather; dense hardwood usually forms better, longer-lasting embers than fast-burning softwood. A practical solution is to keep the fire burning to one side and keep raking fresh embers from it into a cooking zone.

A lid keeps the heat in the pot. The water boils faster, you need less wood, and less ash falls into the food.

Stability is the most important thing. Set the pot on flat, dry stones, a grill or a stable stand and check whether it wobbles before you fill it. A pot with a bail handle can also hang from a tripod or an angled, anchored stick – then the structure must carry the full weight safely, and cords must not hang into the flames.

Fill the pot to at most about two thirds. Boiling water bubbles and sloshes, and a pot filled to the brim boils over or spills when lifted. Clear the path from the fire to the place where you will set it down before lifting the hot pot, and never reach across the fire.

Use only heat-resistant metal pots. Plastic vessels melt, and galvanised buckets or coated containers can give off harmful fumes when strongly heated. Sealed cans or vessels must never go into the fire: steam pressure inside can make them burst and spray hot contents.

Boiling is one of the most reliable ways to kill pathogens in water. If there is no stove, a fire can be the heat source. The water must reach a rolling boil; exactly how long is given in the entry on boiling water. Also follow the advice of local authorities, for example boil-water notices.

Important to know: boiling kills germs but does not remove chemicals, heavy metals or dirt. Cloudy water can be left to settle first and poured through a cloth – this makes it clearer but not safe; boiling is the decisive step. At high altitude water boils at a lower temperature, so some authorities give longer boiling times there.

Let boiled water cool in a clean, covered container so it does not get contaminated again.

Boiling water and hot fat cause severe scalds. Handle the pot and handles only with a glove, pot grabber or sturdy stick; metal handles get very hot too. Keep children away from the cooking area. Cool burns and scalds at once with cool, not ice-cold, running water; for large or deep wounds, burns to the face or hands, and burns in children, call the local emergency number (112 in the EU).

Never cook inside a tent, shelter or enclosed room, not even “just briefly” because of rain. Fires, embers and stoves produce carbon monoxide, which is invisible and odourless and can be fatal.

There are basic rules for the food too: wash your hands, keep raw meat and ready food apart, and cook meat all the way through. Over a fire, food quickly turns black outside while still raw inside – smaller pieces and embers instead of flames help.

Cooking over a fire is worthwhile where fires are allowed and you need one anyway, for example for warmth, or when no stove is available. But it costs time, wood and attention and leaves soot on the pots.

During a fire ban, cooking over an open fire is not possible. A stove is then often still allowed, but not always – check the local rules here too. After cooking, as with any fire: put it out completely until everything is cold.