Chef Josh Berry’s most memorable meal involves four 8-year-old boys navigating a full-size canoe (plus gear) from a parking lot, down a wooded trail, and across Sebago Lake to Frye Island. On the island, their dads (who’d gotten there first) settled around a late fall campfire, cracking open beers, ignoring the frustrated complaints from their sons. When the soggy, exhausted kids arrived, the hot dogs and beans cooked over the fire soothed the boys’ nerves, helping them forgive their fathers—who had wanted the kids to discover they could make the trek on their own.
“Thirty years later, it still stands out as the meal that immediately made everything better,” says Berry.
Cooking over an open fire pulls us back to the initial spark of humans learning to cook. The primal relationship between fire and food should not be relegated to the warmer months. Cooking outside in the dead of winter infuses the meal with comforting flavor and adventurous spirit. Bluebird days in Maine, once you brush the snow off the fire pit, gas grill, or charcoal drum, are picture perfect for assembling such a feast. The unhurried cooking process lends itself to the flow of the season that already invites us to slow down and be homebodies.
The winter grilling season is an excellent time to experiment with other proteins and vegetables. Winter produce options—beets, squash, parsnips, and cauliflower—benefit from time mixing with the embers as natural sugars caramelize to enhance flavor profiles. Quail, duck, venison, and pork are incredible meats for winter grilling. From the supply side, many farms throughout Maine are collaborating with local butchers and vegetable-forward farmstands to increase community access to locally raised meats.
To get you started on winter grilling, we’ve focused on these seasonal ingredients mixed with unexpected flavors. Serve the Grilled Halloumi Sandwich with Kale Pesto to a crowd needing to recharge after recreation in the snow, the Grilled Quail with Hot Honey to impress a brunch crowd, and the Venison Roast for a romantic night in. Before you start cooking, though, we must offer a few very important tips up front to help set you up for success.
Safety first: Make sure your wood is dry and the fire pit is free from debris. Wear fireproof gloves and have elongated tongs at the ready. Keep a bucket of sand and a hose nearby. If you’re rusty at managing a fire, make a practice fire you don’t intend to cook over. When you are ready to cook, wait until the fire has calmed down. Food is best cooked over embers. If you don’t have a safe place to set up a wood fire, these recipes will work on a gas grill as well.
