WOOD BURNING OVEN

Three ways to melt raclette by the fire — the traditional Swiss half-wheel, individual barbeclettes, and a fast griddle — plus what to build around it and how to serve it.

Red lentils, coconut milk and curry spices in one pot over the coals, done in about 30 minutes — plus a thermos variation that cooks itself while you drive.

Papas arrugadas from the Canary Islands: salty, wrinkled-skin potatoes cooked in one pan over the fire, served with mojo rojo and mojo verde for dipping.

Black beans simmered in a smoky tomato base, buried in melting cheese, and torched to a golden crust — all cooked in one cast iron pan over the fire.

A camping shortcut for real cassoulet: Toulouse sausage, confit duck, and cannellini beans simmered in one pot over the fire in about 35 minutes.

A three-ingredient camp pizza cooked low and slow under a lid in a cast iron pan or dutch oven — crisp on the bottom, no oven required, ready in about twenty minutes over the fire.

A cast iron Dutch oven cornbread with a golden, crackling crust — the camp bread I make for chili nights, wherever the fire happens to be.

A three-hour campfire chili built the way Manon insists it should be: seared sirloin and ground beef, a dried ancho-and-cumin spice mix ground at home, and a long, slow simmer over the coals.

A slow-fermented, no-knead bread mixed days ahead and baked in a cast iron dutch oven buried in charcoal briquettes — the crust cracks, the crumb is open, and the method works over a campfire, a backyard fire pit, or your kitchen oven.

Not a recipe. The sound a cold can makes at the exact moment the preparation is finished and the evening turns from work into sitting by the fire.