Stoves & Fire Pits

Family cooking on a stainless steel rocket stove beside a backyard fire pit and portable grill at golden hour

Cook and stay warm with wood when the power is out or the campsite is off grid. This collection brings together rocket stoves that boil water on a handful of twigs, smokeless fire pits for the backyard, a fold-flat grill for the road, and the baskets, racks and gloves that make fire cooking easier.

New to cooking without power? Start with How to Cook Without Power, then see how a rocket stove fits into a full off-grid kitchen in Off-Grid Water & Wood-Fired Kitchen.

How to choose: rocket stove, fire pit or grill

All three cook with wood, so you never depend on a gas line or a fuel canister. Pick by what you want to cook, how far it needs to travel and where you will use it.

Option	Best for	Fuel	Portability	Where to use it
Rocket stove	Boiling water and one-pot meals on very little fuel	Sticks, twigs, pine cones and small wood scraps	Compact; the Hot Ash Mini weighs under a pound and fits a go-bag	Outdoors only, set on a stable, nonflammable surface
Fire pit	Backyard warmth, gatherings and cooking over coals	Split firewood	Stays in the yard; the Rambler 3-in-1 adds grill and pizza oven modules	Outdoors only, with clear space around and above it
Portable grill	Grilling meat and vegetables at camp or on the road	Wood, twigs or charcoal	Folds flat and weighs about 5 pounds	Outdoors only

Round out your setup with a stainless steel grill basket for vegetables and small cuts, a yakitori-style skewer rack that sits over a fire pit or rocket stove, and a pair of heat-resistant gloves for moving hot grates and pots.