Fred-in-the-shed's Guide to Chimeneas,

BBQs and Outdoor Cooking

Pizza Ovens and Fire Pits

Updated 3rd March 2025

Jamie Oliver cooked a pizza in this oven at the Chelsea Flower Show.

And I got to eat some of it!

On This Page

BBQ or Chimenea?

Burning Garden Waste

 

As a party animal AND a gardener, I have a keen interest in BBQs and outdoor leisure equipment. I like nothing better than an evening with friends outside cooking prawns, burgers, kebabs and fish, washed down with a glass or five of wine or a cold beer. However, there is nothing cool or clever about inviting your friends round to spend hours trying to light bricks made of coal dust, getting covered in soot and smoke, before freezing your butt off whilst eating half cooked salmonella chicken. Like most of the British public I have been there, done that and worn the hospital gown (not my cooking, I hasten to add)! So, in the interest of the health and well-being of the nation, I pledge to dedicate my summer evenings to testing BBQs, eating prawns and drinking beer. So far these are my findings..... One of the things I have observed from hosting or attending hundreds of BBQs is that people often buy huge BBQs that take up vast areas of garden and are a pain to clean. A big feature of BBQs is that they cook rapidly at a very high temperature so you can produce food very quickly. Unless it is necessary for everyone to eat at exactly the same time, a small barbeque can actually cater for dozens of people if you keep it hot and prepare well. If after reading this page you decide to buy one of the products please use my links to support my work, thanks, Fred.

BBQ or Chimenea?

Pros and Cons of BBQ Versus Chimenea

 

CHIMENEA Looks stylish Can cook with just wood Cooks fast Easy to clean Cons... Expensive for a good one Requires maintenance Heavy to move   BBQ Cheap to buy - easily available Durable - if reasonable quality Easy to access food Cons... Charcoal is expensive and slow to heat Prone to rust and rack is hard to clean Hard to control smoke and flames Ugly if left in your garden   Return to top of page

 

	Chimeneas are gaining in popularity and appearing at bargain prices everywhere. Many are poor quality and just sold by opportunists jumping on the bandwagon. I have seen Chimeneas falling apart in the shop before even being used. There are 3 types of Chimenea Traditional Clay Heavy Duty Cast Iron Cheap and Light Pressed Steel How To Choose - and Use A Chimenea The appeal of the "Chim" is its good looks and also that it works more like an oven and can double as a patio heater. The heat is more contained and the smoke is channelled up through the chimney top. At first I found my Chimenea hard to light and keep burning. Now I use paper and twigs to get it going followed by small, dry logs from my DIY and pruning activities. I keep dried up sprigs of rosemary to get it started with a whoosh and a crackle! After 4 seasons of use I love my Chimenea and have written this little guide of tips for using a buying a Chimenea. Because it is an oven with a chimney you can burn old (seasoned) branches and logs in your chim very efficiently. I never buy charcoal and as the wood comes from my garden it is carbon neutral, and more importantly, FREE!   Cooking on a Chimenea Most Chimineas come with a grill insert but if they don't just use a tool like this. Long Handle BBQ Grill Basket One nice thing about cooking this way is that you can quickly remove the grill and access all the food, away from the heat of the fire.   Which Type of Chimenea is Best?  Small Terracotta Clay Chimenea BBQ Grill with Artisan Design Rain Lid & Stand Clay Chineneas The traditional clay chims look great but will require maintenance and even then have a limited lifespan. They are VERY vulnerable to frost and will NOT survive a UK winter if left out. Some people even destroy their Clay Chimenea the FIRST time they use it by overheating it -Doh. The outer surface can be sealed to stop water soaking in and expanding the clay. Due to the short life span of Clay Chimineas I would encourage you to buy metal unless you are very careful.     Cast Iron Chineneas Cast iron is the most durable material for your chim but is also very heavy so is best for locations where the chimenea can stay outside. The metal will rust but as it is so thick this should not affect the lifespan much. Most metal Chims are pressed steel and may have cast iron legs but a full cast iron chim will be more expensive but last much longer than pressed steel.  La Hacienda Extra Large Sierra 100% Cast Iron Chiminea With BBQ Grill Cast Iron Chimineas from a trusted Fredshed partner site   Pressed Steel Chimeneas - The Cheapest and Lightest The light steel ones are cheap and easy to move but will rust VERY quickly. You can buy special paint for metal chims or you can just let them rust and pretend it is trendy. You can also buy optional custom made covers that will slow down the rusting. La Hacienda 60534 Large Deluxe Chimenea Rain Cover - Green Steel Chimenea and covers   Return to top of page Care of your Chiminea 400ml Stove & BBQ Paint Black La Hacienda Chimseal Clay Sealer For Chimeneas 1L If you have a clay Chim then you should seal it with a special liquid called Chimseal and then cover it with a big bag to protect it from frost and bad weather. Alternatively if you have space and strength just pull it into the garage or conservatory over winter. Cast iron and steel Chimeneas tend to go rusty even if you cover them, but a quick rub down with wire wool and a spray of heat resistant paint will quickly smarten them up for another season. Click here to see more Firepits, Braziers and Chimineas  Return to top of page
	Winter Storage and Indoor use of Chimeneas Bio-Ethanol Burner Firebowls and using your Chimenea as an indoor feature over winter I like to bring my Chiminea inside AND use it as an attractive fire thanks to a new material that burns without smoke or fumes.  Bio-ethanol is sugar based, can be safely burned indoors, and does not require a chimney. Bio-ethanol burners are for effect only and do not provide a heat source. After bringing my Chim in for the winter I use the stainless steel Gardeco Chim burner to create a feature fire. It rests on metal legs and has a handy smothering plate with a long handle so you can put out the flames safely. The Gardeco Chim burner is 6 inches diameter x 3 inches high Bio-Ethanol -12 Litres   If you want some good ideas for meals suited to cooking on a Chimenea then my friends Allison and Dana have written an excellent book with some exotic dishes that will really impress your guests. Buy my Friend Dana's Chiminea Cook Book Use the links below for other BBQ books    The Hang Fire Cookbook: Recipes and Adventures in American BBQ BBQ Manual: A Guide to Cooking with Grills, Chimeneas, Brick Ovens and Spits Return to top of page Classic Kettle BBQ   One of the most tried and tested Barbeque ovens is the kettle style that has been perfected by Weber. I love the design and the efficiency of this BBQ. You can find many copies but it is likely that vital features will be missing or the quality so low that it will rot or fall over in no time. If you are really into outdoor cooking get the proper Weber one and you won't be disappointed. For me there is only one fuel to use and that is lump wood charcoal. Forget those crushed coal dust briquettes, they are hard to light and god knows what crap is in them and will end up on your food. The combination of lump wood charcoal, good control of ventilation and the domed lid means you can make the most of the heat generated and cook tonnes of food rapidly in a small surface area. This also saves you money on fuel and makes sure that your guests get freshly cooked food and not something that has been sitting about for ages drying out and attracting flies. For even more efficiency, use a starting can to get the first charcoal pieces hot. After the BBQ, you can also use the starting can to store half burned charcoal to start the process the next time. Waste not want not! Weber Compact 47cm Charcoal BBQ Black 12kg Restaurant Grade Lumpwood Charcoal  Weber Chimney Starter   Buying a Firebowl       Fire Bowls and Multipurpose BBQ Tables This BBQ has a deep bowl made of cast iron that is strong and durable and can hold a lot of wood or coal. It also has a dome shaped mesh that can cover the fire to prevent sparks escaping. I like this BBQ because when you have finished cooking your food you can use it to burn logs to make a superb garden or patio heater. Any burner made from steel will go rusty but unless it is really thin steel it should last years and not be a problem. Another interesting take on this is the fire pit with a lid that doubles as a table. La Hacienda 58106 Camping Firebowl with Grill, Folding Legs and Carry Bag Click here for the largest range of firepits and firebowls  If you have a small garden or want something pretty and dual purpose then the firepit with a ceramic cover that turns into a table could be good. Return to top of page Wood Burning Pizza Ovens There is nothing as good as a home made pizza, cooked in your garden in a wood fired oven. The base will be crispy, and the toppings will take on a smokey wood flavour and amazing smell. My friend Robert built his own pizza oven similar to the one Jamie Oliver cooked my pizza on at the Chelsea Flower Show. It was still an expensive undertaking to make an oven with a concrete dome and there are cheaper options, such as buying a metal one. The brick/concrete dome variety is the real McCoy and also looks great in the garden. The metal pizza ovens can hardly be described as attractive but you may be able to move them out of sight when not in use. A new product has recently launched which is a small, one - pizza oven that uses the heat from your existing BBQ and cooks the pizza on its ceramic base.  Gas-Fired Bread, Meat, Pizza  Oven    Book-  How a Guy Built His Own Wood Fired Pizza Oven   Click here to see more Firepits, Braziers and Chimneas Return to top of page Best Log Splitter  Swedish Log Splitter I discovered the amazing Swedish log splitter at a trade show and met the inventor who showed me how to use it. Alf Ganlund was very proud of his invention and rightly so! Despite being in a wheelchair, I was able to easily split large logs with only 2 -3 drops of the wedge. Alf's brilliant logsplitter works by using the force of gravity channelled down a steel rod. This avoids any jarring of your joints which can happen when you use a normal axe or a wedge like the wood bomb. There are very few parts to go wrong on this and it costs nothing to run! So it really is a clean, mean, green machine. Unless you have tonnes of logs to split I don't think you need to spend loads of money on an electric or petrol powered log splitter. If you do need to split a lot of logs and have the space there are some reasonably priced but reliable ones available now such as the one on the link below.  Compact Lightweight 5 Ton Fast Electric Hydraulic FM5 Log Splitter 2200 Watt     Bio-bean Coffee Logs Tested and Reviewed I have been burning these excellent little logs this year in both my wood burning stoves. There is a slight whiff of coffee when you open the bag but then the logs don't smell either when stored or burned. I actually tried the logs several years ago but was not impressed and they were expensive. Since then the price and composition have improved and now the logs catch fire more easily and burn steadily. Coffee logs make great use of a waster product and I think they give off as much or possibly more heat than a similar size hardwood log. They are ideal for wood burners, chimeneas and firepits. Best burned together in small numbers as they give off a lot of heat. Sadly coffee these logs are no longer available, but Homefire have just started selling some.   I also tried the Homefire heat logs which are longer and burned well also. Coffee Logs - Eco-Friendly Fire Logs for Wood Burners and Multi-Fuel Stoves  Homefire High Energy Ultra Dry Heat Logs  (24 Heat Logs)     Wood Splitting Axes   Even Sarah with her sparrow like arms can split these logs easily with the Fiskars X21 Large Splitting Axe Most axes are designed to cut into wood so often get stuck in thick logs. If you want to spilt logs then you need a specialist splitting axe like this incredible X21 from Fiskars of Finland. Fiskars are the longest established axe manufacturer and are constantly improving their products as new materials and technology emerge. The X21 splitting axe is awesome and makes easy work of splitting even the largest logs with minimal effort. If the Fiskars one is not available or too expensive use the link below for a similar tool from Draper   Small Log Splitter - Roughneck Wood Grenade I used to use this little tool to split small logs that I use as the next step up from kindling. There are some poor reviews of this product on the internet but they are all when users have tried to split large logs. If you have large logs to split (over 8 inches diameter), then I think you should use a splitting axe like the Fiskars X21 above, or a log splitting machine.     Roughneck Wood Grenade Splitting Wedge  Silverline Log Bomb 165 mm   If you are feeling lazy use the link below to get some bargain kindling delivered!  12kg  Quality Wooden Kindling, in Woven Sack.   BEST TOOLS FOR HARVESTING BIO FUEL (LOGS) Bowsaws and Axes This humble bowsaw in the right hands is one of the most efficient and cost effective garden tools available. For a few quid and a bit of effort you can prune or clear trees and shrubbery in rapid time. A bowsaw is a lot easier to start than a chainsaw and requires little maintenance, and no petrol. If you have a chainsaw the bowsaw makes a good back up tool. If you buy either of the Bahco bowsaws shown in the link boxes below you can be sure of always being able to obtain spare blades and keep this tool for many years.   Bahco bowsaws come in a wide range of sizes with replacement blades easily available. 24 inch blade                   30 inch blade Bahco 10-24-23 Bowsaw 24In Bahco 10-30-23 Bowsaw 30In Return to top of page
	Burning Garden Waste If you allow your garden waste to dry thoroughly it is possible to burn almost anything in a well made garden waste incinerator. I like the one that looks like a dustbin, with a lid with a chimney in it. This one is great for keeping the heat in and stopping the smoke and ash from blowing everywhere. The trick with burning garden waste is to get the incinerator really hot by burning the dry and woody material first. If you want a dual purpose burner the brazier below has a BBQ grill mesh that you can use for cooking if you have some seasoned logs to burn. If you want a heavy duty one to burn large volumes then get the green one. I used one of these on a house renovation and it saved me hundreds by burning through tonnes of waste wood. Garden Brazier Vulcan Parasene Galvanised Garden Incinerator Garden incinerator bin fire Burner for Rubbish Leaves Paper Extra Large (200L) Return to top of page