Cooking on outdoor fireplace

[stick]

At the cabin I got a few years ago, there was an outdoor fireplace/oven. I am wondering how to cook over the darn thing. It has a stainless steel grate over the front portion, and this is about 2'x2'. Then behind this, there is a chimney and the firebox extends back another foot or so (with the chimney over it). I hope this paints the general picture. My questions is...should I build the fire below the chimney and then drag the burning coals out under the grate, or do I build the fire right under the grates and not use the chimney. I'm so confused by this thing. So far, I've just used the open area to burn charcoal and use my fireplace dutch oven.

Any recommendations?

[Tom Linderholm]

Any chance you could get picture of it? We have something similar at our cabin that was homemade. We have used it a couple times and pull the start the fire in the back and move the coals forward.

[stick]

I emailed you a photo. It's not a great photo, but it should do. I may try my hand at using this with some nice oak wood under a chicken this weekend.

Any help is appreciated.

[Tom Linderholm]

Stick, thanks for the photo. This is a bit different then the one at our shack. I would say start the fire in the back to get the flu going and pull hot coals to the front. My guess is the smoke would continue to flow thru the flu while you would get the heat in your cooking area.

[stick]

Thanks Cheffrey. I'm headed in that direction right now.