Maybe it’s the sizzle of the meat over flame, the pungent fug of the smoke or the fresh air that gets your tummy rumbling, but whatever it is, outdoor cooking is particularly satisfying. Though barbecue and fire-pit accessories are getting ever more sophisticated, some of the more old-fashioned techniques yield unbeatable results. Take the flambadou, for example. Anyone who loves al fresco cooking will appreciate this traditional French technique for basting meat with fat as it cooks over the coals. 

Essentially, a flambadou is a metal cone with a big hole at the top and a small hole at the bottom, attached to a long pole. It’s so simple to use but incredibly effective. You hang your meat to roast (using a frame or metal basket) over the white-hot coals of your fire. Then you nestle the cone of your flambadou onto the fire and heat it until it glows red-hot. It can then be filled with oil, butter or solid fat like lard or dripping and held or hung over the meat. The fat will burst into flames and gradually drip onto your meat from the bottom of the cone. And the result? Super-juicy, flavour-packed meat that’s beautifully brown and stickily charred on the outside but tender on the inside. 

Traditionally a flambadou was used when cooking meat with a layer of fat to encourage the skin to crisp up while absorbing the fire’s smokey flavour. Nowadays, it’s a popular way to add extra oomph to anything from steaks to fish and even oysters.