Not sure if this is intentional or not (I doubt it is), but you can use just one short stick on a fire to cook all of your meat - for example, let's say I have 10 pieces of cow beef, I can use just one stick to get the fire going and then cook the rest of the meet on the 'hot embers'. This means effectively that I can cook incognito in a house as a hot yet unlit fire produces no smoke or light in the house. I am guessing it must be a bug - I get that the fire will be hot after going out for awhile, but it is hot enough to cook for ages afterwards.