I'm finding it really difficult to cook with ashes. The ash timer isn't that much longer than the time to cook something, and getting the ashes right when they're fresh is frustrating too.
Thought: Allow us to add time to the ashes by adding in 1-2 branches which would reset ashes to max time. Any branches added after would make the fire come back. Since branches are free, it's no hardship, but it makes ash cooking at least physically doable. Right now I view anything smoked to be not worth cooking until we have a meatsmoker.