Cooking methods - the basics

[Thomas Dermako]

Let me start off by saying I'm a decent cook - at home. I also have lots of experience with liquid fuel camp stoves.
I built a fire the other day on a short trek and realized that cooking over it is not quite as easy as I thought. So...how do those of you with experience do it? On coals, flames,tripods, pot hangers, what? Any special fire building methods? Do you make cooking implements from locally found materials? What kinds of things do you cook this way? What sorts of pots and utensils do you use? Perhaps just a corn boiler?
I guess I'm looking for info on PC type trek cooking - anything I can't carry on my back (like a dutch oven) is of less importance.
I know this is a lot of questions, but I'm sure your experiences will be of great benefit to novices like myself.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I don't use them myself but fronteirsmen used copper pots they toted in gear. They also had iron or steel roasting spits of a sort, they were forked and would be lashed to green branches. they also used just plain green hardwood forked branches as roasting spits.
always use hardwood for any cooking fires if at all possible. the faster burning ones i.e. polar and maple are fine. avoid birch, it stinks bad.

 

[boar]

I buy small brass pots at flea Mkt"s. I drill hole on each side an put in a cotter pin, attach a copper bail.When you first build your fire have a stick tripod to hang your pot, boil your water on the frist heat. After fire is going good,rake some coals off to side of fire to put you tin skillet on to cook your eggs or meat. I get these at F-Mkt. Could have bought a whole set today, but didn"t need them. If you use copper it must be tinned for hot stuff,or poison. I use sourdough dough wrap around a stick for bread. I can make skillet bread out of it too. Also skillet cornbread. Have had it (sourdough) since 1982.I make my coffee in the tin cup, put ground coffee in, add boiling water, let set then drink, grounds go to bottom. I learned to cook on open fire when out at nite running fox hounds.35yrs. I boiled a few groundhogs with spicebush,then browned in fire on[url] stick.In[/url] them good old days. You can make up some bannock bread to take to the woods. Goes good with some meat. Dilly

 

[Gus]

I havn't done it much lately, but in a former life I was quite the outdoor cook. May I suggest two books, one being the Boy Scout Cooking Merit Badge book for $3.50 and check your local library for the Foxfire books. Amazon has them, just checked. Also check out the Scout Store for handy items:[url] http://www.scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/default.aspx?ctgy=PRODUCTS&C2=CAMPING&C3=CCOOKING&C4=&LV=3[/url]

I personally love and will never part with my dutch ovens. The same ones me and my Dad used when I was a scout 30 yrs ago. One of the best items we had was an aluminum dutch oven.

 

[Many Klatch]

A lot of the early cooking was boiled. Boiling is the easiest way to cook if going light. One copper pot can make a meal without being too heavy. The minimum that you will need is a small lined copper pot with a bale so you can hang it over a fire. A length of rope with a hook made of antler will work for hanging the pot. You can make a tripod of branches over the fire to hang the pot from. The rope can be used to tie the tripod together and then the height of the hook can be adjusted by extra wrappings of the rope around the tripod.

Start off with something simple. I like to do chicken by boiling for breakfast. Simply fill the pot with water, drop in the chicken add a pinch of salt and put over the heat. You get the chicken ann the broth that way. Oatmeal is easy to carry and to fix as well, a little messier but filling and lightweight. Rice works well.

It is nice to have two pots, one to cook in and one to heat water in for coffee or tea. A stacking set doesn't take up much room. Just make sure that anything you intend to cook in is lined, you can get real sick if you cook in an unlined copper or brass pot.

For washup, as soon as the food is eaten, fill the dirty pot back up with water, bring to a boil and scrub out, a little soap is nice too.

With the water in much of the streams full of beaver fever, boiling water for tea or coffee makes a lot of sense, if you don't want to carry a modern filter.

Many Klatch

 

[Homesteader]

I've been an ole campfire cook since sometime in the mid '70's, and the one thing I've learned for certain is if you want to do anything more than boil water or scorch meat (badly), you need to cook over coals, not open fire. I read somewhere that open flames vary in temperature from 200 to 1000 degrees. Now that may not be true, but I do know you can't control it enough to cook well.

I often roast on a spit (no pots / pans needed), and the way to do this is with coals. My favorite technique is to use a "keyhole" fire, where I've constantly got an open fire creating coals that I can pull over to the cooking area.

This is a lot different from the sort of subsistence cooking a lot of trekkers do. An open flame will boil up a handful of parched corn and jerk, and in a whole lot less time. Depends on what you're after, I guess. (I do the latter sometimes too.)

But a good bed of coals will cook anything, from hamburgers to pancakes, pasta to a roast.

Good luck, have fun, and experiment!

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I've yet to see anyone post about the roasting forks other than me, but they were commonly used to roast meat. iron/steel forks were fairly common and did double duty as fish spears.

 

[Claude Mathis]

I've yet to see anyone post about the roasting forks other than me, but they were commonly used to roast meat. iron/steel forks were fairly common and did double duty as fish spears.

Perhaps the members figured that you've already covered that option?

 

[Blizzard of '93]

Yes, you're correct - just surprised that no one else mentioned them. Davey carried one I've read. a handy item. I made my own but have never used it as a fish spear (gig I guess you'd say)

 

[Thomas Dermako]

It's simple things, like roasting forks/gigs, that I'm after. It's surprising how much valuable knowledge gets lost because folks think it's too commonplace.

 

[Claude Mathis]

Here's one I've used. You can use either end.

 

[xxgrampa]

greetings,

after you get your stuff together. practice in the backyard. an outfit like claudes wouldn't take up more than a couple sq feet of space.

in no time at all you'll be an expert outdoor chef. just remember to lay your rifle across your lap while cooking. and watch your top knot.. :wink:

..ttfn..grampa..

 

[Blizzard of '93]

now that is a first-class item. gives me ideas. the one I made is of 3/8" steel rod 14" long with a 'U' of 5/16" X 6" and pointed ends. made to lash to a pole if needed. which I have done to prop over coals roasting.

 

[shmrck1]

No matter which way you decide to cook,or in
what medium......My opinion is do not rush it!
Weather over coals or open fire.
Just my opinion.
snake-eyes:hmm:

 

[tx-hunter]

when cooking over coals, do you have to continually pull coals out of the fire to keep the heat up? I did this the other weekend. pulled out a shovel full of bright red coals. set my pan down full of bacon. it sizzled for a few minutes and then stopped.

 

[Thomas Dermako]

I think that depends on how fast their heat dies down - I'd just keep pulling out coals until I got the heat where I wanted it, I guess.

 

[fobeknat]

Don't forget the fire triad - heat, fuel, and air. If you place the pan directly on the coals you will smother them. Raise the pan just slightly off the bed of coals and they will last for quite a while. You can also raise and lower over the coals to regulate heat to some extent. My $.02 :yakyak:

 

[xxgrampa]

greetings txhunter,


like the forrest said, 'give it some air'.. try putting some rocks in the coals a little bigger than the coals. should keep the pan high enuff not to squash the coals out..

..ttfn..grampa..

 

[tx-hunter]

that makes sense. thanks yall. :bow: never occured to me to lift the pan off the coals :redface:

 

[Big Sky Trapper]

If its just me and the dog I like to keep it simple.

(rocky mountain mystery meat...haha)

Now the followiing might be a bit heavy without horses/mules, but you can get some ideas and scale down the sizes to make them back portable if you like building stuff...plus see some actual fire cooking hights ect, amounts of coals we use...

when the whole crew goes along...

Now that tripod and fire spit all pack down into one of those newer stly folding camp chair bags, But with some inguenty Im pretty sure a fella could make something way smaller and lighter to make your meals more varied...