Frying pan challenged

[Red Owl]

Okay, I've read the diaries of mountain men, etc. and the frying pan is PC. How was it used in actual cooking? Use a grate? Are grates PC? Just wondering.

 

[springfield art]

Just don't melt lead in your frying pan!

 

[FPDoc]

Just don't melt lead in your frying pan!

I'm pretty sure thaat never happened.

 

[FPDoc]

Okay, I've read the diaries of mountain men, etc. and the frying pan is PC. How was it used in actual cooking? Use a grate? Are grates PC? Just wondering.

Set pan on rocks or on the coals or across a trench fire or across two pieces of wood with the fire built between them or have the "new guy" hold it.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

..., or across two pieces of wood with the fire built between them ...,

As such...,

LD

 

[Red Owl]

I've tried the two log thing but never had much luck, a few rocks seems better. I'm thinking maybe bring a couple of iron bars and put those between two logs.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I've tried the two log thing but never had much luck, a few rocks seems better. I'm thinking maybe bring a couple of iron bars and put those between two logs.

Turns out that you want large wet logs, or green logs......, and you want them oriented with the wind to feed the fire air, if the wind is perpendicular, you choke the fire....,

LD

 

[tenngun]

We know squwers are mentioned. Museum of the fur trade has them about 1/4 inch and 18inches long
I’ve had more then one rock pop, even when I thought it good and dry.
logs and some squwers work well. I bet many were just laid on the fire

 

[ord sgt]

Another question.....how did they make s'mores?

 

[appalichian hunter]

Do not know about that, but I can envision a couple old mountain men a sittin around a fire and one of them a sayin pass me smore of that thar beaver tail.

 

[Ponderosaman]

Well my pop has done it at a real fort in New Mexico doing civil war reenactment. There’s a main fire where a pot is on a tripod and then rocks in two parallel lines. The main fire creates coals that are raked into the trench between the rocks where you can set a fry pan or dutch oven, griddle etc.

 

[Red Owl]

From what I can gather, most mountain men made a tripod on heavy sticks and suspended a pot, which could be put right in the fire, no waiting for coals, etc. In many areas of the plains there might not have been a lot of rocks, I was wondering how they fried anything, probably just rested the pan over coals?

 

[appalichian hunter]

I have a small one that has three legs, very handy if your only camping bye yourself, not so handy for woods wondering, only use it at rondys if I am not camping with the boss.

 

[tenngun]

From what I can gather, most mountain men made a tripod on heavy sticks and suspended a pot, which could be put right in the fire, no waiting for coals, etc. In many areas of the plains there might not have been a lot of rocks, I was wondering how they fried anything, probably just rested the pan over coals?

We know they had frying pans and can cook right on the coals. In general I bet they ate more soup/stew.
One can build a fire even if prairie coal scrap an area and set the pot there and keep the fire in a ring around it.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Three cobble stones work well. Be sure to use Igneous rocks and not sedimentary rocks. Those will blow up sending sharp bits of shrapnel in all directions.

We were camping one weekend at a local state park. Had settling in for the evening and gone to bed when a car full of East Indian college boys came into the site next to us. Lots of gibberish and noise and their car headlights were shining strait into our tent while they set up. They made a fire and I was smelling tandoori chicken when all of a sudden, BOOOM!!!. They had put sedimentary rocks in the fire pit and when they blew the campfire was scattered to the four winds.

 

[Ponderosaman]

I asked my pop to confirm what I relayed. Here’s his account:
“One weekend, the Museum had a special weekend called "From Field to Fire." It was all about frontier cooking with emphasis on cooking over open fires. I joined in my CW uniform. There were a number of women in period clothing cooking with period cookware. The group built a giant fire in the middle of an eight-foot long trench, with another eight-foot trench across the middle, forming a gigantic "Plus" sign.”

 

[springfield art]

I've tried the two log thing but never had much luck, a few rocks seems better. I'm thinking maybe bring a couple of iron bars and put those between two logs.

I'd go with rocks, which can be found anywhere, almost. Carrying iron rods when trekking might be a little too much extra weight. It's good people think about things such as this; survival, outdoors living in an emergency, whatever.

 

[waksupi]

I personally doubt anyone carried around a cast iron skillet during the fur trade. Tinned copper kettles were most commonly found. Considering the diet of the mountain men, a frying pan would have a pretty limited use.

 

[Bushfire]

Growing up and to this day we've never called into frontier/mountain man/re-enactor cooking. It's just cooking?

Did it just last night in our backyard cooking pork backstrap. Half skewered on a stick over the open fire, the other half in a cast iron pan across a couple of flat rocks with hot coals right on the edge of the fire.

Rocks are fine, you just need to know what types are going to pop and what are pretty stable. Otherwise rake some coals to the edge and put the pan straight on top.

When I backpack mountain hunt we'll often shoot a deer for fresh meat and just cut it into strip's and cook over a fire on a stick. Without any seasoning the smoke gives it a nice flavour you will not get on the same fire on a pan. If I take one cooking accessory it's usually a small tin pot that I can boil water for tea or make a stew. Always take in a potato, carrot, onion, stock cube and flour for such times. It's practical now and I imagine it was 200 years ago.

 

[waksupi]

Something that strikes me as ridiculous is to see re-enactors with a half ton of cast iron cookware at their camp fire.