Outdoors cooking

Doc Ruby

One of the great pleasures of camping and outdoors living generally is cooking and enjoying a nice meal under the sky. Its pretty easy to mess up if you don't know what you're at though so here are a few guides to common outdoor meals:

Cooking a fish on a spit:
After gutting and getting rid of the guts (make sure you have disposed of these far from camp or preferably in the fire), don't top and tail the fish, you need the mouth to hold it on the stick, find a couple of non toxic green wood sticks about 20cm long and half a centimeter wide, and a longer piece a meter long. Sharpen both ends of the longer piece and strip the bark off the smaller pieces and the last 30cm of the longer bit.

Carefully pushing down on a firm surface, split the longer piece down the middle to about half its length.

Then you just push the sharpened split end through the mouth of the fish and long its body, and push the two smaller pieces through the body of the fish and through the split you have made. This will hold it securely while you turn it. Try and get the smaller bits through the meat to prevent splitting while the fish is cooking. You can tie the tail off as well for more security. Rest the end of the long bit on the ground for comfort.

Then just cook it over the embers (a full fire isn't the best idea as you'll get a mouthful of soot) and you can stuff it with herbs if you like, just tie off the stomach too.

This can also be used for rabbits and other small game.

Roasting food outdoors:
This is how to make an oven that you can use to roast a joint of beef, leg of lamb, or anything you can cook in a normal oven, except outdoors and without much effort.

Dig a hole a bit larger than the food you plan to cook, and stack up the dirt on the rim. Line the hole with rocks, it doesn't really matter what sort, and keep another few rocks handy. Start lighting dry wood and sticks inside the hole, and build it up, dropping a few more rocks in there to capture the heat.

Next gather up broad, non toxic leaves, like doc leaves for example, and get ready to line the pit with them. After a few hours the stones should be white hot and you should have a nice bit of charcoal down there too. The green leaves help to create steam which prevents your food from drying out.

Drop your leaves into the pit, a good layer, and wrap your food up in them likewise, before putting that in too. Layer rocks and leaves on top of the food, before finishing off with a layer of dirt. Once you can no longer see most of the white steam that should do it.

Then just leave it for as long as you'd normally leave something in the oven, maybe a bit longer, dig out your food, and there you have it, a simple and effective oven! I recommend stuffing with herbs and vegetables as well for extra flavour.

Bannock:
Bannock bread is well known among outdoorsy types, originally a Scottish recipe used by the Highlands men when travelling, its any kind of flatbread cooked over an open fire. There are any number of different recipes and methods for preparation, generally a 1:2 mix of milk powder and flour, although I've seen some with raisins, dried eggs, herbs, thinly sliced pork and apple pieces in it.

Preparation methods are also widely varied, but usually you add water and put it in the pan, on top of hot oil, and leave it propped up next to the fire, facing in to capture the heat. I've also seen a method where its formed into a long lump, wrapped around the end of a spit like a snake, and roasted over the fire in that way.

Anyone have any other ideas or tips?

kildare.17hmr

Some good tips lad. Iv cooked fish and meat over fire many times and have to 100% agree with you its one of the great pleasures of the outdoors. Have always wanted to try the oven pit, have you done it?

Doc Ruby

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

Have always wanted to try the oven pit, have you done it?

I have, its not rocket surgery, bit of backwork though.

colonel-yum-yum

Not exactly the easiest thing to get in a survival situation, but this thread reminded me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoIebNv-bug

krissovo

I often cook sea food on hot slate or stones that have been heated in a fire. Simply place the food on top of the stone, particually shell fish.

I have used in the past a old ammo tin as a oven with a hole underneath for a fire (and hole for chimney) and soil coving the back, sides and top of the tin to insulate. It works well and can cook spuds, veg and prepaired meat.

I cook fish by gutting and slicing (often filleting) the fish from just below the gills to the annus (small hole at rear of fish) and placing a stick from annus through the mouth. I then use smaller sticks to cross the main stick to hold the fish in place. Once held I just place the stick in the ground to roast and turn no and again.

Mess tin/metal mug straight into the fire embers.

Dutch oven style for any vessel.

Doc Ruby

krissovo wrote: »

I have used in the past a old ammo tin as a oven with a hole underneath for a fire (and hole for chimney) and soil coving the back, sides and top of the tin to insulate. It works well and can cook spuds, veg and prepaired meat.

Do you make the chimney through the ammo tin or around the sides?

krissovo

The ammo tin remains intact, the chimney is in the soil. You can do this by driving a large stick from the mound around the tin through to the fire hole.

I think I have pictures somewhere, I will post if I find them.

Red Harvest

I was looking for something about using an ammo box with a good rubber seal as a pressure cooker (nail through hole in lid as safety valve) but found nothing, did find this intersting article though How to make an ammo can stove

krissovo

I didnt have a photo of my ammo oven but I found one after 30 mins of googling. Its the middle set of pictures, not quite the same as they use stones in the fire area but the principle is the same. I normally use the smaller cans from 7.62mm rounds. That will also roast a chicken in around a hour if you half it.

bonniebede

great pictures. sparked a thought, smoking for food preservation...

Doc Ruby

bonniebede wrote: »

great pictures. sparked a thought, smoking for food preservation...

A thread on food preservation techniques might be a good idea as well... I haven't done much of that myself big consumer that I am.

colonel-yum-yum

Doc Ruby wrote: »

A thread on food preservation techniques might be a good idea as well... I haven't done much of that myself big consumer that I am.

I would definitely be interested in that. Can't say I'd have much to contribute, but would be worth a read. There is lots of preserved food out there aimed at the survivalist/EOTWAWKI market, but some look overly pricy to me for what they are so home preservation would definitely be a plus.

Red Harvest

Doc Ruby wrote: »

A thread on food preservation techniques might be a good idea as well... I haven't done much of that myself big consumer that I am.

Helps if you have a glut of stuff from an allotment or garden and then have the TIME to do the preserving.

We don't even have the right conditions in most houses for basic food storage. My brother in laws farm has a larder as part of the house which is bigger than most peoples living room, it stays cool (dark and even humity)ayr and gives the space needed to keep fruit veg and meat for the longest times possible without having to resort to any from of preservation. In a modern house your hard put to hang on to a bag of spuds for more than a week.

Red Harvest

colonel-yum-yum wrote: »

I would definitely be interested in that. Can't say I'd have much to contribute, but would be worth a read. There is lots of preserved food out there aimed at the survivalist/EOTWAWKI market, but some look overly pricy to me for what they are so home preservation would definitely be a plus.

A nessesity once your bought food has run out and there's no where to buy anymore.