Foil cooking. This is one of my favorite ways to cook. It’s easy, it’s fast, and the cleanup is minimal. Basicly, you wrap what you want to cook in foil, toss it on the grill or coals, and wait for it to be done. You can make a frying pan by twisting a loop into a wire coat hanger and then filling the loop with foil and wrapping it around the edges.
Car Cooking- using the manifold. I had a step-father who used to use this method. Mom would cook up a mess of fried chicken and he would put it in a metal bucket, cover it with foil, and wire it to the manifold of his Bronco. Then we would go drive out in the woods to some remote lake, and have hot fried chicken waiting for us under the hood.
You can actually cook steak, potatoes, or just about anything else by wrapping it up in foil, putting it in a metal container, and wiring it to the manifold. You can put a can of Campbell’s soup on the engine and drive to the next rest area to have hot soup.
Because engine heat will vary, cooking time will vary. A shitty car can make a very hot stove.
Baking with a Tin Can. Some hobo friends taught me a simple way to bake using tin cans.
First take a large coffee can and cut a hole in one side. Placing it with the opening down on the coals, they continued to feed twigs and brush through the hole.
Next they took a cleaned out tuna can and filled it about half way with cake batter and placed it on top of three rocks on the tin can stove (this keeps the bottom from burning by allowing air to circulate under the can.) Then they covered the ‘cake’ with another can and fifteen minutes later they had a little cake.
I’ve used the same coffee can trick to fry up bacon and eggs.
Cooking with Fire.
The oldest method of cooking is using the fire. You use fire just like you would a stove. There are a few things to remember if you don’t want to burn your food though.
1) Coals cook more evenly than flames. If you are going to cook directly over the fire (no pot cooking) then cook over coals.
2) Hardwood coals are the best for no-pot cooking as some soft woods contain foul tasting smoke.
3) Never build your fire over tree roots. The fire can follow the roots and burn down a forest.
4) Build your fire at least 15 feet from any brush or trees
A Quick Guide to Building a Fire
1) Start by gathering all the materials you will need before you light the fire.
2) The base is something small and dry (known as tinder) such as shredded tree bark, shredded cardboard, paper, or steel wool. Have a good supply of twigs. A good place to get dry ones is right off of trees or bushes. If they make a distinct snap when you break them and they break clean they will probably work.
3) Place a few twigs on your tinder and light it. As the flame grows feed it more twigs and gradually work your way up to sticks, branches, and logs. The true key is to hold yourself back from piling everything on. Use patience. That’s it.
The Basics of Hawaiian Pit Cooking
Pit cooking can be a lot of work and is really only worth it if you are cooking an entire pig, deer, or other large amount of food. Hawaiians, Native Americans, and other tribal peoples use pit cooking for village celebrations.
1) Dig your pit about 2 feet deep by four feet around
2) Line the pit with rocks (Don’t use river rocks or other rocks that hold moisture as they might explode.)
3) Lay out your fire leaving an easy way to light it. This needs ot be a big fire with lots of wood. Pile lots of rocks in and on the fire pile.
4) Light it up and allow it to burn to coals. At this point you should have a pit filled with red hot rocks and coals.
5) Lay a pulpy type of leaves or grass over the top. Something that contains a lot of water so that it will not burn. (Bananna leaves are what they use in Hawaii)
6) Place your meat and vegetables over the pulpy material.
7) Cover the meat and vegetables with more pulpy material.
8) Place more rocks on the pulp.
9) Build another huge fire over the rocks and allow it to burn down.
10) Enjoy your day
11) Carefully excavate the pit and remove your delicious meal steamed by the water in the grass.
There are many ways to do this. This is one way I have learned.
Other Ways to Cook
Here are a few more interesting ways to cook without a kitchen.
1) You can cook eggs and bacon in paper bag by layering the bottom of the paper bag with bacon and then putting the eggs on top. Fold the bag over, poke a stick through it, and hold it over your heat source.
2) You can put hot rocks from your fire inside a chicken and then wrap it in foil. Put more hot rocks on the wrapped chicken. You can also cook eggs and other foods on flat rocks around your fire.
3) You can poke a green stick or a clean wire hanger through your food and cook it over flames or coals.
4) Cook eggs or meat inside an onion or orange then wrap in foil. You can also cook a cake inside an orange and you end up getting a nice ‘hint of orange’ taste.
5) Toast bread on white coals. Just lay the bread on the coals and allow it to toast. Then blow the ash off. This takes practice to get it perfect.
6) Fish with the skin on can be laid directly on white coals too.
7) A camp oven can be made with a smallish shoe box lined with tinfoil. Find another box that is a little bigger and place the smaller box inside (a box with a lid works well. Line it with foil too.) Line the empty space inside with newspaper or sawdust. When you are ready to cook something, simply put it in the small box, place the lid on the larger box and put it in the coals.
8) Use tin cans for cooking by layering your food in the following order in the can. Meat, vegetables, and seasoning. Cover it with foil and put it in the fire for 30 to 45 minutes.
Utensils. I keep it pretty simple on the utensils. I have a can opener, fork, knife, spoon, set of chopsticks, and a simple mess kit with a pot, pan, and plate. I use a lot of foil.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a good set of cooking gear though. One of my favorite things to cook with is a big cast iron frying pan. Lot’s of folks swear by Dutch ovens which are big cast iron pots with lids. Back when I used to carry a lot of stuff I used a hand mixer, spatula, and cheese grater a lot.
It all depends on what you want to make a priority. I can cook pretty much anything with what I have if I use my creativity to fill in the gaps.
Cleaning up. Not having a sink can be a bit of a pain but you can still keep your gear clean. I use a couple of simple methods to wash up.
1) I usually have a container of liquid soap with me.
2) If water isn’t available, you can wipe the dishes clean with a rag
3) Sand and gravel work as natural abrasives
4) Vinegar in a burned or stained pan will usually work it loose
Keep it simple. The less you dirty, the less you have to clean.
MONEY
Money is great. Having a job usually sucks. There it is.
I’ve had lots of jobs, too many jobs. When I was in 4th grade I had a paper route, when I was 14 I got my first job at a restaurant as a dishwasher. Since then I’ve washed dishes, bussed tables, waitered, tended bar, cooked, and hosted in dozens of restaurants. I’ve dug ditches, built houses, painted houses, and cleaned all the stuff money can buy out of people’s garages. I’ve filed papers, ran meetings, cold called, door knocked, and answered phones. I’ve been a DJ and done craft services on a movie set. I’ve been a stand in, a radio producer, a band manager, and an air traffic controller. I’ve managed buildings, served as a Marine, and shoveled shit. I’ve tried to find “my calling” in so many different career paths that I’ve nearly run out of choices.