642440 Thu Aug 06 05:42:06 -0700 2009 36 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 4922017 Lately, I've been fascinated in outdoor cooking methods in areas where modern conveniences aren't available. For instance - Anthony Bourdain's Philippines episode where the chef cooked over a wood fired stove which appeared to made out of concrete slabs with holes where the pots and pans sat. Andrew Zimmern's Puerto Rico episode, a woman cooked her meals on a concrete slab and an iron grate supported by concrete blocks. When I visited Peru, one vendor was grilling meat on what appeared to be huge iron plate pried off the street which sat on boulders and fed by a log fire underneath. So I'm curious how one might construct something like this - can concrete really handle all that heat? What have you experienced in other countries? I think I'm just a pyromaniac at heart but at the same time it makes me grateful for my electrcity and my modern kitchen. Thu Aug 06 05:42:07 -0700 2009 253479 IndigoOnTheGo 1 4922232 Concrete can handle open grill no problem, most third world areas the unit of choice is a 55 gal. drum with a grate on top. I watched the Andrew Zimmern show a couple of times when he was in Ecuador and was eating guinea pigs cooked over an open fire. I could eat the pig but they were using old pallets and some chunks of old telephone pole for the fire, no thanks. Creosote really isn't a good smoke enhancer. Thu Aug 06 07:06:55 -0700 2009 4922017 140140 mrbigshotno.1 1 4922377 The Chile or Uruguay episode of Bourdain's No Reservations has a marvelous section on some chef who moved to a small town and now has constructed a whole football field of weird outdoor cooking spaces. You'd probably love that episode, if you haven't seen it already. Thu Aug 06 07:56:56 -0700 2009 4922017 40486 Cinnamon 1 4922534 Reminds me of our family trips to the McCloud River Reserve in Northern California when I was a kid: we knew the headranger who lived alone (he monitored the Dolly Vardon trout run) in a strikingly cool loft-style cabin two miles from the end of the nearest road. We were the only visitors for the whole summer...he had an superb outdoor kitchen that impressed me even as a six-year-old: a large counter space with large, rolldoor lockable pantries (bear issues), coffee grinder used daily mounted onto a post, and all the cooking from the fire which was a beautifully designed stone hearth capable of cooking pizza. The coolest part was the fridge- six slabs of redwood configured into a "fridge" shape with a trickle of the straight-from-the-river-potable McCloud River water sluiced through the top. Kept the homemade tofu nice and cold. Wait...1982, homemade tofu...our ranger friend must've been a crypto-hippie...we musta driven him nuts. Thu Aug 06 08:49:15 -0700 2009 4922017 209317 SaltyRaisins 1 4922719 Back in the day, before portable grills, my dad used to take us on picnics & make a grill out of a bunch of rocks supporting a rack from an old fridge spanning a small fire pit. That rack stayed in the trunk of his car just in case. That was especially humorous since we lived in the city, and the chances of his being caught with the car in a wilderness situation were between slim and none. He was a pharmacist, and would also cook meals over a bunsen burner in the back of his store. I'm not talking heating things up, I'm talking making making things from scratch. In Mismaloya, a town out side of Puerto Vallarta, they cook fresh-caught fish on the beach. The build a fire in a sand pit. put a large stick through the fish lengthwise, and shove the end of the stick in the sand so that the fish is angled over the glowing coals. The sand reflects the heat & magnifies the cooking temp of the fire. THE best fish I have ever had! Thu Aug 06 09:36:22 -0700 2009 4922017 90359 PattiCakes 2 4922727 I've had that Mismaloya fish and loved it, too. There used to be a stand that sold the world's most perfect coconut cream pie and nothing else. Was it there when you were? Thu Aug 06 09:38:51 -0700 2009 4922719 209317 SaltyRaisins 3 4923107 A number of times, but the last was in June of 2006, for my daughter's wedding. She was married in Conchas Chinas. Thu Aug 06 11:12:48 -0700 2009 4922727 90359 PattiCakes 4 4923399 Really miss that area. I've heard that I'd have trouble recognizing it nowadays- development and all. I also remember going by panga to Yalapa. That beach was something else... Thu Aug 06 12:33:53 -0700 2009 4923107 209317 SaltyRaisins 5 4923759 I would bet that I'd have trouble recognizing some things only 3 years later! Thu Aug 06 14:14:44 -0700 2009 4923399 90359 PattiCakes 2 4923497 PattiCakes, My father kept a 'wire' shelf from an old display uinit in his clothing store in the trunk of the car. It was set on rocks many times to make a grill. In those days 1955-1963 the fire was lit with leaded gasoline. My older brother had his bedroom in the basement of our house. The freezer was nearby. He loved to snack at night. He had a 6" long piece of 2x4 lumber that he had driven 2 large nails through 1/2" from each end. He took an old lamp cord and wound wire around the head of each nail. He would impale a frozen hot dog on the nails and plug in the lamp cord. In about 4 minutes he had his hot dog fix. This was long before microwaves. I was in the Boy Scouts way back in 1965. We were taught to make portable camp stoves out of a #10 can and a tin snips. We cut a couple of vents, put the can over some small twigs and paper and lit a fire. The surface was just fine to make a couple of burgers. Thu Aug 06 12:59:25 -0700 2009 4922719 274541 bagelman01 3 4923751 1955 -- that's about right, maybe even a little earlier. Yep, there was gasoline alright! When charcoal grills became popular, my dad really gravitated to the lighter fluid as well. Good thing he was already bald. I have a co-worker who is an Eagle Scout leader. Always looking for unique ways to cook on camp outs. I found something called "trash can turkey" on the internet, and it has become one of his faves. When you are hungry, you will always find a way. Thu Aug 06 14:12:39 -0700 2009 4923497 90359 PattiCakes 3 4937070 "I was in the Boy Scouts way back in 1965. We were taught to make portable camp stoves out of a #10 can and a tin snips..." I was in Scouts about ten years earlier; for our tin-can stoves we used large juice cans, V-8 mostly, and the vent holes around the upper sides were punched with an old-fashioned triangular-blade can opener. We made candles in tuna cans with paraffin and cotton-rope wicks, and the tin-snipped doors at the bottom of our "stoves" were sized to fit these candles. All very clever, but after waiting for that candle to actually cook something we usually gave up and shoved in some sticks. Tue Aug 11 11:56:53 -0700 2009 4923497 11478 Will Owen 4 4937502 A popular item among backpackers aiming to cut the weight of their gear is a stove made from a pop can that burns alcohol. Some pair that with a lightweight pot that is sold as a grease catcher at Walmart. This enough to heat water to rehydrate a pack of freezedried backpacking food, or the homemade equivalent, with some water leftover Tue Aug 11 13:57:58 -0700 2009 4937070 12139 paulj 5 4937902 This talk about lightening up one's gear is faintly ironic, given that I'm seriously contemplating the purchase of one of those 2- or 3-burner Camp Chef stoves that use the big propane tanks! But I don't backpack - I go car-"camping" with a gang of other old farts once or twice a year, and some of those guys have portable kitchens more elaborate than my home one! Tue Aug 11 16:08:10 -0700 2009 4937502 11478 Will Owen 4 4938005 it's nice to know that we hounds are age approximate........................ returnable bottles before it was recycling.................... Tue Aug 11 16:44:49 -0700 2009 4937929 274541 bagelman01 2 4936274 Love those beach fire fish tacos!!! Tue Aug 11 08:28:14 -0700 2009 4922719 225234 KiltedCook 1 4924648 my ex mother in law bought an old farmhouse in Tuscany years back and we used to go there on vacation. One year we decided to see if we could fire up the brick oven out in the back of the house, using wood we collected from the land. It seemed to still be working, so we went into the nearest village, managed to ask for fresh yeast using hand signals and as much school Latin as I could muster, bought ingredients for pizza and I set about making dough. A few hours later we had the freshest and best pizza ever. Thu Aug 06 19:28:41 -0700 2009 4922017 22559 smartie 1 4925293 A number of years ago, my daughter became interested in Indian food. Her grandmother-in-law has a dear friend who is Indo-Guyanese, and offered to have us come to her house to learn to cook her style of food. When we got there, we were surprised to find that we would be cooking everything outside on her patio. Her husband had built a cooking area that consisted of a small brick fire pit, capable of having a grill on top or of fitting various types of cooking utensils. He replicated as best he could, the way they had cooked in Guyana. Her mother happened to be visiting, so we spent the entire day preparing a feast over that fire pit. She told us that this was how they had cooked every day at home. We sat in a circle, chatting & each doing different tasks. We were used to using a cutting board to cut vegetables, but we were not allowed to do so here; everything was cut/diced using just a small knife and our hands. Spices were toasted in a wok-like pot over the fire; if we needed to, we then ground them with a mortar and pestal. We hand-rolled balls of dough to make flat bread & cooked that on the grill. Some things were started on the outdoor fire, but finished on the stove – lentils, for instance – because we did not have a second fire pit where they could be put for slow cooking. We were there for hours and hours, but the time just flew by. We had a marvelous time. It was wonderful to have spent those hours cooking and just being together. We learned that in Guyana, the communal cooking was very common, and weddings/celebrations brought women from all over to sit at dozens of these communal fire pits to cook. The day culminated with a fabulous meal. To keep it authentic, we were not allowed to used forks or spoons – everything was eaten with our hands using either the bread we had made, or rice to scoop up the food. To this day, that has to be one of my top 10 food experiences ever. Fri Aug 07 05:36:39 -0700 2009 4922017 90359 PattiCakes 2 4932352 I know a few Italian and Filipino families who have "dirty" kitchens. One is inside the house with pristine cooking appliances - the other is usually in the basement or outside of the house where all the ethnic cooking is done. I think that's where the cooking with the smelly ingredients, frying and dirty pots and pans are kept. When all the food is done and presented to guests and family, the house is odor-free and the kitchen is spotless. Mon Aug 10 05:00:21 -0700 2009 4925293 253479 IndigoOnTheGo 3 4932427 The basement kitchen is not uncommon here among families of Italian heritage. I think you've pointed out one of the reasons. The other might be beacuse there is more room -- the basement kitchen is often used for canning & making large batches of gravy. It's also cooler. My son in law's Mexican relatives also have substantial outdoor kitchens as well as the standard indoor one, probably for the same reason. They also do a lot of grilling & cooking over a fire. Mon Aug 10 05:53:02 -0700 2009 4932352 90359 PattiCakes 1 4932533 Very common among Maine locals at certain isolated beaches; look in the bushes and find the swinging door of a grocery shopping cart. Build a fire pit below the high tide line w/ some rocks, find some drift wood and "viola" a clam bake or steak grill. I work as a sea guide and often take 8 people (plus me) on 3 day kayak trips, camping on island on the Maine Island Trail. I do all the cooking, breakfasts and gourmet suppers on a 2 burner Coleman stove, not primitive, I know, but if I forget something, I'm screwed. I've used fish smokers, makde out of 55 gal drums in Norway and beehive Indian adobe ovens in New Mex. Mon Aug 10 06:43:54 -0700 2009 4922017 93538 Passadumkeg 2 4933198 Back in my "yoot", as they say in South Philly, My future hubby and I used to go camping quite a bit, usually with a bunch of guys. I got fairly proficient with a cast iron dutch oven and a fire pit. I'd also pre-make one pot meals (spaghetti & meatballs, chili), then freeze it solid so it would not only keep well, but act as a coolant for the other perishables. We were not usually tight on packing space, however, the way you would be on a kayaking trip. I think that adds a whole other dimension to the challenge. If you ever want to do something fun, but are not hampered by packing space, try that trash can turkey. If you have a bit of McGuiver in you, you can always figure out a way to make a meal. There are even some recipies for doing a slow cooked pot roast on top of your car engine while you travel. I think I'd rather go the fire pit/shopping cart grill route. Mon Aug 10 10:00:14 -0700 2009 4932533 90359 PattiCakes 3 4933305 I did the exhaust manifold chicken in the 70's. Wrap in foil and lay on manifold in Albuquerque and cocked chicken when home in Grants. Three years ago this Sept. I was pack packing alone and caught some small trout in Rainbow Pond. I had picked some late blueberries and some chanterelle mushrooms growing among caribou moss. I stuffed both into trout body cavity, put trout on grren oak forked stick and suspended the trout over oak coals, with the other end of the stick shoved into the ground; also pulled out some cat tail roots, stuck in coals and enjoyed a feast. Mon Aug 10 10:33:01 -0700 2009 4933198 93538 Passadumkeg 4 4933376 You are ever so much better than those survival clowns on TV. All they eat are bugs. Mon Aug 10 10:51:09 -0700 2009 4933305 90359 PattiCakes 5 4933761 No at Ieast as well, maybe too well, on my island kayak tours I often cook a Thai salmon curry w/ ginger fried noodles and the 2nd night Maine crab meat w/ peppers & basil over pasta w/ Greek salad. blueberry ployes for breakfast. Mon Aug 10 12:24:42 -0700 2009 4933376 93538 Passadumkeg 2 4935402 BBQ's/smokers made out of old 45 gal drums are pretty common in rural Quebec where our cottage is. Cut 'em in half, put on a hinge, and away you go. But we've also had our share of grills which were nothing more than some old rack placed over a circle or square of basalt rocks (the basalt reflects the heat from the fire nicely). Some charcoal briquets with a few branches from our apple trees thrown on for smoke.. lots of fun. Mon Aug 10 22:04:21 -0700 2009 4932533 1092461 FrankDrakman 3 4936103 It's become common, or even trendy, on college campuses, to fashion a similar cooker out of an empty keg. They're only a little more than a quarter the size, but I see them frequently at tailgates. Tue Aug 11 07:35:01 -0700 2009 4935402 36408 danieljdwyer 4 4936975 Recently I saw a propane fired crab boiler fashioned from an old keg. The user talked as though it had been given to him several decades ago. Tue Aug 11 11:31:03 -0700 2009 4936103 12139 paulj 4 4938163 Probably a lot easier to find, and I think I might find any residual beer flavour slightly more appetizing than kerosene! Tue Aug 11 17:34:08 -0700 2009 4936103 1092461 FrankDrakman 1 4932560 I'm just throwing this in here because our church is looking into helping supply solar cookers to impoverished countries; but from what I've read about them, these seem to work and I believe some Boy Scouts on this board might also be aware of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cooker Mon Aug 10 06:55:40 -0700 2009 4922017 11983 Val 1 4938185 A memory from a land far away and long ago. A huge pot of Pho suspended from a tripod over a slow burning wood fire in a VC camp we had just surprised. So delicious, worth getting busted. Tue Aug 11 17:41:31 -0700 2009 4922017 93538 Passadumkeg 2 4940300 I work on the Tohono O'odham Nation in Southern Arizona. Last Fall, we prepared an amazing meal for 250 people at our farm using nothing but mesquite wood fires. The meal consisted of nine different dishes – including roasted corn and chile soup, rabbit stew, sauteed cholla cactus buds, white tepary beans with shortribs, etc. More than 80% of all ingredients were from within a 5 mile radius. The squash was licked on the farm that morning; the rabbit was shot in the fields (!), the cholla buds were hand-harvested in the surrounding mountains. On another note, a couple of years ago the Executive Chef of Kai – a Mobile Five Diamond restuarant near Phoenix – joined us during a camp where we harvest saguaro cactus fruit. He chipped in to help make breakfast for 70 people.... With a cast iron skillet and a mesquite fired grill, he cooked about eight pounds of bacon into the most perfectly straight and flat strips of bacon you have ever seen. It just goes to show that people ranging from tribal elders to 5-Diamond chefs still know how to prepare amazing food with nothing more than a pot/pan and an open fire. Wed Aug 12 11:37:38 -0700 2009 4938185 1100381 Tohono Rat 3 4940463 That's awesome! Wed Aug 12 12:16:48 -0700 2009 4940300 90359 PattiCakes 3 4940601 PBS CreateTV has a series that visits various Native American sites, called I believe 'Seasoned with Spirit'. One episode features the O'odham, show things like collecting the cholla buds, and cooking under outdoor shelters. http://www.createtv.com/CreateProgram.nsf/vProgramsByNola/SESP?OpenDocument&Index= #102 "During a visit with the Tohono O'odham Tribe of Arizona, Loretta joins the tribe for their annual 3-day harvest of Saguaro Cactus fruit. She also joins Mildred Manuel to prepare Wild Spinach with Cholla Buds and Chiltepine Peppers, Tapary Beans with Ribs, Ash Bread (slow-cooked in the ashes of a mesquite fire), and for a sweet refreshing drink, Mesquite Juice." Wed Aug 12 12:56:57 -0700 2009 4940300 12139 paulj 3 4941566 I work in Tucson a few times a year had have a couple of days off during my trip. Last time I drove the Ruby Road from Tubac to Arivaca, and then up the Altar Valley past Baboquivari and wondered what kinda food is going on out there on the reservation. I would love to visit if I can make some kind of introduction in town fires...I'd love any more information on your experiences there, Rat... Wed Aug 12 17:59:16 -0700 2009 4940300 209317 SaltyRaisins 4 4941888 Paulj.... That experience with the chef cooking perfect bacon actually took place during the filming of that episode of "Seasoned with Spirit." It is an excellent introduction to the foods of the Tohono O'odham. There are four other excellent episodes that focus on the indigenous foods of other tribes as well. Salty.... Check out my recent post on Native American foods: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/643271 We have a new café serving traditional foods. Once thing I did not mention there is that the two-year-old Tohono O'odham Nation Cultural Center and Museum is an excellent introduction to the culture of the tribe. With the museum and cafe, it may be worth a day-trip! Wed Aug 12 20:00:51 -0700 2009 4941566 1100381 Tohono Rat 5 4944056 My daughter is in Colorado this week, chaperoning a bunch of middle schol kids at Crow Canyon Archeological Center. I wonder if they will be doing any indiginous cooking! Those are Puebla in that area? Thu Aug 13 12:50:11 -0700 2009 4941888 90359 PattiCakes