Cooking over an open fire part Two (repost)

[Mother]

BAKING:

 

When baking over an open fire, it is wise to remember that the more evenly the heat is distributed over, under and around the baking pan the more evenly the food will bake.

 

You can make an oven out of the ground itself if the soil is not too hard to dig. There are two ways to do this. You can dig a hole several inches larger and several inches deeper than the pan you intend to bake in. Build a fire in this hole and keep adding wood as the fire burns down to build up a bed of coals and to heat the ground surrounding the oven (hole). When the hole is full of coals you scoop out enough coals in the center of the hole to set in your covered pot, reserving the hot coals to put on top of the lid. Cover the whole thing with a thick layer of the remaining coals and then put ashes or dirt on top of it all and you have a very effective oven or slow cooker, which does not require a lot of watching. Unless the food is very delicate or the coals exceptionally hot it should not burn but should rather slow cook.

 

If baking on an already established fire you can dig down into the soil several inches from the edge of the fire pit or scrape the coals aside and dig there. If the fire has been burning a considerable time, the ground there should already be hot. Place some coals in the bottom of this hole and put in your covered pot. Take some coals from the fire and place them around and over the whole thing and again cover with dirt or ashes. The ground will be hotter near the fire and you may have to turn your pot occasionally to keep this from burning on the side towards the fire. With any kind of baking you will want to have a good fire going continuously in the main fire pit so that you can replenish hot coals if that is necessary. Try to use just hot coals, no burning wood as the coals have a more even heat.

 

If the ground is too hard for digging, or you are baking within a fireplace, you can bake on top of the ground. Do not try to bake in the fire itself as the coals are much too hot for more than just the quick baking of short term foods like biscuit or cookies and they need to be watched very carefully. Instead, take several shovels full of hot coals from the fire and place them on the ground near the fire pit, or to the edge of the fire in the fireplace. Place several dry stones or a trivet, if you have one, on top of them to support the pot above the coals. Place your covered pot on top of them. Pile hot coals from the fire around the sides and over the top of the pot where possible. Turn the pot occasionally if needed because of hot spots and replace the coals as needed.

 

When baking deserts or breads, it is best if you raise them off the bottom of the pan in some way to ensure that the bottom won’t get done before the rest. You can use small rocks or a small flat brick to set a cake, pie or bread pan on inside the pan. A layer of corn meal works also and you can either set the pan on top of it or in the case of bread or biscuits, right on the cornmeal itself. The cornmeal will scorch sometimes on the bottom but the baked good will not. Remember that where you put your hottest coals will be where the hottest baking occurs.

 

FRYING:

 

There are a couple of ways to fry foods on the open fire. If the food has enough fat to keep it from burning it can be fried in the pan directly over the fire itself on a grate. The pan can be moved to the position over the fire that keeps the food frying evenly without burning. Usually the outer edges of the fire are the coolest and the middle the hottest. When you have no grate or when you are frying delicate foods like eggs or pancakes you can place your pan on hot coals placed beside the fire or brush back the fire on the edge of the fire pit and fry on the coals there, replacing the coals as needed. This is where the keyhole fireplace works well.

 

Be especially careful of the hot grease near the fire as it only takes a spark to set off the grease under the foods and the whole thing will be in flames. Keep a lid nearby to cover the pan immediately and the fire will die out. If you spill grease in the fire it will flare very fast. Always be prepared to back away from the fire. It will eventually burn itself out or you can use sand, dirt or ashes to put it out or keep baking soda or salt on hand near the fire just for that purpose.

 

GRILLING:

 

Grilling on an open fire will be very much like grilling on a conventional barb-b-que grill if you allow the fire to burn down to red-hot coals before putting the meat on it. You can either lay the meat directly on a grate or you can put it on a long fork or in various hand-held grills made just for the purpose and hold it over the coals. It is helpful to have a cup or spray bottle full of water, or even beer or soda, which imparts a different taste to the meat, near the fire when grilling. If the fire flares up and the meat is in danger of scorching you only have to sprinkle or spray a little water over that spot to tame the flame.

 

ROASTING:

 

This type of cooking is usually done on a spit of some sorts. The meat or food is attached to the spit by one means or another and the whole thing is suspended over or beside the fire and turned often to keep the meat roasting evenly. One old fashioned way was to truss the meat with string and hang it to the side of the fire with a pan below to catch the drippings to use later, turning it from time to time to roast evenly. This could be done from the mantle or from a tree limb overhanging the fire if outside.

 

There are cast iron or steel spits or tripods available to hang pans or meat from. The ones for the fireplace can be free standing or can be permanent inside the opening. Others push into the ground on either side of an outside fire. The meat is tied securely to the cross bar and the crossbar is placed over the fire on the uprights. Most of these uprights have several levels to place the crosspiece so that the meat can be kept at the proper distance to roast evenly. The cross pieces come with some sort of handle to turn them with and some means for holding the cross bar at a certain spot until turned again. If the meat itself is not secured, the spit can spin uselessly inside the meat after it cooks for a bit so most spits come with some means to stop that, usually a set of skewers that hold it secure on both ends.

 

There are even ovens available for roasting or baking near an open fire. One kind is a small three-sided metal box. The open side is placed towards the fire, the meat placed inside either on a spit with a flat pan below to catch the drippings or in a pan on a shelf. The inside is shiny and reflects the heat from the fire and the meat cooks in that heat. This also works well for baked good of all kinds if the fire is kept evenly hot.

 

Authentic roasting:

 

Perhaps the most authentic way to cook meat, the way our ancestors did, would be to place it on a fresh green wooden spit placed between two forked green wooden poles pounded into the ground on either side of the fire. If you can find two greenwood uprights that are branched in several places along the edge, so much the better. You can use them to vary the height of the roasting meat, either closer to or farther away from the fire as the heat fluctuates. Place the uprights into the ground opposite each other across the fire so that the "Y" branches parallel each other. Be sure to tie the meat securely to the spit pole. As the meat cooks it will pull away from the pole unless fastened in some way as to prevent this happening. Good strong cotton cord seems to work best. Nylon or polyester cord will melt and sometimes give a strange taste to the meat. Turning the uprights so the “Y” branches are at opposite directions from each other will help to keep the spit from falling off the uprights as can happen easily when turning the spit. If using an upright with the "Y" branch all facing one side, always turn the spit into the upright not away from it. Place your spit pole across the uprights and turn the spit often to keep the meat cooking evenly. This is the most drying way to cook. Searing the outside of the meat first before putting it on the spit will help. The meat could also be basted frequently to help keep it moist. Butter, juice, juice and honey, catsup or Barb-B-Q or other sauces are good for basting.

 

 

[Mother]

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[Mother]

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[Darlene]

Oh wow, thank you so much for reposting this.

 

((((mother))))