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Let's take this situation: lost in the woods with your bud. Lucky for you, he knew how to catch a rabbit, skin and clean it. It is ready for cooking, and the fire is going. Unlucky for you, he tripped and fell off the cliff. He's dead. How will you know it is ready to eat?
Ok, Q and X.
Q: start cooking rabbit, and when it appears cooked, cut off a small piece.
X: look at the piece of rabbit you just cut off. If it’s done, eat it. If not, cook longer.
Didn't you used to cook huge quantities of brisket on camping trips?
Yes we do.......but it has been cooked the week before and is taken to the campsite in coolers. It is warmed up over the campfire but as said, it was prepared in the oven, days before, tested for readiness with an analog thermometer stuck into it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NORTY FLATZ
It's a sad state of affairs when some people are stymied due to not having a thermometer in their kitchen.
What's next? A/C on the fritz in the BMW?
It is a sad state of affairs when on a self sufficiency forum one asks a question of preparedness and instead of answers, many tease and abuse. "Humor" may be the new interchange.....but when it comes down to it, it doesn't fill the bellies.
I have a cookbook that is so old it is for wood stoves. The directions say things like bake in a medium oven or a hot oven. How could the cooks tell? Practice and experience is my guess.
I have a cookbook that is so old it is for wood stoves. The directions say things like bake in a medium oven or a hot oven. How could the cooks tell? Practice and experience is my guess.
Pretty much. I've seen recipes from the 'olden days' and the instructions are often pretty vague without precise measurements. Trial and error.
There's a neat channel of "Cooking 200 Years Ago" on Youtube where a woman prepares and cooks recipes that were published in the early 1800s, in a log cabin over fire with zero modern amenities. Here's one for a dinner of roasted chicken. They don't show the slaughter and plucking of the chicken, probably for time constraints and ew factor. She posts the original recipes at the end, and this one said "An hour is enough for common sized chickens to roast. A smart fire is better than a slow one, but they must be tended closely."
I have a cookbook that is so old it is for wood stoves. The directions say things like bake in a medium oven or a hot oven. How could the cooks tell? Practice and experience is my guess.
Our kitchen at home has a commercial gas range with 6 burners. Though a few years ago, my Dw wanted a wood-fired cookstove. I got her a Kitchen Queen wood stove. Now it has become her primary stove for our meals.
Hell I have a Dutch oven cookbook that illustrates what approximate temperature the coals are by how long you can hold your hand 6” from the coals. Chicken in a Dutch for an hour at 350deg- “Come and git it inya!!!”
My outdoor cooking masterpiece was cooking meatloaf in a dutch oven for 12 teenage scouts and a few parents. 10 lbs of meat, several cans of Rotel spicy crushed tomatoes and peppers, some oatmeal, eggs- all kinds of stuff in it. I have a super deep cast Dutch and it barely fit.
Cold, snow and rain and wind- even in a closed Dutch in a steel ring it took two large bags of Kingsford to cook it. The wind was whipping and reducing the temps. How did I know when it was done? When all the liquid it was sitting in finally boiled off and I got a little char on the bottom. And a knife inserted came out clean. I dumped the massive mound of meat on a clean plastic lid, shove a giant serving spoon in it and they tore that thing up in 10 minutes, lol.
I have never owned a meat thermometer. I based my cook time on a set temperature & number of minutes/hours per pound of meat. This info is on the internet & before then in cookbooks, owners manuals, magazine articles. I also asked friends, co-workers, neighbors, my sister. I cooked big turkeys in the Weber kettle for years like this, & after enough experience, you just "know" by look & feel. I can do this in a dutch oven over a campfire, too, with venison, etc. & fish in a pan. It's not hard. You're a cowgirl. right? Build a fire & start experimenting.
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