Cooking Outdoors

Posted on April 3, 2009, 8:07 pm, by Outdoor Kids Fun, under Camping & Outdoor, For Girls Outdoor.

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Having provided bed and shelter, it is high time to look after the inner person ; and while the foragers are off in search of provisions, it will be the cook’s duty to provide some method of cooking the food that will be brought in.
One of the simplest and most practical forms of bake-oven can be made of clay and an old barrel or wooden box. Remove one head of the barrel, scoop out a space in the nearest bank, and fit the barrel in (Fig. 111). If the mud or clay is not damp enough moisten it and plaster it over the barrel to the depth of a foot or more, leaving a place for a chimney at the back end, where part of a stave has been cut away ; around this place build a chimney of sticks arranged log-cabin fashion and plastered with mud (Fig. 112).

After this, make a good, rousing fire in the barrel, and keep adding fuel until all the staves are burned out and the surrounding clay is baked hard. This makes an oven that will bake as well, if not better, than any new patented stove or range at home. To use it, build a fire inside and let it burn until the oven is thoroughly heated, then rake out all the coal and embers, put your dinner in and close up the front with the head of the barrel(or box) preserved for this purpose. The clay will remain hot for several hours and keep the inside of the oven hot enough to roast meat or bake bread.

If there be no bank convenient, or if you have no barrel with which to build this style of oven, there are other methods that will answer for all the cooking necessary to a party of boys camping out. Build a fire-place of flat stones, a picture of which you have in Fig.113, cover it with a thin piece of slate, clean the fish or meat and place it upon the slate. When it is brown upon one side turn it over until it is thoroughly cooked.