In The Kitchen 101

[Beverly]

I can't teach you all to sing, play an instrument or, give you perfect pitch though I'd like to. What I can do is tell you how to cook, can food at home, cure meats, make jerky, smoke foods and, just about anything else related to cooking and food preparation.

Anyone that can read can learn to cook so, what do you want to cook, can or make that is edible?

If you have allergies, need a special diet or, think there is an ingredient you can't tolerate in a dish, let me know when you ask so that I can give you alternatives that will work and, might be better for you.

 

[AsheSkyler]

Oo, you can smoke? How do you smoke meat in the wild using only natural stuff you can find? Sticks, twigs, rocks, and stuff? Or do you always need to have a special premade structure like a big smoke house? (Planning a really rugged camping trip someday, thinking about making some smoked fish to nibble on.) I've read some things like making a little hut of fresh pine branches/leaves to trap the smoke but I haven't had the opportunity to test it and I'm a bit skittish to.

 

[Beverly]

All you need to smoke meat is the meat you want smoked, a safe place to build a fire, hardwood to burn to make the smoke, longer poles to make a tripod (use long green timber about 1-2 inches in diameter for this.) and, some cord or rope to suspend the meat over the fire and dam leaves or grass and a source of water you can soak 6-8 3-4 inch diameter pieces of firewood in.

Set up the tripod and build a fire under it, you will need a good bed of hot coals, 3-4 inches deep. Soak the wood I suggested above while you use dry wood to build the bed of coals. Once you have that, hang the meat from the center of the tripod.Put 2 pieces of the soaked wood on the fire to get the smoke going. When those are almost burned up, add more wet wood. Near the end, when you are out of wet wood and the meat feels firmer, and cooked, cover the fire lightly, leaving some random small gaps, with the wet leaves or grass and lower the meat to rest on that. Turn it over ever hour or so for one hour per pound of meat. Enjoy your freshly smoked meat.

You can season the meat with whatever herbs, spices and salt you like or, leave it unseasoned. I like ground cumin, granulated garlic, sea salt and, black pepper dusted over meat I'm going to smoke or barbeque sauce on it after it's smoked.

This kind of tripod is what you want.

 

[AsheSkyler]

I like that method much better than a lot of the ones I was finding. They were all suggesting building tiny, closed-in smokehouses. That seemed kinda awkward.

 

[Beverly]

The only time you might need a tarp or hide to sort of wrap over the tripod like a teepee is if it's super windy, then you might need something to keep the smoke on the meat more.