# Alternative cooking.



## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Does anyone here like cooking with either a rocket stove or a sun oven, or even cooking over a firepit? If so, I'd like to hear about what all you like to do. I have a rocket stove and a sun oven and I think I ought to start using one or the other like about once a week just to get some practise in. If there's any interest, lemme know and I'll share a little about what's cookin'.


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## RJAMES (Dec 23, 2016)

I cook out in summer so I use dutch ovens, charcoal grill, gas grill wood fired oven and grill and gas turkey cooker. I do not like having extra heat in the house . I have a sun oven I built but rarely use It takes a little longer and I rarely think I have time to do it. I do like cooking out over a fire pit when I have a group of folks over.


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## rstanek (Nov 9, 2012)

When camping, the majority of our cooking and baking is over a open fire with a homemade campfire grill and baking in Dutch ovens.


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/ceviche/

Good recipe for sea food with citrus fruit juices. This will not be practical everywhere.


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## yooper_sjd (May 14, 2017)

well, I got a 6 foot tall, 3'x3' smoke shack that I can cold and hot smoke in. Temps as low as 100 deg, and as high as 350 deg. I have a home made BBQ pit with a seperate fire box on it for heating like an oven or smoking food. Last thanxgiving I smoked a 16 lb bird for 5 hrs. Kept the temp tween 325 and 375, turned out pretty damned good, and it was stuffed as well. Other than than that, yes I cook outside alot. Even got an old fashion drip coffee pot that you pour the hot water into, as well as a camping percolator type. Got all sorts of cast iron cooking pots, dutch oven, skillets, and a griddle. All I need now is a steam kettle out of cast Iron. Seen my neighbor got one as a yard decoration, need to sweat talk them out of it.


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## White Shadow (Jun 26, 2017)

Certainly different than my wife's version of "alternative cooking". She waits until I go cook.


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## soyer38301 (Jul 27, 2017)

I want to try a rocket stove for cooking. I'm going to build a rocket mass heater in the dome when I get it done (after inspections of course) 

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk


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## yooper_sjd (May 14, 2017)

White Shadow said:


> Certainly different than my wife's version of "alternative cooking". She waits until I go cook.


Well, I am cooking tonight on the grill. Getting hot here in west texas already in the mid 90's. So wife prepps the food, I do the flipping. Menu: Red potatoes, butter and dill weed wrapped in foil. Couple of steaks marinading in red cider vinegar/olive oil/italian spices. Keeping temp about 350-375. Potatoes just went on grill, in half an hr the steaks will be on the grill. Tatters and steaks come off at same time..... Crap already drooling. Oh cooking with Mesquite wood also for a smoked flavor to boot.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Camel923 said:


> https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/ceviche/
> 
> Good recipe for sea food with citrus fruit juices. This will not be practical everywhere.


Yes, awesome. I think we did something like this once at Christmastime with salmon. I saw Julia Child did it and wanted to give it a try. Thanks for reminding me. It's very healthy!


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

White Shadow said:


> Certainly different than my wife's version of "alternative cooking". She waits until I go cook.


Lucky woman!


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

yooper_sjd said:


> Well, I am cooking tonight on the grill. Getting hot here in west texas already in the mid 90's. So wife prepps the food, I do the flipping. Menu: Red potatoes, butter and dill weed wrapped in foil. Couple of steaks marinading in red cider vinegar/olive oil/italian spices. Keeping temp about 350-375. Potatoes just went on grill, in half an hr the steaks will be on the grill. Tatters and steaks come off at same time..... Crap already drooling. Oh cooking with Mesquite wood also for a smoked flavor to boot.


Mmm, mmmh!


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## Ragnarök (Aug 4, 2014)

I got a rocket stove for backpacking. What I do is get rocks and build a wind break circle around the rocket stove. I put my cooking pot on top of the rocket stove and heat up water to put in my freeze dried food pack. It is light and it does the job.

I like wood fires and tin foil personally. I always pack tin foil to cook on camping.


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## JustAnotherNut (Feb 27, 2017)

Around here we have both propane & charcoal BBQ's, open fire pit and in the winter I've cooked a few things on the woodstove. When we've been camping, there's usually the propane camp stove, but I prefer on the open fire pit. 
Last year I stumbled on the 'Swedish Log'. Hubs & #2 used it to cook food when they went hunting. Basically it's one log cut a few times, almost but not quite all the way down....so it will stand. Stuff in some paper & firestarter and light it. It's also great for a longer burning fire for heat as well.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?...5&selectedIndex=0&qpvt=swedish+log&ajaxhist=0


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## preppermyA (Aug 19, 2017)

White Shadow said:


> Certainly different than my wife's version of "alternative cooking". She waits until I go cook.


With mine, its "Where are you taking me for dinner?"


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## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

yooper_sjd said:


> well,* I got a 6 foot tall, 3'x3' smoke shack that I can cold and hot smoke in. Temps as low as 100 deg,* and as high as 350 deg. I have a home made BBQ pit with a seperate fire box on it for heating like an oven or smoking food. Last thanxgiving I smoked a 16 lb bird for 5 hrs. Kept the temp tween 325 and 375, turned out pretty damned good, and it was stuffed as well. Other than than that, yes I cook outside alot. Even got an old fashion drip coffee pot that you pour the hot water into, as well as a camping percolator type. Got all sorts of cast iron cooking pots, dutch oven, skillets, and a griddle. All I need now is a steam kettle out of cast Iron. Seen my neighbor got one as a yard decoration, need to sweat talk them out of it.


Get the temp down buy using a A-maze-n smoke tube and then you can smoke cheese. 100 is to high for cold smoking cheese as it must be kept below 80 degrees.









https://www.homedepot.com/p/A-MAZE-...BEgK3-vD_BwE&dclid=CO-rscKA-9oCFRYbAQodXUoN5w


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## yooper_sjd (May 14, 2017)

hawgrider said:


> Get the temp down buy using a A-maze-n smoke tube and then you can smoke cheese. 100 is to high for cold smoking cheese as it must be kept below 80 degrees.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I can cold smoke below 100 as well, just not during the summer. I have seen my thermometer I mounted on/through the wooden door hit 120 deg when not in use during the summer time. Now winter time, I can get it stay around 75/80 deg depending on if the day cloudy or not. Guess I should post a pic of my smoke house with the two different fire boxes I got on it.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

JustAnotherNut said:


> Around here we have both propane & charcoal BBQ's, open fire pit and in the winter I've cooked a few things on the woodstove. When we've been camping, there's usually the propane camp stove, but I prefer on the open fire pit.
> Last year I stumbled on the 'Swedish Log'. Hubs & #2 used it to cook food when they went hunting. Basically it's one log cut a few times, almost but not quite all the way down....so it will stand. Stuff in some paper & firestarter and light it. It's also great for a longer burning fire for heat as well.
> 
> https://www.bing.com/images/search?...5&selectedIndex=0&qpvt=swedish+log&ajaxhist=0


Oh wow, that's super cool!


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## hawgrider (Oct 24, 2014)

Annie said:


> Oh wow, that's super cool!


Until you need to clean all the soot off the bottom of that pan. If you use the coals from the open fire instead of the flame you wont have the thick soot problem and you can control the heat much better. Oh yes Ive done plenty of cooking over open fires. Thick soot sucks to clean up I've been there done that.


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## Malcom Renolds (Jul 14, 2017)

> Campfire Cleanup When it is time to leave the area, be a responsible wilderness survivor who values the land you need for survival. Fill in the Dakota fire hole with the dirt you removed and saved when you were constructing it. Then replace the cap of vegetation. Doing so serves the double purpose of extinguishing the fire and leaving as little trace of your visit as possible. In summary, the main advantages of using a Dakota Fire Hole include:
> burns hotter with less fuel
> producing less smoke
> less light visible to reveal your position
> ...


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Malcom Renolds said:


> View attachment 76681


Wow, why doesn't the dirt in the middle (above the air flow) come crashing down?


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## Real Old Man (Aug 17, 2015)

We have a couple of these when we don't want to smell up the house and cook on the back deck.

https://www.google.com/search?q=kor...IKA&biw=1517&bih=707#spd=13149714180423150570


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## Malcom Renolds (Jul 14, 2017)

Annie said:


> Wow, why doesn't the dirt in the middle (above the air flow) come crashing down?


because it is attached at the sides...

If you notice in the photo the area near the shovel is still attached to the ground...
The illustration of the side view is unable to show the part of the earth that the little square is still attached to because it is a side view.

I am not explaining this well.

It probably would come crashing down in very wet soil or sandy soil.


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## cdell (Feb 27, 2014)

yooper_sjd said:


> I can cold smoke below 100 as well, just not during the summer. I have seen my thermometer I mounted on/through the wooden door hit 120 deg when not in use during the summer time. Now winter time, I can get it stay around 75/80 deg depending on if the day cloudy or not. Guess I should post a pic of my smoke house with the two different fire boxes I got on it.


Please share some pics, I've been playing with the idea of building a smoker.


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## yooper_sjd (May 14, 2017)

Annie said:


> Wow, why doesn't the dirt in the middle (above the air flow) come crashing down?


all soil is not the same. You can achieve the same effect in sand by digging a shallow slit trench. And make a small chimney and tunnel by stacking stone in about the same depiction. so you then got a improvised dakota fire pit/rocket stove.


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## JustAnotherNut (Feb 27, 2017)

hawgrider said:


> Until you need to clean all the soot off the bottom of that pan. If you use the coals from the open fire instead of the flame you wont have the thick soot problem and you can control the heat much better. Oh yes Ive done plenty of cooking over open fires. Thick soot sucks to clean up I've been there done that.


That is true, and why I have a few pots & pans just for camping/outdoor cooking. Even better, that I am in the process of converting all my pans to cast iron and as long as the soot stays on the outside, I don't mind.

The log wasn't meant for using often, but would work in a pinch, especially if you only have 1 piece of wood to work with.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

This girl covers some nice options.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

There are many versions of the fire hole. You find some in Army manuals also.As mentioned using the coals works well.


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