# Cooking and recipes...



## Robie (Jun 2, 2016)

All this talk about survival and food got me thinking....

I have a Civil War cookbook. It's full of recipes that could be made over a campfire in a survival situation.

If you can get a hold of some of your grandmother's or other older relative's cookbooks...they have great recipes where modern refrigeration and state of the art ovens weren't available.

My father was a Mess Sargent during WWII. I had his cookbook (I gave it to my sister) and it also had all sorts of recipes for when conditions weren't ideal. 

Some of the ovens utilized wood for fuel. They used the "fist" method to gauge temperature. If you could hold your fist in the center of the oven for a count of 3,4,5 etc...it would give you an idea how hot the oven was.

Great stuff.


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

Excellent advice!


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## rstanek (Nov 9, 2012)

The fist method, I never heard of that.


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## Sonya (Oct 20, 2016)

Robbie have you seen the Household Discoveries book? If not check it out, it is from about 1910 and is a handbook on everything you would need to know about running a household in that era. It is actually an anthology, people would send in their methods and instructions on how to make or do various things and the best would all be compiled into one book.

They have a good section on preparing and preserving meat and other foods without refrigeration. Whole book available here, this is the food preservation section. Goes into detail on how to salt meat, make and store sausage, etc...

https://archive.org/stream/householddiscove00mors#page/690/mode/2up


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## Sonya (Oct 20, 2016)

Another good resource is the 18th Century Cooking youtube channel. The host researches cooking and food storage methods from that time period and does fun tutorial videos.

He also explains how food was viewed back then. Everything was seasonal, dishes typically focused on whatever was in season at that time, and there would be several recipes for variation. For instance pork and beef were typically processed in the fall and were fall/winter foods due to colder temps for easier preservation. Chicken, fish and smaller game were the main meat sources during the spring and summer when temperatures made preservation more difficult.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Steak/venison on a stick.

Partridge on a stick.

Turkey on a stick.

Rabbit on a stick.

Trout/fish on a stick.

Use good wood, especially if you don't have spices (fruit, wild cherry, hickory, maple). Wild leeks are good.

Use good wood for the stick.

Takes a while to select proper sticks, that won't burn through, and allows you to turn what's cooking. Forks and branch nubs are handy.


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## Targetshooter (Dec 4, 2015)

Mad Trapper said:


> Steak/venison on a stick.
> 
> Partridge on a stick.
> 
> ...


If you put your sticks in water for a few hours before using , they will not burn up as fast . We use hickory , pecan wood " sticks " all the time .


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## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

if you haven't copied at least a few of the turn of the century cookbooks from the Survival Library - you're missing "that one prep" that could make life eazier for your family ....

Library-Cookbooks | Survivor Library

while your downloading PDFs check out the other food oriented available ....

Library-Cheese and Butter Making | Survivor Library
Library-Baking | Survivor Library
Library-Canning | Survivor Library
Library-Food | Survivor Library


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## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

^^^^^ Well done Illini.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

I learned so much from my Grandmother as a little boy in a farm kitchen. The farm was all off-grid until after WWII. It still had the Glenwood stove, gravity spring-fed water. That was processing wild and grown fruits/vegetables, wild and grown meats, and how to store them without electric. 

It was amazing what is thrown away now that was saved back then. Homegrown soups and stews used meat/fish scrapes and poultry carcasses.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

rstanek said:


> The fist method, I never heard of that.


Me neither. Now in bbq cooking the palm method is often used. Put palm on the cooking chamber and sart counting by Mississsippis. If a person can hold it on there through 3 missses thats around 250 which is about right for most meat like butts and briskets. When it aint possible to get past one..its time to cook chicken or grill steaks. It dips to 4 its time to add fuel.


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## Sonya (Oct 20, 2016)

Robie said:


> Some of the ovens utilized wood for fuel. They used the "fist" method to gauge temperature. If you could hold your fist in the center of the oven for a count of 3,4,5 etc...it would give you an idea how hot the oven was.


I really like the idea of an earthen or masonry outdoor oven. The ones built with thick walls hold heat and allow baking for several hours, or even days, and if folks were worried about cooking covertly they could probably be fired up at night to hide the smoke, then used the next day. The fire and coals are removed before baking.

Heck if folks did loaves and bread in a jar they could do a week or two's worth of bread at one time, then slow cook meat, beans or whatever as the heat slowly dissipates.

Here is the 18th century model made of clay/sand/straw being used. He also has a video on how to build it. He shows how to build the fire, then how to test to make sure it is fully heated, but not too hot.


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