Outdoor Cooking

[Pete Grey]

When was the last time you prepared a meal outdoors?

I am not talking about on the grill or BBQ, I am talking about going outside, gathering a few twigs, building a fire and preparing an entire meal over what was once called a "campfire".

No, heating baked beans is not meal prep!

I was discussing various methods on another forum that does not normally touch on survival topics and the need to cook outdoors after a weather disaster came up. In that company I discovered that most did not know how to lay a fire, much less cook on one. Some did not even know you could cook over a fire! Some others thought it was illegal!

For millions of years man cooked over open flames, right up to the mid 1800s 100% of the cooking was done on the hearth. Now one can be born, grow up, live and die and never lay sticks on the ground and set them alight.

I did fortunately learn the basics in Scouts sixty odd years ago and I’m ashamed to say I’ve not cooked on a campfire since.

As preppers we carry wind proof matches, lighters, a fire steel, cotton wool and vaseline tinder in BOB’s and GHB’s but do not practice.

I know how to lay a star fire, a fire between two parallel logs or dig a fire pit, and hang a billy from a tripod or cook in the embers, and its been a long time since I skinned a rabbit or even plucked and dressed a chicken.