Primitive cooking

[Ifrit617]

Hey guys,

Recently had a fancy to make a primitive mess kit. I plan on carving out a wooden bowl and spoon, getting some flint flakes for food prep, and making some type of container for boiling water. Besides clay, does anyone know what native people used to boil water in, or did they cook with water at all? Thinking of using it to make rice and soups, possibly oatmeal, and other various trail foods.

Any ideas? I might just end up making it into an early contact, say 1600's kit, and include a tin pot. Just want to see what ideas you guys have.

Jon

[YosemiteBen]

california NDNs cooked in baskets and soapstone bowls and "griddles" made of SS as well. Plains NDNs used buffalo stomachs.

[Buckeye Guy]

Boy scouts boil water in a paper cup so I am sure you can think of something !
Have fun !
Guy

[PrimitiveTim]

I read somewhere that the natives would boil water in skins by taking hot rocks out of the fire and putting them in the skin and keep rotating hot rocks in for cooled rocks until the water in the skin boiled.  Sounds like a pain in the butt to me.  It seems like clay would break in a fire or it would take forever to boil.... of course I can't see this rock method as being overly quick.

[darwin]

i have made a couple hand carved spoons and bowls what you need is a hook Knife you can make one if you have any metal work skill or you can buy one i dont recommend the one from mora of Sweden  though as i have one and it doesnt seem to be of very good quality.

I have also heard of using the stomach for boiling water but never tried that

[JW_Halverson]

I've cooked steaks right on top of the coals of my fire.  Takes about 90 seconds per side for a 10 oz antelope steak about an inch and a half thick.  Came out medium rare, just the way I like 'em.  Let it rest for a couple minutes while you are fishing out the sweet potato that you buried in the coals about half an hour earlier. 

That's about as primitive as you can get!

[bow101]

Ya what is it about cooking on a fire versus a gas fired grill.? Must be the smoke and tons of fresh air. My meat always tastes better on the open fire.
A good way to smoke is use leaves from certain trees and toss them into the coals.

[RBLusthaus]

In the NE, birchbark containers were used to hold water and the "dropping in hot rocks" theory mentioned above to boil water is not only accurate, it works a lot better and faster than one would think.

As to food tasting better when cooked on an open fire, I always thought that food tasted better when you had to physically work harder to get it, so, it is not the fact that it was cooked in the open, but the fact that you labored harder to cook it in the open than you would have if you cooked it in your kitchen.     

Russ 

[bow101]

In the NE, birchbark containers were used to hold water and the "dropping in hot rocks" theory mentioned above to boil water is not only accurate, it works a lot better and faster than one would think.

As to food tasting better when cooked on an open fire, I always thought that food tasted better when you had to physically work harder to get it, so, it is not the fact that it was cooked in the open, but the fact that you labored harder to cook it in the open than you would have if you cooked it in your kitchen.     

Russ

We can relate to the Primitve method here, No Pun, thats what this is about.  I quoted "My meat always tastes better on the open fire." meaning all meat like Pork chops and Ribs from the Grocery store as well.

[PrimitiveTim]

Whenever I cook on an open fire it's because I'm out in the wood so by the time my meal is done cooking I'm starving and would probably eat anything.  Makes eating fish a little dangerous with all those little bones in there.

[bow101]

 :laugh Years ago I had a Trout bone stuck in my throat for 2 days, finally got'er down by eating lots of bread..

[mwosborn]

Seen water boiled in a stomach - made a "stew" in the stomach and got it boiling by adding hot rocks heated in a fire.  Had some presenters show several "native" activities at one of our outdoor workshops for middle school kids several years ago.