This time of year is crazy for everyone. There are all of the family occasions, shopping, traveling, gift wrapping, cooking, and all of the extra work at our jobs, getting things wrapped up before the end of the year. It starts about Labor Day.
In my case, this is the busiest time of year in my writing career, with deadlines, promotions, new releases, works-in-progress and interviews with reporters. As if all that wasn't complication enough, I drowned my iPhone, I got a nasty cold and the weather turned wet right when I needed to do photos for the two final installments of Outdoor Cooking. I took these photos the Thursday before Christmas, about 5:00 in the afternoon as the temperature was dropping. It was 64 degrees. The next day barely got above freezing and featured snow, sleet and freezing rain.
But enough complaining.
For outdoor cooking, as well as camp cooking, there are some essentials, some nice-to-haves and some how-did-I-ever-do-withouts. Many of my cooking tools were gifts or things I stumbled across, others, I bought because I thought they would make tasks safer or easier.
Probably the most essential thing is a means of starting a fire. A flint and steel are good to have for camping, backpacking and hiking, in case you don't have dry matches or a lighter. I have a survival knife that has waterproof matches, a striker and some tinder inside the handle. The tinder is fibrous material that helps make fire from a spark. I've never had to use any emergency measures, but I've burned myself plenty of times using matches or a regular cigarette lighter. Now I make sure I have a couple of grill lighters in my cookout gear and I put them away as soon as I get the fire going, so they don't accidentally get left out in the weather. I've had several die and early death because of rain and sun.
I never use charcoal lighter fluid or ready-to-light charcoal. The petrochemicals are not good for my health and they leave a lingering unpleasant taste in the food. I rarely use charcoal, but in some camping areas, wood is not available, or if it is it's pine or other softwood with lots of resin that are bad for the flavor of open-flame cooking. If I can find it, I will use raw chunk charcoal in those cases and only resort to briquettes if I have to. Briquettes are pulverized charcoal, mixed with kerosene or other solvents and compressed into the familiar lumps available almost everywhere. When using charcoal, a good newspaper charcoal-lighter chimney is very good to have. I've gone through several over the years, but I finally bought a good heavy-duty one. It only cost about five dollars more than a cheap one.
Oven mitts are impractical when cooking outdoors. A good pair of leather gloves is worthwhile, both for handling logs and for preventing burns while moving hot grills and other objects. Unfortunately, leather gloves don't work as well as oven mitts for protection against contact with hot metal. I prefer using grilling gauntlets. The palms are padded for extra insulation and the longer cuffs protect my forearms from the intense heat of an open fire.
The rectangular basket is great for grilling burger patties. The four burger insert is removable for cleaning and to use the basket for other things like steaks and chicken.
Perforated grilling pans work well for smaller fish fillets and sliced vegetables.
A portable folding grill adds extra cooking area in our large fire ring and is handy over a campfire when we go fishing.
I have a variety of forks for grilling and other cookouts. The telescoping forks are good for camping and the long-handled forks are excellent for wiener roasts. Out here where we live, the trees are unsuitable for cutting sticks to roast marshmallows with and cutting tree limbs is prohibited at state parks.
Skewers, a basting brush, steel ladle, tongs, spatulas, boning knife and a rib rack all have uses around our cooking fires at times.
I re-purposed an old metal mop handle as a poker for the fire rings. It works so well, visitors often think it was made for the purpose. I use a wire brush for cleaning the fixed grills, but not the portable grills that come in contact with food. I've heard that the little wires can get caught in the grill and end up in the meat.
In my case, this is the busiest time of year in my writing career, with deadlines, promotions, new releases, works-in-progress and interviews with reporters. As if all that wasn't complication enough, I drowned my iPhone, I got a nasty cold and the weather turned wet right when I needed to do photos for the two final installments of Outdoor Cooking. I took these photos the Thursday before Christmas, about 5:00 in the afternoon as the temperature was dropping. It was 64 degrees. The next day barely got above freezing and featured snow, sleet and freezing rain.
But enough complaining.
For outdoor cooking, as well as camp cooking, there are some essentials, some nice-to-haves and some how-did-I-ever-do-withouts. Many of my cooking tools were gifts or things I stumbled across, others, I bought because I thought they would make tasks safer or easier.
Probably the most essential thing is a means of starting a fire. A flint and steel are good to have for camping, backpacking and hiking, in case you don't have dry matches or a lighter. I have a survival knife that has waterproof matches, a striker and some tinder inside the handle. The tinder is fibrous material that helps make fire from a spark. I've never had to use any emergency measures, but I've burned myself plenty of times using matches or a regular cigarette lighter. Now I make sure I have a couple of grill lighters in my cookout gear and I put them away as soon as I get the fire going, so they don't accidentally get left out in the weather. I've had several die and early death because of rain and sun.
I never use charcoal lighter fluid or ready-to-light charcoal. The petrochemicals are not good for my health and they leave a lingering unpleasant taste in the food. I rarely use charcoal, but in some camping areas, wood is not available, or if it is it's pine or other softwood with lots of resin that are bad for the flavor of open-flame cooking. If I can find it, I will use raw chunk charcoal in those cases and only resort to briquettes if I have to. Briquettes are pulverized charcoal, mixed with kerosene or other solvents and compressed into the familiar lumps available almost everywhere. When using charcoal, a good newspaper charcoal-lighter chimney is very good to have. I've gone through several over the years, but I finally bought a good heavy-duty one. It only cost about five dollars more than a cheap one.
Oven mitts are impractical when cooking outdoors. A good pair of leather gloves is worthwhile, both for handling logs and for preventing burns while moving hot grills and other objects. Unfortunately, leather gloves don't work as well as oven mitts for protection against contact with hot metal. I prefer using grilling gauntlets. The palms are padded for extra insulation and the longer cuffs protect my forearms from the intense heat of an open fire.
Fixed grills are fine, but they have drawbacks. I use grills over my fire rings and in my smokers to support my portable grill baskets, pans and forks. Grill baskets have several advantages: I can load them away from the fire; they are easy to turn and to carry the food to a tray or the table; they support and contain foods like fish and turkey-burgers that otherwise crumble easily (I used to lose several pieces of burger or chicken through the grill before I started using baskets); and I can wash them at the kitchen sink before putting them away.
The rectangular basket is great for grilling burger patties. The four burger insert is removable for cleaning and to use the basket for other things like steaks and chicken.
The fish-shaped basket works well for grilling a whole fish or large fillet. Fish crumbles and falls apart when turning it on a regular grill.
Perforated grilling pans work well for smaller fish fillets and sliced vegetables.
A portable folding grill adds extra cooking area in our large fire ring and is handy over a campfire when we go fishing.
I have a variety of forks for grilling and other cookouts. The telescoping forks are good for camping and the long-handled forks are excellent for wiener roasts. Out here where we live, the trees are unsuitable for cutting sticks to roast marshmallows with and cutting tree limbs is prohibited at state parks.
Skewers, a basting brush, steel ladle, tongs, spatulas, boning knife and a rib rack all have uses around our cooking fires at times.
Most of our cooking and smoking is done with oak and hickory we cut in our own woods. We even hauled about a half cord of wood for a camping trip at the lake once. For the electric smoker, I occasionally buy wood chips, which are cheap, and a bag lasts us for years.
I re-purposed an old metal mop handle as a poker for the fire rings. It works so well, visitors often think it was made for the purpose. I use a wire brush for cleaning the fixed grills, but not the portable grills that come in contact with food. I've heard that the little wires can get caught in the grill and end up in the meat.
Other handy tools, from the top, a lid and grill lifter, fireplace tongs for moving burning logs and a portable tripod for hanging kettles over the fire.
Kitchen mallets are handy for tenderizing meat and flattening butterflied chicken breasts.
It's important to cook chicken, pork and ground meats all the way through. Cooking over open flame is tricky as far as achieving a good internal temperature, especially on thick cuts and, after dark, a flashlight isn't the best way to visually inspect meat for proper cooking. I used to just overcook everything until I got my digital meat thermometer. Now I can be sure of cooking to a safe temperature without drying out the meat.
I prefer not to use disposable plates and cups, but when cooking and eating outdoors, I don't want to use breakable glassware and dishes. A set of good-old chuck-wagon style enameled steel plates and cups lasts practically forever.
When the meat is ready, I like having some homemade sauces and an old-fashioned bunkhouse dinner bell.
A swivel grill is something I've wanted for a long time, but it just wasn't in the cards. I didn't even know you could buy such a thing. The ones I've seen were all custom built and cost hundreds of dollars in materials and labor. My daughter Kelly Rene, her husband Andrew and my grandkids Grace, Joshua and Pearl got us this one for Christmas. The construction is heavy-duty, with good sturdy materials and the best part is it's portability, so it can go camping with us. Now I have one more grill in my outdoor kitchen. It's already shaping up to be a great Christmas. Happy Holidays to you and yours.
Merry Christmas!
Stephen
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