an excerpt from the Hunting and Gathering Survival Manual
By Tim MacWelch
Who wouldn’t want to fry bacon in the outdoors? This cooking method normally requires a griddle or extra-large frying pan as a cooking surface. But the griddle can also be a flat stone that will work for frying. This stone should be able to handle high heat, and not be too gritty or rough, as the food will stick to it.
Eggs, meat, vegetables, pancakes and fry bread are just some of the foods that a stone griddle can cook wonderfully. The griddle can be propped up on a stand of rocks, or it can straddle a trench in the dirt with the fire underneath. Maintain a coal bed under your griddle, and feed it plenty of twigs and sticks. Also keep these pointers in mind.
- You will need to maintain flames for frying.
- If using a rock, a slight depression in the stone’s surface will hold oil for better frying.
- Test unfamiliar rocks by placing them in a large fire and moving far away. If they pop or crumble, then that type of rock is not a good candidate for a griddle. Never get rocks from a wet location, as they can explode when heated.
- When you are finished cooking, let the griddle cool slowly on its own. Don’t try to wash it until it is cold, especially if it’s a stone griddle.
These tips, and many more survival skills, are available in MacWelch’s books:
Prepare For Anything
Hunting and Gathering Survival Manual
And if that’s not enough, you can:
Follow Tim on Twitter @timmacwelch
Take one of his survival classes at www.advancedsurvivaltraining.com
and check out more of MacWelch’s outdoor skills and survival articles at Outdoor Life Magazine’s survival site, The Survivalist
Tim MacWelch
Hone your basic outdoor and survival skills with help from qualified and experienced survival pro, Tim MacWelch. Each week Tim hands out priceless information on everything from essential gear to wound care, primitive hunting and fishing traps to cooking over hot stones and much more. Don’t rely on basic human instinct to save you in a precarious situation, plan and prepare with help from the survival pro who knows.
For more on Tim or to find out about his survival classes visit www.AdvancedSurvivalTraining.com. Tim is also Outdoor Life's Survival Blogger and you can check that out at www.OutdoorLife.com/survival and he now teaches online survival classes at www.OutdoorLifeU.com.