Quick and easy

[Bird]

Sometimes you get get something pretty good quite by accident. Many years ago, when I was single, one night I found that I had about a half pound of left over uncooked ground beef and some left over pinto beans in the refrigerator, so I mixed a little salt & pepper with the ground beef (hamburger meat), spread it in the bottom of a little loaf pan, dumped the left over pinto beans on top of it, laid a couple of slices of cheese on top of that, and stuck it in the oven. I was actually surprised at how tasty it turned out to be.

[Pat]

Egon, Even in heating a can of beans there is technique. I recall passing by a group of Boy Scouts camped by a creek. They were going to have a big can of pork 'n' beans to supplement the fish they had caught (back in the days when Boy Scouts were allowed to kill an animal for food) Later when coming back I noticed the camp was in turmoil and pretty messed up (luckily no one was hurt) because they had heated the beans in the can, WITHOUT OPENING IT!!

If only they had opened the can but not removed the lid entirely they could have wrapped the lid around a stick and put the can near but not in) the fire.

Pat

[Bird]

Pat, that sounds as if some Boy Scouts had no leader. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] Prior to my teenage years, I once read that the Indians used to cook fish by packing them in clay, and then put it directly in the fire. So I tried it once and was surprised to find it actually works pretty well. Of course the clay will dry and harden and when you break it open, the skin and scales stay attached to the clay and the preferred edible part is still clean.

[Pat]

Bird, That works really good for corn too. Leave the shucks on and coat with mud (clay is tops.) Just bang the finished product a bit and what baked mud doesn't come off will be out of the way when you pull back the shucks.

If you put the mud directly on the fish then you need "nice mud" with no foul vapors, again clay is good.

Oh, and your leader comment reminded me of a line we Air Force types used to use back in the little fracas called Viet Nam.

The difference between the Boy Scouts and the Air force is that the Boy Scouts are required to have adult leaders.

Pat

[egon]

Quite a few years ago my son went through a stage where he heated his meals on the truck engine when he was on the jobsite. He did open the cans first though! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Egon, Engine cooking was developed to a fine art by some truckers and RVers. There were even cookbooks on the topic.

Wrap your potatoes in foil and lay on the manifold. turn in xx min and add foil wrapped chicken pieces turning in yy minutes or zzz miles. Recipe developed for model xyz Peterbuilt. Some variation for a Mac or diesel pusher RV with Cumins.

I did a little of it but not very much or very often. It did work but with a generator and a microwave in the camper, it was a novelty not a necessity.

Pat

[Bird]

Pat, I think I'd probably suspect you made up such a story if I hadn't been a full time RVer for a few years. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] And, yep, I read some the recipes and stories in RV magazines that I subscribed to. Some of the RVers claimed to have learned to cook dinner on the engine while driving down the road, so it would be ready when they stopped for the night. I've tried a lot of things, but that's one I never tried. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

I know I respond to and sometimes originate threads on widely divergent topics so much so that it may stretch believability on the part of less well seasoned individuals. In the past I have been accused by well intentioned individuals of making up stories (not interrnet) but when offered a chance to make a wager and be paid tremendous odds on whether or not I can substantiate my stories every doubting Thomas has suddenly gotten mysteriously silent.

Given your RV and general wide background experience I would have been surprised had you never heard of cooking on an engine. I have dabbled as a novelty but never really got into it as some folks did. Perhaps it is not so popular due to wide availability of fast food and so many RVers (and a considerable number of truckers) having a microwave on board.

My propane powered generator (pickup camper) is too small to run the rooftop AC and the microwave at the same time. So the drill for me is to pull over, get out, start the generator, put the food in the microwave, take the oven twist timer to the cab with me and drive on until the timer goes off. Then I pull over and switch the rooftop AC on, pull out the hot meal and we eat in AC comfort. I have a swamp cooler for dry climates but it tends to spit water into the camper if it is run while driving, especially on rough or twisty roads.

Pat

[gonecountry]

Back to roasts and briskets. What's the best way to make them in the house on the stove? [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Bird]

Just remember that briskets need to be cooked very slowly with low heat, preferably moist low heat. You can cook them overnight in a smoker with indirect heat. Some people put them in a smoker for a couple of hours, then wrap them in foil and put them back in the smoker.

After trying just about every way I could think of, I now put them in my smoker for 2 to 4 hours with the temperature about 250 degrees. Then I put them in a roaster pan with lid, about a cup of water, and put them in the oven in the house with the temperature set on 200 degrees overnight; about 8 hours.

As for flavor, I've never tasted a bad one. One of the first ways I learned to cook them was to put a teaspoonful of onion juice and a teaspoonful of garlic juice in the water I put in the roaster pan (I haven't done that one in awhile). Another way I still use occasionally is to apply a liberal amount of lemon pepper as a rub. I also mix up my own concoction for a dry rub of:
2 parts garlic powder
2 parts paprika
3 parts salt
3 parts brown sugar
1 part cayenne
1 part cumin
1 part chili powder
I sprinkle it on liberally and rub it in before putting the brisket in the smoker.

And of course, the meat itself is a flavor; some simply put nothing on it before cooking it, and that ain't bad either. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I've also experimented with different recipes for a barbecue sauce, but quit doing that. Instead, I do the lazy thing and just use KC Masterpiece original sauce. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]