Cooking
ASFAR AS I’MCONCERNED, there is only one way to cook food in a survival
situation: boil it. Boiling food is most effective because many of the nutri
ents remain in the cooking liquid, and there is also something comforting
about drinking warm broth.
It’s true that boiled food can taste pretty bland, but I’d rather put up
with bland flavor in an emergency than eat something that was grilled or
cooked on an open fire, with many of the nutrients and fat dripped away.
If you don’t have the option of boiling because you lack a pot, then
you must use an alternative method. Spit cooking can be accomplished
by skewering your meal on a green sapling and suspending it over a
small fire. The hot coals of a fire work best here; high flames will only
singe your meal without cooking the inside. Turn the spit regularly to
cook the meat through.
Another effective method is rock frying. Heat a couple of flat rocks in
your fire, then place your food directly on the rocks to fry it.
Preserving Food
IF YOU ARE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE MORE FOOD than you can eat at any
given time, the greatest tragedy is to see it go bad. For this reason, it’s
important to know the various methods of preserving food in the wild.
First, cut away all the fat. Fat can be rendered on its own and used as a
food source, as bait, as grease in a qulliq (candle), as waterproofing, and more.
If weather allows, the easiest technique is to hang your food to dry.
Find a sunny, windy place, and set up a few sticks and logs to create hang
ing racks. Cut the meat into thin strips and hang it over the racks. After a
couple of days it will be dry. You may find the meat turns black and crusty,
and this is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it prevents flies from laying
their eggs in the meat and becoming maggots. (But if they do, keep the
maggots—they’re edible too!)
A better way to dry meat is to smoke it. Hang thinly sliced meat
from your racks, but also build a small, smoky (punky wood works best)
Food (^) | 205