Hot Rocks

[Terry]

To day i tried to cook some meat in a pit cover with hot rocks.
Firstly the pit was not too much of a problem, I decided to cut the meat into steak, Big mistake as it cooked too fast and some of it was burnt. However the point of this post is, I have heard all the experts say heat the stones in the fire and cover meat etc, No one mentioned that some stones explode in the heat so what i am asking is has anyone else tried this method and what stone did they use. By the was the ones i used were cobbles in various sizes.http://www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk/forum/images/smilies/custom/confused.gif

[jus_young]

Any moisture in the stones will expand and cause them to explode. Stones have to be dry and generally of a non permeable type of rock. You may have had some cobbles that had a soluable mineral within them that had disolved leaving gaps for moisture to be retained. Heating the rocks slowly can help to dry them first before giving them a blast from the heat to get them to the 'cooking temperature'.

[Thumbcrusher]

make sure none of the rocks are wet and dont use slate.

[Metal mug]

I've done a bit of steam pit cooking and the thing with the rocks is you don't quite know what they'll do untill you try them. What I did was to collect various types of rock and build a test fire. I threw the rocks on covered them with more firewood, and then ran away. :D I came back later and looked through the ashes and found which rocks had exploded and took note of the ones that didn't. So when it came to the next time I cooked with rocks I used the types that didn't explode. Really it's a trial and error thing, just keep way away from the fire when testing. :campfire:

[GwersyllaCnau]

I looked into the history of my house and found out that when they built the original barn that the house was converted from they pulled the stones from the river and the ones that were too big or wrong shape were put in a fire then thrown back in the river to make them split. Thank God for modern health and safety laws!

[Metal mug]

I looked into the history of my house and found out that when they built the original barn that the house was converted from they pulled the stones from the river and the ones that were too big or wrong shape were put in a fire then threw back in the river to make them split. Thank God for modern health and safety laws!It helped to cook the trout in the river perfect though! :D

[GwersyllaCnau]

it helped to cook the trout in the river perfect though! :d

lol

[Terry]

Thanks for all the info guys, I will take it onboard for the next outing.

[Humakt]

I've always wondered about this 'cooking-in-a-pit-with-hot-stones' idea.

It seems like an awful lot of waste energy on many levels.

Firstly, you have to dig the pit.
Then you cut and collect the wood.
Then you make a fire - to heat the rocks.
Then you use the hot rocks to cook the food.

Seems like a waste of wood to me. Why not cook the food on the fire in the first place - thus avoiding the waste of human energy in digging the pit, and also avoiding the waste of burning lots of wood to heat up the stones to cook when you could use the burning wood in the first place?

Does that make sense?

I dare say it tastes damn good, and is nice and succulent, but cooking in a pit with stones seems like an energy waste to me.

[Terry]

I wanted to do this type of cooking for some time now, and once the hole was dug, it can be used time and time again, the rocks were being heated while other cooking and brew ups were being carried out on the fire. The thing that i thought was really useful was that once the meat was covered we could carry on doing other things without having to keep checking on our meal. I agree that it is a bit time consuming but well worth the effort. http://www.naturalbushcraft.co.uk/forum/images/smilies/custom/campfire.gif

[mike 01302]

why build a natural shelter when you can take a basha why cook in a steam pit or hangi when you can carry a trail stove ??? Because its nice to pratice such skills it my seam a waste of energy but its all about enjoyment

[Humakt]

why build a natural shelter when you can take a basha why cook in a steam pit or hangi when you can carry a trail stove ??? Because its nice to pratice such skills it my seam a waste of energy but its all about enjoyment

Yes, I agree with that.
But isn't a key part of bushcraft about respect for the natural world and conserving resources?
I'm not sure where that leads us, and I know I do things that are fair from efficient.
But cooking in a pit with hot stones is a waste of a LOT of energy and resources, and boiling a kettle of water whilst heating up the stones isn't much of a remedy.
That said, sometimes trees and undergrowth have to be felled to preserve the habitat and that material may as well be used for something.