Cooking on the move

hi sdg
well this bring back memorys of when i was doing long hours on the farm tractor and would heat up tins of baked beans or spag while still driving

it can be done but did have a couple blow up and coat the engine and it took a lot to get it off the motor when this occurred it was too hot to lick it off-- lol --
and also did this on one of my csr trips back in the days of very little horragations
on my 1997 mazda bravo vehicle i have the perfect spot between the second battery and the engine bay above wheel arch for a couple of tins

i found it best to put a small puncture hole in the can and place a piece of clean rag over the tin and under it as well this helped stop dust and the explosive results of a can bursting
takes 8-12minutes under an already hot engine bay on my diesel vehicle a sud or two wrapped in alfoil would be ok but it would be trial and error to get it right
i never ventured past the canned item as it would be easy to have a fire start with stuff thats wrapped up and juice/fat as from a cooking chook running on motor parts
do you need a fire under the bonnet//// in any location- for that matter
if your that hungary for a real cooked meal then i think its time to stop and have a cuppa/ beer while it cooks
but boys will be boys????
cheers barry

I saw a similar show years ago where they wrapped spuds in alfoil and jammed them around the manifold. I tried it on a trip from Darwin to Alice Springs in my Landcruiser and it definitely did NOT cook them.

It works great and has everyone amaized. You do need to do a little trial and error. It is important that wherever you put it is very hot. Too hot to touch.

Use 3 or 4 layers of Alfoil and make sure it can't move.

Cooking "times"
Potatoes sliced - 120km
Salmon ( works great) - 160km
Pork - 350km but not great.....
Tin of peas - 100km

THere was some years ago, a T V show about a bloke with a Ute, travelling the Outback. He had an extra empty air filter with some copper pipe running around it, hitched up to the block, similar to a heat exchanger He would place a pie and some spuds in it. Put the top back on and drive through the morning and stop for lunch. Then set up his evening meal. There I must get working on this for the New Inventors.........

Used to work with a guy who used to cook meat pies on the tractor engine while working the paddocks. Problem was he kept forgetting and would burn them. waste a lot of pies and went very hungry. Did see one guy on the road with a set up under his bonnet. It was basically a tin box with pipes going through it from the exhuast (pipes were sealed) to heat the box. Was basically an oven under the bonnet. Worked a treat but took a bit of working out cooking times.
Personal we found the dream pot easier and never burnt a thing. Meal was always ready when we arrived. Mmmmmmm, that brings back memories.

Josh

Russell Coight is a master at this technique, as displayed in several adventures.

Ben Dark .... In the first series Ben Dark did with his Statesman, he had a cooker set up under the bonnet with copper tubes coiled up in an aluminium pot and the heater hoses hooked up. I think he cooked some fish or something in it.
Loooooong time ago, days of Country practice
Cheers
Joe

I've heated up food on the exhaust manifold of diesel locomotive, works very well.
Additionally, I've also cooked food on the backhead of a locomotive boiler, now that is awesome cooking.
Cheers,
Dion.

OK, I'll bite. (No pun intended)

Why would you want to perform this "uncontrolled" method of cooking.
Surely you have time after arriving at your destination to cook?

If you really must cook whilst on the move, one of the myriad range of vacuum style cookers (thermal cookers) would do the job must easier, safer (for consumption) and more satisfactory.
You simply start the cooking process on a hotplate or gas burner, bundle the food into the cooker and several hours later, the slow cooking process has completed the cooking of both meat and vegetables.

Don't have one ourselves.
We set up camp in ample time to relax and cook our meals, however long it takes.

Gas cooker, Cobb cooker, or Camp Oven is our preferred methods of cooking a variety of meat, vegetables and bread.
We never go hungry:-)


Bill.

Way back when tractors had open cabs (if any) and hessian bags punched in in one corner to make a cape kept the rain and wind off it was quite common to wire an empty large coffee tin to the exhaust manifold of the GM motor in the Chamberlain Super 70's and 90's while seeding.
A frozen homemade pie or pastie would be heated in around 4 hours, bung it in first thing and by lunch it would be pleasantly hot, stick another in and it would be ready for afternoon tea. Much better than soggy sangers

PS: Cooking like the TV ad only works when you have a skinful of XXXX, doesn't work with any other beers or spirits.

Disco.
aka Tony