Thermal Cooking When In The Field

[Bev]

Okay, this may not be directly applicable to fossils and the admins are welcome to delete.

Sometimes we are out in the field fossil hunting all day and we may even camp or be on the water and fossil hunting. I've had a Mylar obsession going this winter and doing a lot of experimenting. Yesterday I figured out how to create a thermal cooker for $1 in less than 5 minutes that could give you a hot meal in the field with NO electric!

My experiment is here: http://seasonedcitizenprepper.com/bevs-thermal-cookeroven/

But all you would need is a Mylar emergency blanket, some padding like a blanket, jacket lining, whatever, and a plastic tote or 5 gallon bucket with a lid - all depends on the pot you are using. Make your one pot meal, heat good and set it in the thermal cooker. It will finish cooking and stay hot for hours and hours and hours! I used a Dutch oven and after 4.5 hours it was still too hot to touch the pot! Pork chops were moist and succulent!

Prep your meal at home or in camp, yes you can use a camp stove, rocket stove, even a survival candle or can of sterno. Put in your vehicle, or leave in camp and the lidded box/pail will be animal resistant (not bear resistant) and when you want a hot meal it will be there for you! No hassle meal after a long day of fossil hunting!

How easy is that! :-D

[Scylla]

I would put this in the collecting gear sub forum. So basically you use any heat source to get it good and hot, then thermal inertia and insulation to keep it hot as long as needed. Reminds me of a luau, or clam bake, but with Mylar. Why not heat a rock to red hot and put it into the Dutch oven? That'll turbocharge the cooker!

[Bev]

Yup, you got it! I like the way you think with the rock in with the food. But I guess I'm a traditional cook and using the pot for the food.

Don't know how to change it over to that forum. Maybe the moderators will???

[Bev]

BEAR PROOF!

Just figured out how to do it. Bears live in woodsy areas. So, you are likely to have a tree available. Use a 5 gallon bucket, line with Mylar, put in padding, put in food that has been heated, secure Mylar around padding with a twist tie, put the lid on, attach a rope, throw rope over a limb, pull bucket out of bear height and tie off to a tree.

:-D

[Scylla]

Once when I was a kid my Dad did that with his backpack with all the food in it. No bears got to it, but the squirrels ate through the zippers and had a feast!