Cooking in clay ( Having FUN !!! )

[WolfCub]

Decided to try and cook some things wraped up in clay.

Tried this as a kid when I saw a hedgehog bowled over by a car. The clay we used from a stream bank was prob' more mud and the end result was disgusting !

This time I got some clay from a lady I know who teachs pottery. (Saves upsetting my normaly patient wife by digging a great hole in the garden for the clay I know is down there , easier too !! )

Made a simple fire pit in Son 1s ( 10 y.o. ) den/camp area at back of garden. Just a slightly 'scooped out' area with a raised horse shoe collar of soil round it, reflecting back at his 'tarped' area.

He set up a decent pile of seasoned wood. Mainly hazel (copiced from the garden hedge), blackthorn and hornbeam (scavenged from wind damage round edge of field behind us).

Lit the fire, built it up, left Son to keep feeding it to get a good heart going.

Made up 3 clay parcells. 1 chicken crown spatchcocked and 2 partridge. Thought I could check 1 partridge then leave the other longer if neccesary.
This was an enjoyably messy process !!

Opened up the heart of the fire when ready and placed them in, heaped up the embers and put a bit more wood on for good measure (may have been a mistake ?!)

Gave them an hour and quarter ish (no mean feat of self control ~ we both wanted to have a poke and looksee after only 10 minutes !)

When we got them out it had all gone a bit pear shaped. The clay had cracked to varying amounts so some of it was seriously done !
What we did salvage was certainly tastier than my roadkill h/hog, though not as tasty as Son's previous spit roast partridge (as he was happy to point out).

Pudding was a different matter all together ! Chopped banana, raisens, crumbled Hobnobs, chocolate drops and marhmallows. All put together in little foil pie dishs then in the embers to 'cook'. Deliceous ! And a very proud big brother bringing them up to his little sister and brothers bedrooms as a treat before brushing teeth and bed !!

We've all firmly agreed we must try this again, it was all far too much fun not to !!!!!!!!!


(Any advice on "clay cooking" appreciated. Would like to improve as well as enjoy ! )

 

[abushcrafter]

Any pics?
please

 

[Toddy]

Brilliant

I have cooked with clay before, but I found it worked better for me if I wrapped the meat or veggies in grass or herbage of some kind before the clay was wrapped around the package. It seemed to give a kind of ease to the whole thing and allowed the meat to cook evenly.
Hedgehog I've only eaten once, my dad just wrapped it, skin and all, in clay. The prickles and skin came off in the clay leaving the meat ready to be picked off the bones. All I recall is that it was like pork, not bacon, but pork.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Singeblister]

My Grandad told me about cooking chickens they used to pinch during the war , they just snaped the knecks and wraped them in clay and cooked them under the fire , when they clay was cracked it pulled off all the feathers sounds good , but i have never tried it

 

[w00dsmoke]

When I was a countryside ranger I taught kids on summer programs how to cook in clay.

We usually would have a morning fishing first and then I'd have planked al arge trout (caught earlier ) then we would try and light a fire. Once it was going I would get the kids to dig holes to get to clay and then get some other others to collect lots of green grass.

We would gut the fish, stuff it with woodsorrell and then wrap it in lots of fresh green grass, then wrap the lot up with wet clay mixed with grass to bind it.

The package was then rolled into a small pit next to the fire and all the embers then raked over the top and it was then left for varying times... depending on the size of fish really, but usually half an hour to 40 minutes was more than enough.

The clay dried out and some cracks opened up (normal really as the gas has to escape), I'd get the kids to rake it out and once it had colled enough to touch, then get them to break the clay open carefully and inside would be a perfectly presented steamed trout in a bed of grass. The moisture in the grass would steam the fish while it was sealed in clay.

I've not done rabbits or meat this way, I prefered them boiled up in a pot over a fire or roasted.

But hey It all sounds good to me, maybe try the grass trick?

WS

Ooopps Toddy beat me to it!

 

[Mike Ameling]

And if the thought of using clay is too much, you can do the same thing with ... bread dough!

The Bread Dough can and will burn/char easier, but if you aren't worried about eating it, why care? Or wrap the whole thing in foil before putting it into the fire. The bread dough helps even out the heat from the fire/coals, and absorbs some of the "flavor" from what you are cooking.

The really hard part about all this is the timing - knowing WHEN it is done. That comes from experience.

And that little bit of grass mixed in with the clay helps hold it all together better. Kind of like making adobe or mud/clay bricks.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[Tadpole]

If’n I remember rightly, early pies were ‘invented’ to cook the contents in hot ovens, and the like, and the ‘salt pastry’ was thrown away.

 

[Kerne]

Sounds good - or at least worth another try. You could say that aluminium foil is just the modern equivalent of clay and grass in this respect.

 

[clcuckow]

If’n I remember rightly, early pies were ‘invented’ to cook the contents in hot ovens, and the like, and the ‘salt pastry’ was thrown away.

Yup! They were very appetizingly called coffins!