Heating food in the can on a fire

[Adze]

I could be wrong, but I thought the use of the phrase, "direct on the fire" precludes immersing it. When the OP said "direct" I took it to mean simply placing the can into the fire?

You can boil water in a paper cup using the same direct on the fire method, apparently you can do the same in a balloon but I've never tried that. Water is amazing stuff, even when or perhaps especially when slightly salty and has a thermal capacity way above almost everything else.

 

[Janne]

I could be wrong, but I thought the use of the phrase, "direct on the fire" precludes immersing it. When the OP said "direct" I took it to mean simply placing the can into the fire?

Placing a can or a cooking pot straight into a fire is not a good idea as you will burn the food that is closest to the metal while the middle is cold.
Surely nobody does that?

I have never tried boiling in a paper bag. Will do a try next time I have the bbq on.

Swedes are tasty, be it well done or rare. It is the constant Vodka marinating that brings out the full flavour!

 

[santaman2000]

Placing a can or a cooking pot straight into a fire is not a good idea as you will burn the food that is closest to the metal while the middle is cold.
Surely nobody does that?....

I used to place tinned food (usually beans or beanie weenies, but not always) directly on the fire very often. Started doing it when I was around 10 or 11 years old and continued through my teenage camping. Still use my cast iron that way (that's what dutch ovens were designed for) Once I learned to pierce the top of the can so it wouldn't blow out I had no problems.

 

[Tengu]

Oh, but do piece the tin.

(Unless you want schrapnel injuries)

 

[Toddy]

So really this is two questions ?
Cooking inside the can, straight onto the fire ?
or
Boiling the can in a pot of water on the fire?

Boiling an unopened can in a pot of water is fine, it's how we make condensed milk into caramel for Millionaire's shortbread, because the temperature of the water is the upper limit of the heat.
Just take care to open the can facing away from you incase it spurts, and it's sorted.

(neat idea on bashing the side of the can to tell that it's heated through, Tonyuk )

Can straight onto the fire….hmmm, with care and opened methinks. That said, we used to heat up soup like that so many years ago I daren't count back almost completely opened the lid first, and then folded it back over to stop ash falling in and to help keep the heat.
Not worth doing with Heinz tomato; it sticks. Veg was okay, and so was the leek and potato.

Hotdogs I don't think of as food, and really don't think I ever did. Like a meaty version of that plasticy processed cheese stuff. Weird texture Ikea's veggie hotdogs are just as bad. I can't think of a much less appealling food tbh.

You can cook proper bangers on a stick if you don't want to dirty a pan, y'know. Even cub scouts do that …or you could seal them up in one of the oven roasting bags, and pop that into a Dutch oven, and kind of roast them. I think that would work quite well. Yes/ No?
That said, a campfire 'can' get up to 600C (with a bit of care and attention, etc.,) so heaven knows just how hot you could get a Dutch oven

M

 

[Janne]

The hotdogs you buy in UK are fine to hide the dog's medication in. Or bait the fox trap with.
Just to hear the name Herta brings on a serious case of reflux..
In Europe you get proper stuff. Wiener, or Prager, Debrecsiner. The Swedish Viener korv or Prins korv is nice too. The brand Bullens Pilsner korv is the Bristol car of tinned frankfurters.

 

[Nice65]

The hotdogs you buy in UK are fine to hide the dog's medication in. Or bait the fox trap with.
Just to hear the name Herta brings on a serious case of reflux..
In Europe you get proper stuff. Wiener, or Prager, Debrecsiner. The Swedish Viener korv or Prins korv is nice too. The brand Bullens Pilsner korv is the Bristol car of tinned frankfurters.

Sure do sound tasty. I'll pass cheers.

Ingredients:
Swedish pork and beef, water, cattle heart, cattle lung, potato flour, fat from pig, submucosal from pig, milk protein, salt, blood protein from cattle and pig, potato fiber, dextrose, spices, spice extracts, aroma, anti-oxidant agent E300, preservative E250, smoke aroma.

 

[Janne]

sausages made from pure meat ( muscle) are pretty tasteless. They need a bit of entrails, snout and genitals.
That is how sausages have traditionally always been made. The meat you dried, salted or smoked, the other bits you coild not preserve like this you made into sausage you either dried or smoked, or ate straight away.

Not sure about the eyeballs though. That is the only part I personally have never tasted!

The skin you could either boil and eat, or cure into leather.

 

[Toddy]

Eh ? sausage are made with shoulder steak, minced up with seasonings, rusk, and fat.
Well, proper ones are.

http://www.hendersonhamilton.co.uk/product-category/sausages/

http://www.hendersonhamilton.co.uk/product/steak-beef-links/

Hot dogs look like they're made from Mechanically Recovered mysterious meat bits.

Heart and lungs go into things like Haggis, and stuffed into the stomach bag (though a baked heart is supposedly very good) testicals and the like were served as sweetbreads (along with the major glands) There's not much of a culture of eating the intestines here except as sausage casings, though the walrus hunter fellow on the tv programme about the folks of the far eastern edges of the cold bit of the European continent seemed to enjoy eating them dried and cut into chunks.

M

 

[santaman2000]

Eh ? sausage are made with shoulder steak, minced up with seasonings, rusk, and fat.
Well, proper ones are.

http://www.hendersonhamilton.co.uk/product-category/sausages/

http://www.hendersonhamilton.co.uk/product/steak-beef-links/

Hot dogs look like they're made from Mechanically Recovered mysterious meat bits.....

Originally hot dogs and some sausages were made with the scrap bits. Both have long since abandoned and for the last century or so that and hot dogs have only been made with shoulder meat (for the pork component) and fresh cuts of proper meats (for the beef and chicken components)

Like the links you gave for sausages, hot dogs can be has as all beef, all chicken, or all turkey here; still made with only fresh cuts of proper meat.

Hog intestines are served on their own as chitterlings (pronounce "chit-lens") Most other offal bits (pf swine) go into fertilizer or pet/livestock food. Beef liver or stomach is eaten on their own.

 

[Tonyuk]

Lidl do very good quality frankfurter like sausages for quite cheap. They come in a glass jar, filled with brine. Can't remember the name of them however.

Tonyuk

 

[TarHeelBrit]

With compo we where taught to boil cans [lids removed] in water in our mess tins.
this saved cleaning, fuel and time as the water was then used to make your tea

That's the same way my dad taught me how to heat up cans when he couldn't use the engine block of his half track . Just remember to remove the paper labels first as paper infused tea isn't that good. My favourite used to be tinned new potatoes and a can of stewed steak in gravy.

 

[caninesapien]

I'm still very much a beginner with outdoors cooking but I imagine there's no harm in cooking up a tin of chili con carne or baked beans straight on the fire? Paper labels removed, lid pierced or pulled open for ventilation and regular stirring to ensure it's cooked through should be OK. I've done this a few times before and has been fine.

I am kind of concerned about the safety aspect of cooking directly in the tin though - is there any possibility of harmful chemicals seeping into the food as I cook the tin in the fire? I'm in the UK, so not sure if tins/cans are different elsewhere...

 

[Leshy]

Trouble is some of these tins have a plastic coating on the inside to stave off corrosion, not sure they're designed for extreme temperatures like a fire...

 

[caninesapien]

Is there a way of knowing which tins have this coating? Or is there a way to find out?

 

[The Lord Poncho]

When i used to use the old ration packs that came with tins, we were always told not to cook inside the cans due to zinc being transferred to the food. We all did it anyway, by putting a big dent into the side of the can with your boot, and chucking it direct (un-pierced) on top of a hexi-burner. wearing gloves, take it off, give it a bit of a shake every now and then to get even heating, and when the dent pops out, its a sign that its ready to be (carefully) opened.

 

[chris123]

Watched how do they do that on telly recently. Beans go into the can raw and are cooked inside the tin once it's been sealed. They go through a steam machine which cooks them on a conveyer belt. Pretty cool, it's done to safeguard against any bacteria getting in. So if you only eat beans you'll be fine

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

 

[Janne]

Trouble is some of these tins have a plastic coating on the inside to stave off corrosion, not sure they're designed for extreme temperatures like a fire...

Most cans today have this coating. If you heat the can gently it will not release anything dangerous.

 

[Robson Valley]

So why try? I don't know which cans of what brands and how thick/thin the plastic is so I don't care.
I'll never perfect the needed thermal distance from any campfire that I make. Speed is of the essence.
One pot that has my confidence and experience heating is better by far than a bunch of cans that I had to carry in and out.

Where I live, you do not burn cans and bury them.
What you pack in is what you pack out. Biffy pits excepted.
I'll see your campsite after you've gone.

There's a big bunch (20?) of big game hunters that establish a massive camp, maybe @ 23km up the Holmes for 2-3 weeks.
They leave nothing but bent grass. No kidding. Not a trace, even in the fire pits.

 

[Tonyuk]

I've been eating food from hot cans for years with no i'll effects, so long as you don't put the can in direct flame i don't see it being any issue. As mentioned above a lot of cans are boiled with the food in it to kill any bacteria before leaving the factory anyway.

Tonyuk