Natural Cooking Pots

[timtom1]

Say you are out in a wood in the UK with just a knife, what are some natural cooking pots that would be sufficient to boil water etc?

 

[storm]

with fire and a knife, one could hollow out a wooden bowl (on a fallen log or in a smaller, portable piece of wood). don't put it over a fire to boil water, but use hot rocks to boil the water.

i have coal-burning and stone-boiling articles on my website--www.stoneageskills.com


perhaps suitable bark could be fashioned into a water-holding container as well, using tree pitch to secure it for a while (until the heat from stone-boiling softened it).

 

[Ogri the trog]

Hi Timtom1 and welcome to the forum.
In answer to your question, supposing that you had a vessel to drink the water from, you could drop heated rocks into the cup or even pour the water over a hot rock and collect it in a cup.
If you had no vessel, you can fashion one from birchbark, but it would not be entirely suitable for "boiling" water in, or you could use many types of bark to make a watertight vessel.
Any container that holds liquid can be left near a fire to warm up, though it might not get to boiling.
In an extreem, the UK countryside is (sadly) very littered, and I'm sure that some form of drinking vessel could be found after a "not too arduous" search - again it might not be too clean but then boiling water can go a long way towards sterilising it. ( I'm thinking drinks cans, pop bottles and the like).

HTH

Ogri the trog

 

[Wayland]

Soapstone if you're really lucky.......

 

[bambodoggy]

Birch bark can be used directly on hot coals (wouldn't trust flames myself) so long as there is plenty of water in it.

 

[match]

For boiling water then you do need some kind of container - however a lot of traditional cooking methods don't use containers.

Ponassing fish, heated hearthstones for bannocks or cooking meat, pit ovens, leaf wrapped cookery, skewers, spits - none of these need containers to do the cooking in.

Of course, boiling water is often essential for providing clean drinking water - but then you can also use non-fireproof containers (wood etc) for fermenting liquids, which gives some protection against microorganisms.

 

[stevo]

Can someone point me in the direction of any threads about steam pit cooking...if not, can you answer me on this thread....With steam pits, do you or dont you need to add water to it before sealong it.. I've heards of as much as 8 litres for a big pit....and some books, info hasn't mentioned adding any water...that the vegetation that you add is enough....I've had very poor results with steam pits in the past!!

cheers, Stvo

 

[wolf]

the idea is to leave enough gap or opening to add water before adding a top layer

ONE LIFE ONE KNIFE

 

[dropkick]

I usually just lurk and learn things from this board, as it is a European board and I'm a U.S. citizen (feels like I'm intruding), but thought I would interject this:
You can boil water in the fire with a container made of either paper, bark, or leaves.
I did all 3 when I was a Boy Scout.
As long as the flames don't reach above the level of the water your container won't burn.

- I don't know how this would work with a carved wooden vessel, as it might not transfer the heat to the water quickly enough to avoid burning, and even if it worked it might ruin the bowl. - Needs an experiment.

 

[Stew]

- I don't know how this would work with a carved wooden vessel, as it might not transfer the heat to the water quickly enough to avoid burning, and even if it worked it might ruin the bowl. - Needs an experiment.

Good point. Maybe a very thin bowl would be needed.

Also, would it be better if the wood was still green?