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Young Naturalist
Tin Can Cooking
Article by 11o Hiller and Photos by Glen Mills
Editor's Note: We can't stress safety
enough around fire. Use caution
and common sense with fires and
hot cooking utensils. The cooking
techniques suggested in this article
should always be supervised by an
adult.
Appetites a ways seem to in-
crease when we are enjoying our-
selves in the outdoors, so it is easy
to see why food and its preparation
play such an important role incamp-
ing. You may have considered out-
door cooking as an adult activity,
but nothing cculd be farther from
the truth. With a little instruction, a
bit of caution and afew basic pieces
of equipment, you can turn out
some delicious food and have fun
doing it.
If you have been a boy or girl
scout, you may already know about
tin can cooking. However, some
new ideas developed by Dian Thom-
as in her book "Roughing It Easy"
have expanded the uses of the tin
can stove beyond what you proba-
bly learned. This versatile camp
stove can be used forfrying, boiling
and baking. What more could you
ask? Although it is all-purpose, it
does have one major drawback.
The limited amount of cooking sur-
face restricts its use to preparing
food for only cne or two people.
The basic part of the tin can stove
is made from aone-gallon can. The
first step is to cut out one end,
remove the contents, peel the pa-
per label from the outside so it will
not catch fire and wash the can and
lid. Next, slide the cut-out lid into
the can so it restsfirmly against the
closed end. Use a beverage opener
(the type that cuts triangular holes
in a can) to crake the four or five
smoke holes around the top edge.
The metal tabs bent inside as the
smoke ventilation holes are cut will
hold the loose lid in place, and
the double thickness of metal will
conduct the stove's heat more
effectively.
Your stove now needs a door
through which the heat source can
be controlled. Use tin snips to make
two three-inch cuts up one side
from the open end of the can.
These cuts should be about four
inches apart. Bend the cut flap out-
ward, leaving it attached at the top.
This completes the basic stove ex-
cept for its heat source.
Briquets or hot coals can be used
for cooking, but a more efficient
and controllable heat source is the
buddy burner. At the touch of a
match it is lit and ready to use. This
burner is made from cardboard,
wax and a tuna can. Cut strips of
corrugated cardboard as wide as
the height of the tuna can. They
should be cut across the corruga-
tion so the holes or hollow areas
show along the edges. Roll the
cardboard strips, adding one to the
end of the other, until you have a
roll large enough to fill the tuna
can. Melt a piece of wax in a can set
in a double boiler. (The double
boiler is a safety measure since
overheated wax will burst into
flames. As an added safety precau-
tion, some adult assistance with
this phase of construction is
recommended.)
Slowly pour the melted wax into
the tuna can, filling up the spaces
in and around the cardboard. Once
the can is full of wax, you will have a
heat candle that will burn for 1 to
two hours. The cardboard is the
wick and the wax is the fuel. Since
wax burns at a lower temperature
than cardboard, adding wax as it is
used will makeyourcardboard bud-
dy burner last almost indefinitely.
To replace the missing wax, just
place a piece of it on top of the lit
burner. The wax block will melt
down into the cardboard and pro-
vide more fuel.
Dian recommends using a damp-
er orcover tocontrol the amount of
heat the buddy burner produces.
This damper can be made from the
lid of a can just a little smaller than
the tuna can. When it is placed on
the burner, it snuffs out the flames
in the center while permitting the
exposed edges to burn. This pro-
duces a low heat for the stove.
When the damper is placed so half
the burner is uncovered, it produces
a medium heat. Completely uncov-
ered allows the highest heat, and
the many different positions be-
tween high and low will give you
almost as much control over the
temperature as a burner knob on a
kitchen stove. Experimenting will
show you the amount of heat that is
best for whatever food you are
cooking.
To make it easy to adjust the
damper while the burner is in use,
attach a wire coat-hanger handle to
the lid. Place a 90 degree bend the
height of the tuna can in the end of
the handle not attached to the lid.
This bent handle will rest on the
ground outside the stove to support
the damper and keep the lid flat on
the burner.
With the lit burner in place under
the stove and the heaV adjusted to
the desired level, you are ready to
fry foods directly on top of the can
or on a piece of foil placed there.
Liquids in a container set on top of
the stove also can be brought to a
boil. Many foods can be prepared
by these two methods of cooking,
but if you plan to do some baking,
you need to add an oven to your
stove ensemble.
The oven can be made from a
shortening can that will fit on top of
the tin can stove. Dian suggests
TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE
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