Okay let's say you are thinking of taking up trekking, and getting your stuff organized for your first walk. You got your rifle and related gear, blanket, your fire-starting equipement, canteen, and most of your food. What cooking gear do you consider absolutely essential? Frying pan? small kettle? Can't carry much, so what has to be packed?

Just my little tin skillet and boiler/lid for me. Can't wait to get out there and do it again. Oh yeah --- lead ladle and bullet mold, too --- only, is that cookin' or runnin'?

Fiddlesticks

A boiler and maybe a small skillet. It depends of what food you are carrying. Most times I leave the skillet to home. What food can you carry that you would fry? Unless the weather is cold or your hunting you will leave fresh meat to home. I have gotten the Smoked and Salted Bacon to take on a trek but that is better off being boiled first, its so salty I can hardly eat the stuff fried.
Guess I would just take a Boiler.
Jeff

For a overnighter,small boiler. On a weeklong hunt, boiler and small folding skillet. Most of what I carry is dried goods, rice and peas, blue cornmeal, oats,and some bacon on a long stay. But I will always have my boiler to boil water for drinking.

The things I like to fry are johnny cakes. A little oil in the pan, mix cornmeal and water into a stiff batter, pat 'em out flat, salt and pepper, and there you go. Goes good with whatever you use the boiler for.

Naturally, I like knockin' out a tender squirrel, too. Fryin' 'em is much better than roastin' 'em on a stick, to me. Then you can make the johnny cakes in the squirrel grease. Right smart eatin'. But, like you guys, I don't like carryin' fresh meat with me.

Nope, won't go without my little pan.

Huggin'mypan'sticks

I carry a small boiler, my tin cup & a small comal (8x12) a friend made for me. I made a canvas envelope for it so's it won't get soot all over the rest of my possibles. Packs much flatter than a frypan, and is lighter too!

Hey Deercop,
What exactly is a comal? I've never heard the term before, and it sounds intriguing. Where and when does it come from? What does it look like. How about a photo.

A comal is a traditional Mexican griddle. Mine was made from a piece of sheet metal with the corners rounded, and a U shaped handle attached to one end.
They are still used in Mexico. Check this out:Steel Comal. It's bigger than mine, has raised sides, and handles at both ends.

Pretty fancy comal. One of the guys who works for me used to work on a jaguar study in Sonora. They used what ever scrap metal they could find for their comals. They made up a bunch of tortillas and a big pot of beans, hung it up in the shade, and ate off it until it started smelling like beer. Then they made a new pot. At one point the caballeros down there had an impromptu matanza (butchering). They killed an old burro who would attack their horses every time they came through a certain gate. Todd said it wasn't bad. I think he lost 30 lbs in Mexico over about 5-6 months. He played Rugby for the city team in El Paso before he went down, too. Back to the comals, he said the women in the closest village often used a piece of tin roofing material. He's got some good stories.

Sean

Yeah, I think mine started life as a highway sign....
'Bout the only thing fancy about mine is the handle is made from some square bar stock that had some twists put into it.

Well, if you're a rendezvouser, then of course you need a handle to have a few twists in it, or it isn't authentic!

Dick

Was looking through Book of Buckskinning IVI found a great illustration of a comal like mine on page 107.
Pretty useful, and easy to make.

DC

Depends on how hard you want to "rough it" and where you are from I guess. English colonials from the AWI and before boiled most stuff. A small, brass trade kettle or even an extra soldier's cup (sometimes called a "can") would work.

Some folks carry only dried meat and parched corn. I like something to boil water in so that I can make tea, and boil rock-a-hominy, as well a bit of meat. Also if water is scarce I prefer to boil it before drinking, eh?

I consider such a kettle the only essential cooking tool, as one can stir the pot with a greeen stick, and allow it to cool and drink the contents right from the pot. Parched corn whole with maple or brown sugar should be carried, even if you prefer rock-a-hominy or some other rations. Other than that, a good blanket, AND 2 good pairs of mocs (that fit), plus canteen & fire kit.

The blanket, canteen, fire kit and parched corn will keep alive while the mocs get you of the wilderness if badness occurs.

Everything else is what people carry to do more than survive, but to survive with a bit o' comfort and enjoyment of the experience (imho)

LD

I carry a small boiler & light tin skillet.I do the mountaineer thing & most of their diet was meat.Rabbit season is open year round here.Quail from Oct. to Feb. so fresh meat is not a problem with a smoothbore.Salt cured ham & bacon can be boiled first,then fried & you have grease for other frying.

You guys don't have to worry about Rabbit Fever also known as Tularemia out there in the warmer months?

I know the meat is fine when cooked like pork, but it's the bloody carcas I'd worry about. OR are you going for Jack rabbits?

LD

smallboilerw/lid and a copper frypan. boiler is the essential item, fry pan is for the bacon... and for fryin johnny cakes in.

Axe

I carry a small ibrik (Turkish coffee pot) to make coffee in, and that is it. Everything else is cooked over the fire either on a stick or on a green twig grill. I plan my menu to be sure that whatever I bring can be cooked this way. Of course, game can be roasted on a stick.
This way, I don't have to wash dishes or carry them, which is 2 good things!
Cooking slab bacon on a stick is fantastic! The bacon is much better, less salty, and tastes very good.

Can you say...,

trichinosis




No I'm sure you know to cook your pork, since you're carrying bacon.

I know of a group of historic interpreters that took dry/salt cured VA ham, and ate it without cooking. Now I guess they thought it was like prociutto, but it wasn't, and the puking soon began.

I like to boil out the water from my ham or salt pork, which by default cooks it too. Boiling was the preferred method of cooking foods in the 18th century, and we know today that with a lack of thorough cleaning with soap, boiling is a good method of lessening the food poisoning, or the flux in 18th century terms.

LD

Dave, I have the untold luxury of being able to get bacon that does not need refrigeration. Up here in the Pennsylvania Dutch country there seems to be a smokehouse in most every town. We go to a guy who is only open one day a week and still does bacon the old way. He also does real Lebannon bologna, that also does not need refrigeration. I have had this stuff out on the trail for 4 days in the summer, and not a problem.
Now, not everyone can get this, and if you can't get bacon that needs no refrigeration, DON'T TAKE BACON ON THE TRAIL for more than overnight! And don't even do THAT if it is very hot out. Dave is right, pork is nothing to take chances on.

I'm only about an hour south of Gettysburg, and I can get such bacon myself. FYI for those who go looking, the stuff in plastic on the shelf in the grocery store that still has liquid around it is NOT the same stuff. I don't take it much as it was sort of a luxury item in the day.

LD