How to Make a Improvised Cooking Stand from Shelf Brackets

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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This is one of those “why didn’t I think of that” posts – I first saw this on Stealth Survival and later on pinterest.

By repurposing shelf brackets you can make a really cool improvised cooking stand for any pots that do not have handles to hold over your campfire.

Somewhere I acquired a couple boxes of metal shelf brackets that were in need of a use, so I jumped on trying this out.

I will say that using 4 brackets and have each end rest on the next bracket makes a very study platform, but using three in a triangular setup works if you don’t have that extra bracket.

The brackets are designed to nest, so that they don’t take a lot of space in your bug out or camping kit, and you can throw in some nuts and bolts to connect them together so you don’t spill the beans…

Two other nice things about this is that you can push the brackets into the ground before building your fire to make it even more sturdy, and because most brackets have a long leg and a short leg, you can experiment with different configurations to fit your pots.

As with all of my heating methods, stay tuned and we will try this without survival still to see how study this is…

How to Make Swinging Chicken

How to Make Swinging Chicken

 

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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I don’t watch a lot of TV – I just don’t have time for it, but the other day I happened on “Swamp People” and saw a guy hanging a chicken from a tree in order to make what he called “swinging chicken”.

I was intrigued, and a basic internet search did not come up with much, so I pondered on what he was actually doing, what the benefits were, and per my usual alternative search terms.

Well after a little study, and the term “coffee can chicken” I figured out what was going on.

Basically, if you take a number 10 can, poke some holes (4-6) about 1 inch from the bottom of the can, place about 10 burning charcoal briquettes in the bottom, and then insert a small whole chicken double rapped in heavy duty aluminum foil, in 3 hours you have a very tender roasted chicken with very little work.

All the warnings from the sites mentioning coffee can chicken revolved around the hot can burning up the grass it sits on, so the tv personality improvised a solution by attaching a loop of bailing wire to the top and hanging the chicken from a tree.

Obviously, if you wire a can of coals and chicken to a tree limb, you have to stay nearby – I would hate for neighborhood dogs to try to get agt the chicken, upset the coals, and burn down your house…

Use some uncommon sense when trying this, but I will tell you – it is worth it, and when mixed with my cooler cooked corn on the cob, you can have a great meal without doing a lot of work…

Recipe Blackberry Sauce

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This recipe on making blackberry sauce is a very easy way to use blackberries. I a couple years ago I planted several canes of blackberries along my fence, and they have been my biggest agricultural success. I later used this sauce as a base for some very good blackberry wine…

It does not matter if you use this recipe to make wine, or dump this over pancakes or ice cream this is a tasty way to use blackberries.  And if you plant them, you will end up with a lot of them because they turn difficult to control and spread everywhere…

Ingredients

  • Blackberries
  • Sugar
  • 2 tablespoons corn starch
  • 2 Tablespoons water

Recipe

  • Cover berries with sugar
  • Cook berries in a nonreactive pot on medium high heat until sugar melts
  • Mix cornstarch with water and mix into a slurry. This is a thickening agent.
  • Take pot off heat and mix in corn starch mixture
  • Put back on heat and cook until they reach the consistency you desire
  • Bottle and if storing for long term process in a water bath canner.

I like blackberries, but I really hate the seeds, which leads to the beauty of this blackberry sauce recipe.  If you use a strainer  you can get the sauce without the seeds.  And until someone is able to crack how to get seedless blackberries (which is harder than you’d think) this will have to do.

How to Make a Mason Jar Mini Hamburger Press

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I know some people in my life think I am crazy because they don’t get why I do the things I do, but I really have a master plan.  You see, while some of my little projects and experiments don’t always work out, or turn out to be inefficient – the process keeps my mind lubricated and trains it to see new solutions to problems.

The other day while looking for new things to try I came across a link to a technique of using mason jar lids as mini spring form tart pans (Yes I will share later), and my mind jumped to “that’s awesome, I would never have thought of that – I wonder if I could adapt this to something else…. HAMBURGER PRESS!) – As the comedic marriage counselor says men’s brains are waffles, women’s brains are spaghetti – my brain is a mess, so lets use our mason jar hamburger press

So anyway, I got out a wide mouth mason jar ring and two new lids.

I then balled up some hamburger, and tried to make patties.

I learned that by inserting the first lid outside up, placing the hamburger on it, and then topping with the other lid outside in, the process went better – by having the smooth outside touch the meat, it slid out much better.

While this made burger patties that are the size of sausage patties (….new idea…) it is very easy, and I think would be a great way to make sliders from dinner rolls.

Anyway, it was a quick thought I tried out my Mason Jar Hamburger Press and I liked it, hopefully it is useful to you.

Using the Survival Still with a Rocket Stove

 

Gear Review: Survival Still Rocket Stove
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When it comes to survival gear I demand that no matter what the other selling points are, if I am going to stake my life on it, it has to work every time. If I don’t get a “do-over” then my gear doesn’t get excuses made for it.

That is one thing about the survival still that makes me not only keep one for myself.

I love that the survival still works no matter what is the heat source.  If you can put a pot on it and boil water the still will purify it.

Today we use a homemade rocket stove powered with scraps of wood and twigs picket up from the ground.

The small twigs and inelegant build of the actual stove caused the still to work slower than normal.  However, it was not a flaw of the stove, but more a flaw of the builder (me).

Actually the design came in quite useful as I got mud all over the inside of the still and since the survival still is designed to physically separate the dirty water from the pure steam my fumbling did not cause any problems.

I know that in the short term there are cheaper alternatives to this stove, but they all will wear out, be used up, or require replacement while the stainless steel survival stove will keep putting out pure water every day for at least one lifetime.