Survival Cooking

Hi Everyone,

I must confess I have an obsession with Ray Mear's and some of his survival cooking techniques! I agree that alot of what he does probably wouldn't be that effective in a true survival situation as it takes considerable amounts of time and effort but still I think its amazing!

According to Ray, even in a survival situation, if your "ruffing it" your doing something wrong.

Here are some of his videos:

Country Tracks Episode 8: Ray Cooks up a feast

Cooking Meat

Artic Fishing

Has anyone else got any other tips, tricks or techniques that would help with survival cooking?

I remeber seeing a thread a while back stating to include lots of spices/herbs in your survival kit as it'll come extremely useful to flavouring food thus boosting morale.

Cheers!

Never cook meat directly over pine.!

You can add a lot of flavor to meat by cooking or smoking it over the right wood. Oak works great for beef, lamb and mutton. Try a sweet woods(nut, syrup or fruit trees) for pork. It's too bad you live in the UK because nothing beats mesquite for poultry and fish. Try to find out what variety of trees you have locally and experiment away.

Whenever possible use deadwood over green wood for your fire. Green wood is full of sap and water and produces a cooler flame.

Good salt is a must for curing meat for long term storage without refrigeration. You should also find out which peppers and spices you can grow there as well. Give a year of food without much spice and even the toughest thug will act like a charming school boy if he smells food cooked with garlic, black pepper and oregano. Many common spices are extremely important sources of vitamins as well. Before the age of steam ships, a ship filled with spices was considered prime booty by pirates all over the world.

reply to post by crgintx



well, if u could find fish fats, you could use it to preserve meat. Mix the fish fat into the meat and you can preserve it without using salt. salt is good for preserving but its a choice between salty meat or fatty meat.

strangely, why can't we cook meat directly over pine? We don't have that tree here.

If you can find mud, coat whatever game thickly and cook over fire. The mud hardens into clay over the fire and become an oven, sealing the juices and flavour in.

I spent some time in the jungle, about 18 days. I smelled so bad that the mozzies don't even want a piece of me =p

I read this forum, but have never posted here before. This current topic caught my eye because of a long standing question I have had:

In a real crunch, what is the wisdom of eating insects? Is this particularly dangerous? How do you prepare insects? Cook them? Clean them?

Like many westerners, the idea of eating insects is revolting to me. However, I recently returned from a trip to China, and this is fairly common practice. But it seems to me that preparation of edible insects is no casual affair.

I have never eaten insects before. I politely declined from sampling any insect dishes when in China. (My hosts thought I was a complete wimp.)

#

Even when faced with starvation -- I think it would still be nearly impossible for me to eat insects for nutrition. Of course this is stupid. It is the precise type of prejudice that any survivalist needs to overcome. I would like some advice on that also, if available.

Any suggestions or links? I haven't been able to find any solid info on this here at ATS, but I know that there MUST be some good threads or external links on this, thanks!

Originally posted by Buck Division
I read this forum, but have never posted here before. This current topic caught my eye because of a long standing question I have had:

In a real crunch, what is the wisdom of eating insects? Is this particularly dangerous? How do you prepare insects? Cook them? Clean them?

Like many westerners, the idea of eating insects is revolting to me. However, I recently returned from a trip to China, and this is fairly common practice. But it seems to me that preparation of edible insects is no casual affair.

I have never eaten insects before. I politely declined from sampling any insect dishes when in China. (My hosts thought I was a complete wimp.)

#

Even when faced with starvation -- I think it would still be nearly impossible for me to eat insects for nutrition. Of course this is stupid. It is the precise type of prejudice that any survivalist needs to overcome. I would like some advice on that also, if available.

Any suggestions or links? I haven't been able to find any solid info on this here at ATS, but I know that there MUST be some good threads or external links on this, thanks!

Insects are very useful in a survival situation as they are rich in protein, carbohydrates and fat. As for how to cook them, there are a variety of different ways, for example you can roast ants on a hot stone or with embers from a fire.

Another method is to crush a small pile of ants and boil in water, give you a protein packed pick me up.

Obviously the other great thing about eating insects in a survival situation is the fact that they are abundant in pretty much whatever environment you could find yourself in i.e. desert, woodlands, mountains etc

Here's a link or two:

www.bbc.co.uk...

www.survival.com...

www.survivaltopics.com...

Believe me, if you was truly starving I think your oppinions of what you would and wouldn't consider as a food would change somewhat

[edit on 26/10/08 by Death_Kron]

[edit on 26/10/08 by Death_Kron]

Speaking of salt, I have had a question that's been floating around my head for a few days here. What does a person use, as an alternative, if they run out of their supply of salt?

[edit on 10/26/2008 by BindareDundat]

reply to post by Death_Kron


Beautiful info DK, just what I was looking for.

Now -- I need to get up enough guts to try this right now -- in advance of when I really need it!

(Surprisingly hard, even though it is actually a very simple thing to do.)

Great links. Thanks

reply to post by Buck Division


My pleasure

Even though I'll admit myself that eating insects isn't high on my list of things to do before I die - I think I would find it surprisingly easy in a survival situation in comparison to some of the other things I might need to eat.

The best tip I have learnt regarding eating bugs/insects is to cook them/sun dry them, ground them up add them to a cup of boiling water and use some herb/fungi for flavouring/seasoning.

Oh aswell try to avoid any insects that have been eating/living around a dead corpse, you'll most likely poison yourself or at least make yourself quite sick.

Just goes to show western thinking, we find the idea of eating bugs revolting however in alot of foreign countries they are considered a delicacy!

Just found these two links guys, I know many of you will probably be familiar with alot of these techniques but I really do find them very interesting and almost un-believable:

Wilderness Survival Cooking

Survival Cooking Methods

It might just be me, but with these techniques/tricks I think I'd almost enjoy living rough!

Originally posted by BindareDundat
Speaking of salt, I have had a question that's been floating around my head for a few days here. What does a person use, as an alternative, if they run out of their supply of salt?

[edit on 10/26/2008 by BindareDundat]

I'm not sure what you could use as an "alternative" to salt, I have read that using lemon juice, pepper, chili powder is obviously going to distract you from wanting salt but it would be interesting if there is a natural alternative.

Any-one got any ideas??

Thought you might all find this intersting aswell, as we are running through the woods looking to make squirrel pie and worm soup, the soliders of the UK have the following as ration packs:

They're standard-issue to British squaddies in Iraq, but now half a million Army ration packs are being sent to victims in the hurricane disaster zone. What will they make of them? We sample the contents.

Link: news.bbc.co.uk...

They look quite tasty to me!

Originally posted by Buck Division
I read this forum, but have never posted here before. This current topic caught my eye because of a long standing question I have had:

In a real crunch, what is the wisdom of eating insects? Is this particularly dangerous? How do you prepare insects? Cook them? Clean them?

Like many westerners, the idea of eating insects is revolting to me. However, I recently returned from a trip to China, and this is fairly common practice. But it seems to me that preparation of edible insects is no casual affair.

I have never eaten insects before. I politely declined from sampling any insect dishes when in China. (My hosts thought I was a complete wimp.)

#

Even when faced with starvation -- I think it would still be nearly impossible for me to eat insects for nutrition. Of course this is stupid. It is the precise type of prejudice that any survivalist needs to overcome. I would like some advice on that also, if available.

Any suggestions or links? I haven't been able to find any solid info on this here at ATS, but I know that there MUST be some good threads or external links on this, thanks!

Insects. If u can, avoid them..... really bad experience eating them, was ill for a while. Even if they are rich in whatever, may contain poisons or harmful bacteria not killed or neutralised in the cooking.

I had diarrhoea after eating them and the last thing you'd need is an illness like diarrhoea striking you weak out in the wild. Shrinking your chance of survival in the wild.

The most important tool to survival is KNOWLEDGE. Reading a good lot on the locality you are visiting or planning to hike is a good way to increases ur chances of finding suitable food.

Hope that helps!

Originally posted by BindareDundat
Speaking of salt, I have had a question that's been floating around my head for a few days here. What does a person use, as an alternative, if they run out of their supply of salt?

[edit on 10/26/2008 by BindareDundat]

pepper is commonly used to preserve meat. I am not sure how long it can last though. I'm not sure what kind of pepper either.

Animal fat is another. But like pepper, it has to be well mixed into the meat. Mixing animal fat and meat and squeezing them into sausages can allow you to keep them for a while but you needa dry them.

I have heard of using wine or alcohol to soak meats and watever but unwieldy thing to be running about with in the wild.

frankly, if u needa survive in the wild. You needa to prepare your body first before hand. Switching to vegetable diets to lighten ur body and condition your body for lower calorie consumptions. A lighter body travels fast generally.

reply to post by Prometheus Ascendent


That depends on what insects you were eating and how you cooked them. Ask any survivalist, they can are an important source of nutrition in a survival situation if there isn't anything better or more readily available.

As I mentioned, avoid eating insects near corpse's, rotting bodies/flesh etc and there are particular insects you need to avoid eating as some are poisonous.

Have a look at the links I posted.

Can i just say that wood lice are delicious! They're perfectly safe to eat if cooked well.

Speaking of Mr.Mears, he showed a great trick with ants. You take a wood ant nest, smash it open, grab the centre and throw it on a tarp. Then you fold part of the tarp over a stick and the ants collect all the larvae and put it in the shade. I tried this and it worked wonderfully, ant larvae taste very nice when fried.

The only other insect i've tried is locust. For the person who got ill n insects i have to ask if you prepared them correctly? Locusts and other species can often carry various worms, including tape worm and hook worms. Without preparing them correctly you can get very unwell.

Realistically, humanity is currently occupying the most favorable areas for survival. To head out into the wilderness for most folks will be extremely difficult way to live. Ideally you want to put as few barriers as possible between you and your food supply. I don't advise retreating to a wilderness but rural area on the edge of wilderness areas. A small garden with nearby nut and fruit trees are much more reliable food sources than insects.

Back to cooking, leaves were the original food wrapper and in some cases edible food wraps, too. If you're close to the coast, sea weed has been an important source of nutrition for humans since we first moved to the coasts. Shells are natural bowls and cups.

While some may cry foul, there is tons of human refuse that can be used as cooking containers that can be found where ever humans go. Glass jars, steel and aluminum beverage cans even certain forms of plastic bottles can be used as cookware. There's no more true a saying than "one man's junk, another man's treasure or in the survivor's case cookware'.

I saw a french documentary on a guy who escaped a Vietcong prison camp during the Vietnam war and he survived by making fire using a single piece of bamboo.

In the docu. he went back to Vietnam and led the video director on a walk through the areas he went to during his escape including how he survived.

He showed how to make fire by taking a bamboo shaft, splitting it in two, then in the center of one piece make a tiny hole, scrape some of the inside fibers and place into the hole, next rub the non-holed piece to back and forth over the holed piece...or something like that, I was amazed how simply it was and kicked myself that it was over by the time I tried to record it...

anyone have exact instructions on this technique?

curious

reply to post by warrenb


Sounds like a fire-plow method, this link may be what youre looking for. YouTube

Because bamboo is hollow, I imagine you could devise a fire piston from it as well, but that seems like a good deal of work.

Back to the OP et.al, insects arent bad, Ive tried a few. Not a big fan of pine beetles however. Grasshoppers and ants are fairly good. Ive chared mine in the past, imagine boiling would work.

Important for survival cooking. You dont know what type of ticks, insects, etc... were on the animal before you killed it. Make certain you cook everything through, and dont follow Bear Gryls when it comes to fish. Build a fire, cook it. Taking a bite out of a live salmon just isnt wise.

Originally posted by ImaginaryReality1984
Can i just say that wood lice are delicious! They're perfectly safe to eat if cooked well.

Speaking of Mr.Mears, he showed a great trick with ants. You take a wood ant nest, smash it open, grab the centre and throw it on a tarp. Then you fold part of the tarp over a stick and the ants collect all the larvae and put it in the shade. I tried this and it worked wonderfully, ant larvae taste very nice when fried.

The only other insect i've tried is locust. For the person who got ill n insects i have to ask if you prepared them correctly? Locusts and other species can often carry various worms, including tape worm and hook worms. Without preparing them correctly you can get very unwell.

I ate ants. They taste lemony =) I ate silk worms.....arghs I tell you....

I don't remember what else i ate. probably some fly or some rain bug.

I have eaten bugs before I don't have alot to add but in the case of ants, if you are eating them alive, ensure to remove the heads, the mandibles can deliver a nasty bite to the toung. trust me I know. Also it makes sense to take notice of stingers and what not, just common sense.

[edit on 10/11/08 by The_Smokeing_Gun]