Everyone knows tin cans are a lifesaver in an emergency survival scenario the place you might want to soften snow or boil water for secure consuming and for cooking wild meals. Being an avid camper, nevertheless, I’ve come to understand them on a extra common foundation.
There’s by no means a scarcity of canned meals in camp and beneath are a few of my favorite methods to place empty cans to good use.
1. Scalloped potatoes
Put a layer of sliced potatoes within the backside of a greased can. Scatter minced onion, sprinkle with seasoned flour, dot with butter, and repeat till the can is three-quarters full. Prime it off with scalded milk, cowl the open finish with foil, and sit in a Dutch oven. Add sufficient boiling water to succeed in halfway up the surface of the can. Placed on the lid, prepare dinner over the fireplace, and add water if wanted to maintain it from going dry, till the potatoes are tender, and the sauce is thick.
2. Fast breads
Generously grease cans, mud them with flour, and spoon cornbread, bannock, muffin, or cake batter to half or three-quarters, relying on the anticipated rise. Put cans within the Dutch oven, sit them on a grate or hold them over the fireplace, place a couple of coals over the lid and bake till the bread passes the “toothpick check.” Cool barely, loosen the perimeters with a knife, and switch it out of the can.
3. Celebration camp can truffles
While you want cake in camp, do this two-ingredient recipe. Skip the instructions on the field and easily mix a cake combine with a can of pop (combine and match any method you would like). I take advantage of Coke for chocolate cake and ginger ale for spice or vanilla cake). Beat with a fork, spoon into ready pans and bake as above. Relying on the dimensions of cans, this makes a number of truffles, however the recipe is simple to halve.
4. Baked potatoes in a can
I used to bury potatoes in coals to bake them, however the foil would tear, inflicting the spud to burn. I found that utilizing a can as an “oven” seems an ideal potato each time, tender and clear as a whistle. Put a potato (or two) right into a can, wrap the can in foil and bake within the coals. Tongs are a should.
5. A can of roasted grouse
This simple methodology produces a moist, succulent hen. Season and stuff half an onion into the cavity of a dressed grouse, slip the hen right into a greased can, and add a dollop of bacon grease or butter. Wrap the can in foil and bake it on a grate, rotating typically, for about 40 minutes or till it’s tender.
6. Image-perfect poached eggs
Brief cans (salmon/tuna) are perfect for poaching eggs. Carry one inch of water to a boil in a Dutch oven. Crack an egg right into a buttered can (my oven holds 4), place it within the pot, cowl it, and sit it on the grate. Poach the eggs till executed to your liking.
Security be aware
Don’t prepare dinner with tin or metal cans coated with food-grade epoxy. These liners can comprise Bisphenol-A (BPA) and different dangerous chemical substances. Aluminum cans shouldn’t be used as it’s considerably extra more likely to leach into meals. And don’t warmth meals inside a sealed can. It may explode.
Extra sensible methods to make use of cans:
- Saving scorching bacon grease
- Storing and reheating leftovers
- Combine flour and water as stew thickener
- Containers for gathering wild meals
- Put cans below desk and chair legs to forestall punctures in tent flooring
- Dangle round meat pole. The noise of cans will deter birds and scavengers.
- Collect resin and cones in a can for firestarter
- Soften pine resin and use it to staunch bleeding and maintain an infection out of small cuts.
- Stuff a can inside moist wool socks, and stand them on sticks the other way up by the fireplace to dry. The can promotes faster drying whereas stopping shrinkage.
- Warmth small stones or sand in a can over fireplace, empty right into a sock for an emergency heating pad
- Boil grouse giblets in a can (as a substitute of tying up a kettle) in your devoted four-legged “flusher”
Initially printed within the 2021-2022 Ontario OUT of DOORS Looking Annual.
