How to Cook in a Steam Pit

The steam pit is one of those traditional cooking methods that is a fair bit of work, but it's also worth the trouble. If you've been to a real Luau, you have enjoyed the results of a steam pit (or steam mound). These cooking techniques use a hole or mound with hot rocks at the bottom, with layers of dirt, vegetation and food above the hot rocks. The heat of the rocks produces steam from the dirt and vegetation, cooking great tasting food that stays hot for hours until you're ready to eat it.

To start out, a pit of varying depth and width is dug in the dirt, clay or sand. The pit can be as small as one foot deep and one foot wide, or as big as you need if you have enough hot rocks and food to fill it. I typically dig two feet wide and a foot and a half deep to cook for a few people, but I once dug a steam pit as big as a grave to cook 72 fish for a large group.

Next, you'll need rocks and lots of firewood. Select suitable rocks from a high, dry location. These rocks are placed in the bottom of the pit to see how many it will take and where the stones fit best. You have a choice now of leaving the stones in the pit and building the fire on top of them, or taking the rocks out of the pit and placing them in a big fire. Either way, the stones should be heated for two hours.

If you heat the rocks in the pit, you must scoop the remaining wood, charcoal, coals and ash out of the pit when the rocks are hot enough. The wood, ash and charcoal will give the food an unpleasant "wet smoked" flavour otherwise. If you heat the rocks outside of the pit, you can use a shovel to scoop them up and move them into the pit. You can also just roll them or slide them with a stout pole.

Once the pit has the hot rocks in it, cover them with an inch or two of dirt or sand. Then place 6 to 8 inches of vegetation over the dirt. Next, put your food in a single layer, with the things that need the most cooking in the centre and the other foods around the edges. Leave a few inches of space between the foods and the wall of the pit for even cooking. Then cover your food with another 6 to 8 inches of vegetation.

Once you have your food in the pit between layers of vegetation, you can cover the pit with the dirt from digging the hole. A layer of bark, mats or cloth could go on before the dirt to make dirt removal easier when the cooking is done. When the final dirt goes on, your work is done. Just come back three or more hours later, dig up your food, and enjoy.

Tips for working with a Steam Pit:

• A "rock kettle" can make a good steam pit, but you'll still have to dig up some dirt to cover it.

• Work quickly to get your vegetation and food in the pit so that your hot rocks don't cool off too much before you seal the pit.

•  A few cups of water poured over the top layer of green vegetation will generate more steam and conduct heat to your food more efficiently.

• Use enough dirt on top so that no steam is seen escaping.

• In freezing cold weather, you may need to build a fire on top of the pit.

• If the ground is cold and/or very wet, use a thin layer of small or thin rocks before putting in the bigger hot rocks. This will keep the soil from conducting away too much of the rock's heat.

A wide variety of non-toxic vegetation can be used in Steam Pits. Here is a partial list of materials that are good -- and some materials to avoid.

Good Steam Pit Vegetation:

• Grasses, sedges, cordgrass, cattail leaves, reeds and rushes edible weeds like amaranth, lamb's quarters

• Leaves and leafy branches of mild smelling and tasting trees like maples and willows

• Good tasting and smelling leaves of sassafras and spicebush

• Seaweed (but watch out for sea lice and other little sea creatures)

• White Pine needles (and most other pines, except for ponderosa and loblolly pines which may be toxic)

Toxic or Foul Tasting Vegetation:

• Oak, walnut and tulip poplar leaves -- Foul tasting

• Buckeye and horse chestnut tree leaves -- Toxic

• Cherry tree leaves -- Become deadly poison as they wilt

• Pokeweed leaves and stalks -- Toxic to poisonous

• Rhododendron, laurel and most evergreen shrubs -- Toxic to poisonous

• Iris leaves and jimsonweed leaves -- Toxic

• Some ferns -- Toxic

• Any unknown herbs, weeds, wildflowers or shrubs -- Potentially toxic

Please tell let me know in the comments if you have done this technique, or just enjoyed the results of this great outdoor cooking method.

Plant Lore: Cattail

The most common cattail (Typha latifolia) that we all recognise is a tall plant often found growing in dense stands in wetland areas, such as marshes and bogs. Various other species of cattail are found worldwide.

General Characteristics:

The very recognisable and familiar cattail flowers begin as green spikes (female parts) with loose, dangling hairs containing pollen (male parts) above that. Once fertilised, the female parts turn dark brown and the male parts fall away, leaving a stiff, pointed spike. The leaves are very tall and narrow (grass-like). A tall marsh plant, that grows in dense groups. Early in the year, the top of the head has a slender tail of lighter coloured staminate flowers, the lower dark brown area being tightly packed pistillate flowers. In fact, the flowers are very prolific, one stalk will produce an estimated 220,000 seeds. Even with this number of seeds, cattails colonise by sending up clones from the creeping rhizomes. It has been recorded that a cattail marsh can travel up to 17 feet in a year with prime conditions through the cloning process. Colonisation can happen quickly, as one new seed produces a plant, that new shoot in its first year will send out rhizomes for ten feet in all directions and can produce 100 clones in that first growing season. Cattails can reach heights 3-9 feet.

There are some poisonous look-alikes that may be mistaken for cattail, but none of these look-alikes possesses the brown seed head.

Blue Flag (Iris versicolor) and Yellow Flag (Iris pseudoacorus) and other members of the iris family all possess the cattail-like leaves, but none possesses the brown seed head. All members of the Iris family are poisonous. Another look-alike which is not poisonous, but whose leaves look more like cattail than iris is the Sweet Flag (Acorus calumus). Sweet Flag has a very pleasant spicy, sweet aroma when the leaves are bruised. It also does not possess the brown seed head. Neither the irises nor cattail has the sweet, spicy aroma. I have seen large stands of cattails and sweet flag growing side by side. As with all wild edibles, positive identification is essential. If you are not sure, do not eat it.

The list of uses for this plant is quite extensive and it has been said that if a lost person has found cattails, they have four of the five things they need to survive: Water, food, shelter and a source of fuel for heat—the dry old stalks. The one item missing is companionship. Some of the plant's major uses are:

Food source

The stems a few inches above the soil line in early summer are young and tender and can be peeled and eaten raw or boiled. The roots are great as well, simply pull the lower stalks until the roots break free, peel and eat raw or boil. The cattail will also develop flower heads that can be eaten by roasting as if you would an ear of corn. By mid to late summer, pollen will collect on the heads and it is easily shaken loose into any container to be used like flour to make bread, pancakes and can be used for thickeners in gravies and sauces. The roots in late fall and early winter can be mashed and soaked in water to release the starch. The starch will settle on the bottom and will resemble wet flour. Drain the water off and make bread, by adding a little pollen or add to clean water to make soup. Cattails are an ideal survival food because they are easily recognisable and grow practically anywhere there is water.

Shelter Material

The green leaves can be cut and woven together into shingle like squares for covering a shelter roof. The material will provide protection from the rain, snow and the wind even after it has dried. Weave a sleeping mat by making two long mats. Connect the mats on one side so it can be folded like a sleeping bag. Before folding over fill one side with pine boughs or other material suitable for sleeping on and then fold the empty half over and tie off so the “stuffing” is secured inside. You can fold the mat up and carry it with you if you have to break camp for another location.

Medicinal Uses

Cattails are truly a survival plant in the truest sense of the word. They not only provide, food, material for shelters and cordage cattails have medicinal uses as well. To treat burns, scrapes, insect bites and bruises split open a cattail root and “bruise” the exposed portion so it can be used as a poultice that can be secured over the injured area.

The ash of burnt cattails is said to have antiseptic properties and many people have used the ashes to treat wounds and abrasions. If you look closely at the lower stems you will notice an amber or honey like substance that seeps from the stem, use this secretion to treat small wounds and even toothaches, because it also has antiseptic properties.

Baskets or Packs

You can get creative and weave baskets or small packs for carrying food or other items. Cross a number of leaves together and once you have the base the size you want you would fold the pieces up and then weave around the sides to secure the shape. You can easily weave handles or straps into the basket/pack. The basket will become stronger as the cattail leaves dry and harden.

Cordage

Peel strips from the leaves and allow them to dry somewhat. Once dried braid at least three strips together to create a line for fishing or use in shelter building.

As you can see there are many edible and useful parts of the cattail, but now we are going to take a look at the uses for the fluff from the seed head:

Tinder

Once shredded from the seed head, the cattail fluff expands into a soft, string-like material – perfect for trapping sparks to create a campfire. Ensure you mix some other material with it as well. However, cattail fluff can burn very quickly, sometimes too quickly!

Charcloth

For starting a fire with old-fashioned flint and steel sets, or when using a magnifying glass to intensify the sun’s rays to start a fire, Charcloth is an ideal product to use.

The steps to create this handy material are quite simple; just pack a metal box with cattail fluff, pierce the box with a nail to make a small hole, then place the box into a campfire for 5 minutes. Use a stick or rod to remove the box from the campfire after some time, then let it cool. Now you have a premium Charcloth!

Lamp wicks

The first people to roam America were the Paleoindians, and they had many resourceful ways to survive in the harshest conditions of the New World.

A simple oil lamp was one way that they lit their caves and rock shelters. A pinch of cattail fluff rising up out of oil made for a fine wick. Try it yourself! If for any reason you don’t have any ‘mammoth’ fat, try a block of lard with a cattail wick.

Insulation

You can use cattail fluff inside any item for warmth, such as your hat, some of your clothes, or your footwear. It’s like a plant-based variety of insulation.

Insect Repellent

In certain situations, the smoke from the seed head of a smouldering cattail can be a substitute for insect repellent. On a fire safe surface, put the smoking cattail head upwind from your location and the bug repelling smoke will waft over you for 20-30 minutes. You can even leave the seed head attached to the stalk and stick it in the ground as a stand.

Have you tried using cattail for any projects? If so, please tell me what you did by leaving a comment

Wood Ear Mushrooms

Wood Ear mushrooms: hailed as an anti-inflammatory

"Snow for a hundred days". "Britain braced for the worst winter EVER".

These are the kind of headlines writ large on our screens at the moment. I’ll let you into a secret: I love snow. I’m sure it’d be different if I hadn’t just drained my finances on a log-burning stove and recently spent a day sourcing a decent, reasonable wood supplier.

OK, I dread the collective panic, insane driving and strangling heating bills that’ll result from the drop in temperature, but it’s not all doom and gloom when the landscape turns monochrome. Take wild food. Even in the sparest of the seasons, there are things to be found out there that can spice up your life and, with some basic culinary skill, warm the cockles.

Mushrooms and fungi are something of a foraging specialism. And for good reason. Names like Panther Cap, Death Cap and the gruesomely monikered Destroying Angel are more than mere fickle folk names. Containing high levels of the lethal "amatoxin", these little wonders are responsible for nearly all deaths due to mushroom poisoning in humans, with grim and often irreversible symptoms. Call me cautious but I tend to avoid anything that looks remotely like them or even exhibits similar growing locations. I go for "safe" options. And by safe I mean impossible to confuse with anything that’s going to require an immediate liver transplant.

One such fungus, Auricularia auricula-judae, is a hardy bugger. It grows all year and seems largely untroubled by winter. In fact, the best crop of it I ever found was in a sheltered, snowy wood. When I was a kid it was called Jew’s Ear, but a recent realisation that this may have derived from a pejorative Middle Ages reference to all fungi as "Jew’s meat" has seen it re-branded. Now it’s called Wood Ear, Sow’s Ear and Jelly Ear. Notice anything? The presence of "ear" is still there and once located, the reason is clear. This unmistakable brown - sometimes pinkish-brown - fungus has the cold, soft, velvety texture of a human ear and is always a source of intrigue when passed around friends or discovered by surprise in a jacket pocket a few weeks after picking.

It grows abundantly in thick, rubbery, stem-less seams on dead elder branches, with some claiming its less politically correct name was a derivative of Judas’ Ear, a reference to the disciple who hanged himself from a tree. The quick-growing and ever-colonising elder is found pretty much everywhere: on the edges of fields and woods, even in the cities and towns where it is cut back at great expense from roads and railways and left to decay in piles. This makes the fungus that grows on it one of our most prolific.

Pick the larger specimens but leave the small ears to ensure a continual supply – they will be fully grown in a matter of days. You only need a decent handful to make a great, healthy winter-warmer soup. In fact, Wood Ear, as it is known in China and Japan, has long been much prized for its culinary and medicinal benefits. Hailed as an anti-inflammatory, it is eaten to relieve tonsillitis, swelling, but is also regarded as a powerful anti-carcinogen, used to prevent and treat tumours.

In the west, a recent influx of eastern restaurants, Thai in particular, means that you have probably eaten it before, although you may not have recognised it.

Chains such as Wagamama use it in their soups. When cooked, it takes on a black translucent nature and although its texture is a bit odd, it provides a perfect vehicle for flavours. Demand is such that in the typically skewed and roundabout way, many restaurants are now paying to import this fungus from halfway around the world when it actually grows unstoppably outside our doors.

When you get home with your haul, wash the fungus, trim away the hard edge where it joined the branch, pat dry and slice thinly. Fry plenty of chilli and shallots in oil with lardons or sliced bacon. Add the fungus and, after a few minutes, some chicken stock and egg noodles. Chuck in some broccoli if you like, and a dash of fish sauce and lemon juice. When all has cooked through, season and add plenty of fresh, chopped coriander.

The resultant nourishing and good-for-you hot and sour soup is not only delicious but it will keep you going whatever the weather outside. And all for practically nothing.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, energy companies.

Catching Crayfish

North American Signal Crayfish

Crayfish are a wonderful delicacy, and in the right locations you can catch 20 to 30 in a couple of hours by simply tossing a trap into water where they’re present. Please be aware that you need a license to capture native white clawed cray fish. In many waterways, an invasive species, North American Signal Crayfish are also present, and these are a pest. They spread a disease which harms native stocks, and damage river banks and eat salmon and trout eggs.

You need three things to catch non-native crayfish in England and Wales:

1. A lawful trap;

2. The landowner’s permission;

3. Consent from the Environment Agency in England or National Resource Wales (this is free). This application form should be used.

White Clawed Crayfish

Once your application is approved, you will receive identity tags for your traps and a catch return form. Please be aware that if you catch crayfish without consent and using equipment which does not meet the Government requirements you may be prosecuted. If you catch a North American signal crayfish by mistake and throw it back in the water, this in itself could be a criminal offense. The maximum fine is £40,000 and you could face a year in jail.

If you want to catch crayfish in Scotland, contact Marine Scotland on 0300 244 4000. North American signal crayfish are still relatively rare in Scotland, and licenses may be more difficult to obtain than in England. If you’re going to catch them, do it legally. The risk to the environment from breaking the law (and to you personally if prosecuted for unlawful trapping) simply isn’t worth it.

Identifying Species: The colour of white clawed crayfish claws is lighter on the underside than on the top (hence the name) and the claws are smaller relative to the size of its body. The bottom of North American signal crayfish claws are red with a prominent white or bluish patch in the claw joints (and the claws are large!).

Compliant Traps: Crayfish traps must conform to specific criteria. This is to stop other species such as otters from being caught and drowning. Trap entrances must be no more than 95mm wide, be no longer than 600mm, be no wider than 350mm and have mesh no wider than 30mm.

Be cautious of buying collapsible traps online. Some are not UK compliant. I like the Swedish Crayfish Trap, which is! If you want one which collapses for convenient transportation, don’t buy the ‘luxury’ ones online which tend to be too long (over 600mm). Jackal Outdoors sell one which is the right legal length and width.

Baiting Crayfish Traps: Fish heads, cat food or even salami is used. Most crayfish nets have a small zipped or drawstring bag for you to put the bait in. You’d be amazed at how many you can catch in some waterways, with 80 being caught by one friend in an afternoon.

Placing Traps: In the South of England, crayfish have spread all over the river system. You’ll find it easier to get a license in the south than in the north or Scotland. Place the baited trap in the water course (some take a can of cat food, drill holes in it and use that as the bait. Weight it down with a couple of stones inside to stop it floating away. Tie a length of paracord to the net and stake the other end down firmly on the river bank. It really isn’t harder than that. Come back and check in a few hours. Make sure you wash and disinfect the trap thoroughly to stop the risk of transferring crayfish diseases to other water courses.

Preparing Crayfish: Boil them, skewer them and cook over a campfire, or put straight onto a barbecue. Mr Mears shows you how to humanely despatch them in the video below. You’ve done the difficult part… you’ve got your license, get permission from the land owner, bought a suitable trap, waited patiently… was it worth the effort? For a bucket full of baby lobster… HELL YES!

Preparing Acorns for Food and Medicinal Uses

I don't know why I have been ignoring acorns all this time. But this year, out of no-where, it suddenly struck me that I should give them a try. Oaks are quite plentiful in my region and acorns are not in short supply. This is how I unexpectedly found myself filling my pockets with acorns earlier this fall. Acorns actually make for easy foraging - their size (at least that of the more common species) is such that bags can be filled rapidly without too much effort.

But before you start picking, it may be worth your while to familiarise yourself with the different species that grow in your area. Usually, where there is one type of oak there are several. Oaks and acorns come in many different varieties, shapes and sizes and not all are equally good for eating, despite the fact that all of them are edible.

Acorns are rich in tannins, a bitter, acrid substance which has been used for tanning animal hides. Tannins are very astringent and in large doses they are toxic to the kidneys, liver and digestive tract. They also interfere with the absorption of iron. This is why foragers prefer to search out species of oak that are naturally sweeter and lack the high levels of tannins. Fortunately, in most parts of Europe the species that has the lowest tannin concentration is also one of the most widespread. In the United States there is a greater range of species and all of them, even the bitterest have been used for food by Native people.

Acorns represent one of the biggest (and most widespread) calorie jackpots in the annual wild plant food harvest, if you can beat the squirrels to them. These high calorie nuts were a staple crop to many of our ancestors around the Northern Hemisphere and we can still rely on them for food today. Coming in at 2,000 calories per pound, this abundant food crop is too valuable to ignore. You can even use them to make medicine. Here’s how.

Acorns for Food

An occupational hazard of collecting acorns is collecting Acorn Weevils…keep an eye out and do your best to leave any with tiny black holes. A good trick on getting your harvest home is to chuck everything in a sink of cold water to see if any acorns float, a high percentage of those that do have been eaten by Weevils, discard these ones.

To prepare palatable acorns, crack them out of their shell and break any large pieces into “pea-sized” chunks. Then soak these acorn chunks in cold, warm, or even hot water to remove the bitter and irritating tannic acid. Note that some books instruct us to boil acorns, but this locks in some of the bitterness. You’ll have the best results with warm water.

Soak the acorns for a few hours. If the water was safe to drink, taste a piece of acorn to see if it is still bitter. If you don’t like it, dump off the water (which should be brown, like tea), add fresh warm water, and soak the acorn pieces again for a few hours. Repeat this a time or two, or three depending on the acorn’s bitterness. Once they taste okay (in other words, bland), let them dry out for a few hours. Then you can run them through a grain grinder, flour mill, or use the classic mortar and pestle to make acorn flour. Add this flour to existing recipes; or try your hand at making acorn porridge, cookies, crackers, or biscuits.  

Acorns for Medicine

Remember the brown tea-like water you poured off the first soaking of acorns? Well, don’t throw it out just yet. Even though it seems like we’re brewing up some kind of medieval potion, crushed acorns and hot water can provide a great remedy for inflamed and irritated skin, as well as toothaches. You can use the first water you pour off from the process of soaking described above. Or you can make a liquid that’s more concentrated by boiling crushed acorns (shells and all) in a pot of water. A handful of crushed acorns in one pint of water will make a small batch of strong medicinal fluid. Soak a clean cloth in this dark brown water, and apply the wet cloth to rashes, ingrown toenails, haemorrhoids, and any other inflamed skin ailment. Leave the cloth in place, and repeat this treatment as needed. For tooth troubles, simply swish the bitter water in your mouth, holding it in there as long as you can. Repeat as need, but do not swallow, as this acidic water will give you an upset stomach.

Ever try to eat acorns without leeching the bitterness? Or perhaps used them as a flour or animal feed? Please tell me about your experience in the comments.