How to Thrive on a Tropical Deserted Island by Mike Riley

Author:Mike Riley
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Nonfiction, Education & Reference
Published: 2013-07-15T06:00:00+00:00

Cooking on a stick

Let’s get down to basics now. Cooking caveman style is a favorite of every kid who grew up roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over an open fire. Such techniques have been little improved since you were a kid. The only thing we have to look for is to make sure the type of wood we use as a skewer is not poisonous, and to not cook over a roaring fire. Successful survivors let the fire burn down to a bed of coals then move the still half unburnt logs a few feet away to start a new fire going and to create a new future bed of coals. Food is just too hard to come by and takes too much of our day harvesting to just drop it into a roaring fire after the twig we are holding burns through and our dinner turns into a sacrifice to the gods who, after all, marooned us here in the first place.

Most food is cooked more efficiently boiled in water or coconut milk, baked in an underground oven, fried on a stone in hot coals or dried in the sun than cooked on a stick. But a lot has to be said for the pure fun of holding a piece of food over a living fire on a skewer. And the truth of the matter is if you don’t have fun you are not going to survive for long. We are the otters of the primates, the ape that laughs, the noble savage smiling at a fresh kill (if not roaring and beating his chest!), the animal that sacrifices good food to a distant God. Make sure you laugh everyday that you are shipwrecked, even if you have to play practical jokes on yourself!

Good skewers are hard to come by. Forget any evergreen, any piece of wood that smells piney when the bark is stripped off. Ignore any branch that is too bendy or any wood that snaps in half easily. I like to carve the butt end of the center part of an old coconut frond. They truly are fire resistant. Don’t carve them too thin.

It is really fun to cook bread this way. Wrap the dough around your branch and hold it over the fire. Make sure Friday is watching so she knows who cooked!

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