Cooking a steak?

Steak-on-a-stick?

I've cooked all kinds of meats in the backcountry. When it comes to steaks, I usually wrap in foil and place on the coals or just pierce it with a stick and cook it like a hotdog. It may not turn out the same way your local high class steakhouse does it, but I tend to be a bit more lenient on the chef when I'm a few days in the bush. :)

cooling rack at the dollar store is light, cheap, and should do the trick…

A disposable grill topper might also work:

My favorite way to cook a steak in the backcountry is on a flat rock. Get a good bed of coals and find a suitable rock. Something flat and not to thick works well. The steak should come out just like if you grilled it. Season it at home and carry it out in a big ziplock bag. Works for chicken and pork also. If you wrap some potatoes in foil and maybe a vegetable also (asparagus is one of my favorites) you have a delicious non UL trail meal.

Disposable grill toppers DO NOT WORK. Been there, done that and they melt and you WILL lose the steak at the most inopportune time.

BF

I am a big fan of making a foil pack. Put the meat in there, maybe add some onions, peppers, olive oil and some salt and pepper. Roll the three ends together..like top, then each side (if that makes sense.) and then double zip lock bag it before you pack it up. Then when you get to camp get a bed of coals going and throw it right on top of them. If you are gonna be saving till the 2nd night or, just freeze the steak before yo go…and pack it in the middle of your pack where it will stay insulated.

I like cooking on rocks as well, but in my experience it's hit or miss. About half the rocks I've used end up breaking, sometimes nearly exploding. I'm sure it has everything to do with the type of rock. Around here it's slate I think. Totally worth a try though, i'de say let the rock get super hot to test it before you put your valuables on it.

We generally cut into thin strips and roast em like a dog using a Grandpas Fire Fork and a stick. Marinating ahead of time with Teriyaki is equally good. Think Japanese style. Eat as you go.

thanks for the great suggestions.

The grill topper won't melt over a charcoal fire. Since it is a group of friends going have each one grab a couple pieces of charcoal. Won't add much weight and you will get a better flame to cook over.

Some types of wood can give a pretty bad flavor to meats I would opt. for the foil unless I new I could find fruit woods then the grill, stick, fork,rock all could be done. Does anyone know what kinds of soft woods if any give a good smoke flavor I am from the midwest I wonder about this when I am in the rockys Are there any woods out there that could be used to smoke a fish. Sorry to change the subject

You can cook a steak "caveman" style by just tossing it on the coals, then flipping it over after a few minutes.

Do NOT use coniferous wood for this, only dry hardwood. In the mountainous West, alder is one of the best. Ash, aspen and maple (big leaf or vine) also do okay.

Use your knife (not a SAK Classic!) to flip the steak.

I guarantee that it will be tasty, and probably done to different degrees in different areas!!!!

Smoking a fish: Alder is great, even the leaves. Other deciduous will also work. There is a YouTube video of smoking fish in a backpacking aluminum pot – they use sawdust in the bottom of the covered pot, and lay the fish pieces on small twigs and sticks above the sawdust. Ten minutes cooking/smoking got it done. I think the fish was a char.

Alder is hard to beat for a good flavor. I find alder comparable to apple as a smoking wood . I have enjoyed fresh meat roasted over alder coals on many ocasions.

You can also use heavier pieces of green alder or willow as a grate to cook the meat on. If using willow, be sure to allow the bark to char off or it will leave a nasty flavor. Here are sheep ribs roasting over alder

thanks

Thanks for the alder info I have heard of and read about alder for smoking but we dont have it around here I will get out the tree book so I can identify it out west thanks again

"Thanks for the alder info I have heard of and read about alder for smoking but we dont have it around here I will get out the tree book so I can identify it out west thanks again"

The genus is Alnus.

The most widely distributed Alder is white alder, or, Alnus rhombifolia, followed by gray/mountain alder, or Alnus incana. The latter can be found up to about 8,000 ft; the former, to about 5,000. There are five other species or subspecies, but they have narrower distribution, limited mostly to the northern coast and northern ranges of Ca. The first two extend variously into Canada, up through Idaho, and from southern Ca east as far as New Mexico.

If you're in the Sierra Nevada at an elevation low enough for fires to be legal (and without any other fire restrictions regardless of elevation), and it's in a place where collecting wood is legal, but high enough to find mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius), you'd be hard pressed to find a more magnificent wood for adding flavor. I don't encourage it, as they are very slow growers, but they're common enough that it wouldn't be the end of the world if you did.

> You can cook a steak "caveman" style by just tossing it
> on the coals, then flipping it over after a few minutes.

> Do NOT use coniferous wood for this, only dry hardwood.

Yeah, I was going to suggest the same thing. Just let the fire burn down so you have some nice coals, then just put the steak right on them.

BTW why the strong warning against coniferous wood? Will it not work well, or is there a health issue? a flavor issue?

Interesting on the coniferous woods. One my my favorite salmon dinners was cooked in an oven on a red cedar shingle. The edges of the shingle burn and smoke the fish as it cooks. I wouldn't be surprised that one species or another makes for different cooking.

The alder we have in Western Washington is red alder and it is the choice firewood here. It is very common in the lowland forests and it one of the first species to take over a clearcut or burn.

Aluminum foil!

"why the strong warning against coniferous wood? Will it not work well, or is there a health issue? a flavor issue?"

Ever tasted turpentine? It is made from pine (conifer) sap. Too close an association between burning pine and food can lead to bad taste.

I once smoked some jerky using pine chips. Never again!

Any of the resinous conifers (think pine trees) will leave a terrible flavor.

Cedars on the other hand are perfectly fine, and ideal for fish (lot of delicious cedar smoked salmon/trout).

Living in the desert southwest I usually can find myself some mesquite to cook up some amazing red meat! Mesquite is by far my favorite cooking/smoking wood for a steak.

I have done lots of cooking with coniferous wood. The secret is not place food over it until it is just glowing coals, no flame. Then you are basicaly cooking over charcoal. Otherwise it will impart a not so good flavor.

Like Ed says, you can make coniferous wood work, but it takes care.

Being softwoods, conifers burn fast, which makes for a harder to regulate fire.

And as other noted, pines contain the hydrocarbon turpene, which is indeed the base of turpentine. Two species–Jeffrey and Gray–contain heptane, which is extremely volatile. Back in the frontier days, in the process of making turpentine, woodsmen would occasionally mistakenly source a jeffrey pine, and the choice would sometimes result in catastrophic, unpredictable explosions.