Speak About It! | How to Cook on the Road: On Your Engine!

How to Cook on the Road: On Your Engine!

Written by Anthony Delgado

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Planning a road trip? Don’t want to spend a ton of money eating out? Try cooking on your exhaust manifold! It’s fun and easy. And, it saves a lot of time!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Food
Foil
Leather Gloves
Bailing wire
Car

Step 1:
Plan the meal: The best things to do are pocket meals. A pocket meal is where you put all of the components of the meal into a foil pouch and cook it all together. An example meal would be a hunk of beef, some broccoli, a cubed potato and some gravy, salt, pepper and garlic. You can cook bread this way too but, make sure you leave some air room around the dough ball in the pouch and put it by itself. It won’t come out right if you have it in with wet veggies, meat or gravy.

Step 2:
Preparation: Once you have decided on the meal, it’s time to put it together. Don’t make the pouches too big. Roll out the foil. Make the pouch at least double thick if not triple. It heats more evenly this way and keeps the pouch from breaking. On all of the seams of the pouch, double roll it. That means fold it over once, and then a second time. If you are cooking veggies, throw a couple table spoons of water or chicken stock in the pouch so that it can steam. DON’T forget to season your pouch. Once the pouches are ready to go, pack them up in an ice chest until it is time to start cooking.

Step 3:
Placement: Locate the exhaust manifold or headers (depending on the car). This is a little different on every car. Place the pouch on the header or manifold as close to the engine as possible. This will be the hottest spot. Carefully secure the pouch in place using bailing wire. Now, where did you stick the pouch? Is the hood going to squish the pouch when you close it? On most cars, you can crouch down next to it and make sure the hood will clear it. This will make a huge mess if you squash the pouch. Some use a ball of foil to test the clearance.

Step 4:
Time: Now it's time to hit the road. Turn the car on and head down the road toward your next destination. Watch the clock for the food to be done. Time is reliant on temperature. The average engine runs at about 195 degrees Fahrenheit. So, if you would normally cook something on 350 in the oven, it’s going to take longer. In general, it will take 150% to 200% longer. Also, the size of the pouch matters. You have to get the whole pouch up to temperature so bigger takes longer. This takes practice. Every car and every pouch are a little different.

Tips & Warnings

Do you have a good flat surface to cook on? Try making a pizza! (Put it in a pouch still.)
Cook meals that can be done at different stages. Example, try cooking a stake to medium. It may come out medium well or medium rare but, it will give you an idea of how to adjust your cooking time.
Altitude can also play a role in cooking times. Cook everything a little longer at higher altitudes and a little shorter at lower altitudes.
Can’t think of a recipe? Check out Carbeque on Yahoo or Google.
Wear leather gloves when working under the hood. Everything is very hot.
Turn off the car when you have the hood open.
When you set the pouch with the bailing wire, don’t tie it up to anything that might break