[Sca-cooks] Period Cooking Outdoors

[Daniel Phelps]

If I may say so the first thing I would suggest doing is to find out what
fire restrictions the site has and will be likely to have during the dates
you will want to cook.  Such restrictions may dictate what equipment and or
techniques may be available to you.  At the very least they will most likely
help you to spec out what fire extinguishers you will need to keep them
happy and how many. You might also check to see if you can do some "site
preparation"  prior to the date.  Thus if you need to dig fire pits, place a
fire ring, place flagging to insure that where you will be working will not
be camped upon or prepare the ground in some way for a ground fire you may
be able to do so ahead of time.  You might wish to "map out" the work area
well ahead of time so that you know where things will be, i.e. food storage,
food prep. cooking, serving and clean up.   I would suggest walking the site
at least once a few days before the event just to see that nothing is there
that will impact what you want to do.  Recently down trees that have not
been cleared, new plantings, and an inconveniently placed new fence are but
a few problems that could crop up and require modification of your site
plan.  Regards techniques you might check  JS Townsend's site as I think
that they have some books related to both historical outdoor and hearth
cookery as well as equipment.  The time period and "place" for the books is
likely to be colonial American at the earliest but they might be of some
help.   Smoke and Fire's site probably will show that they carry the same
texts and equipment but you might wish to check it out as well.

Daniel