[Sca-cooks] OK, since we're all kids burning food, here's another one...

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

>Apparently a mickey was roasted in a tin can, probably one like those  
>28-ounce cans tomatoes come in (a #2? I forget...), maybe larger.  
>You'd punch holes in it, all over, leaving one end open, place fuel  
>like wood chips, bark, and paper at the bottom, a raw, whole,  
>unpeeled potato in the middle, and more of the same fuel on top.  
>You'd have string or wire run through some holes punched near the  
>opening end of the can, you lit the fuel, and swung the hole thing  
>over your head until the fuel burned out, creating through  
>centrifugal force and wind a miniature blast furnace of sorts. 
>
This exact method of cooking is described in the classic children's book 
"Roller Skates" by Ruth Sawyer.  It's set in Manhattan during the 
1890s.   Lucinda, a 10-year-old tomboy from a well-to-do family, makes 
friends with Tony, whose Italian immigrant parents run a fruit stand.  
Tony takes Lucinda on a "New York picnic" in a vacant lot, where he 
roasts potatoes by swinging them in tin cans with hot charcoal.  They 
are not called "mickeys" or any other special name.

-- 

Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Robin Carroll-Mann *** rcmann4 at earthlink.net