[Spit-project] Heat reflector?

Michael Gunter countgunthar at hotmail.com
Mon Jun 25 10:53:34 PDT 2007


>Is there any historical antecedent to having a portable heat reflector
>behind the fire, to help retain and direct the heat to some extent - and to
>give the cook somewhere safe to stand that is somewhat protected?

I'm sure there were but I have no idea where to find it.
The people in the past weren't idiots and were masters of
open fire cooking. So I am pretty sure they figured out what
us novices have discovered: fire is hotter when reflected off
a back wall.

The problem is that I haven't seen any kind of illustration of
any kind of portable heat reflector. The manor and castle
kitchens all have tile or stone backed hearths and obviously
designed to give radient heat up and outwards.

>I've seen the importance of a wind-shield lean-to in the survival shows, to
>retain and reflect the heat of a campfire, and I wonder if something 
>similar
>could be done on an open fire cookery set-up

Of course it can and I suggest it. Countess Regina and I
talked about making a canopy safe for putting over a cooking
area with moveable walls in order to be able to cook in the
rain or hot sun and to keep the wind off.

Making some kind of heat reflector would be very nice. Even
if it is something so simple as a hunk of wood or steel supported
with poles. I just haven't seen anything reflecting this setup
in period sources and would love to find one.

The period way of cooking seems to involve large quantities
of wood over which cauldrons are hung and meat is placed
around it. Then coals are scooped out of the bonfire and placed
on the ground for smaller pots or more delicate heating requirements.

>Of course, being the mad engineer sort that I am, now I'm wondering if a
>three-legged arrangement could be made, with an open side, and two 'banked'
>sides, and the fire spread in a V-formation. It would certainly give one a
>'hot spot' in the bottom of the V...

I was thinking of something similar.

>Si'le inghean ui MacAoidh

Yers,

Gunthar

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