I dont know how many of you have this handy little device but I like mine. Amazon.com: Rome's #1705 Square Pie Iron with Steel and Wood Handles: Kitchen & Dining Every couple years I go with some friends on a "primitive hunt". Basically we gear up with whatever we can pack on us and our horse and we set forth out in the PA game lands. We go well beyond where the day hunters hunt so there is little chance of any unpleasant encounters with curious hunters. Well I take a couple fo these along with my food stores and I use them to cook up dinner over the open flame. All you need is fire and you are cooking. Of course they say they are a pie iron but I have cooked all kinds of vittles in there. They are great for squirrels, when well seasoned they are MAGNIFICENT for fish, canned meats and thicker stews (they are not liquid tight but close enough to heat up a can of dinty moore in batches), canned hash, and it makes a darn cool pinini press! They work great for making biscuits, corn bread, and pancakes. Oh yeah, you can make pies too.
Those things are great. We used them to make hobo pies (bread with pie filling in between) around a bonefire. Fun times, summer or in the middle of winter.
Ah...memories...of the good old Jaffle Iron. Ah...memories...of the good old Jaffle Iron. In Australia we call a Jaffle Iron, what you American folk would call a Pie Iron. They are great for camp cooking, and definitely worth having in your BOV or BOL. You can put together a simple nutritious meal without any fuss and cook it over coals fairly quickly. I have a few different Jaffle Irons...some cast iron, an aluminium one for hiking with...and a couple of double headers when cooking for a sociable crowd. I can remember nostalgically the family cooking Jaffles over a mound of hot coals....it seemed to take for ever for a family of seven to go though a single rotation with a single, single head Jaffle Iron...it made the jaffle all the more delicious as we ate it whilst it was still steaming hot. Eating hot banana jaffles straight out of the Jaffle Iron was like eating sweet napalm... ; ) The Jaffle Iron is very flexible...think beyond conventional sliced bread...think pizza bases, puff,filo and shortcrust pastry, think pocket and pita bread, think yorkshire pudding and other batters, think quiche, and frittata, think imaginitively and laterally! What is a Jaffle Iron without recipes....I hope the following links will give you some good ideas. http://www.david-noble.net/blog/?p=65 http://worthingtonsu.tripod.com/Jaffle_Iron_Recipe_Handout.htm http://www.free-camping-australia.com/jaffles-recipes.html http://www.aussiecampovenforum.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?board=rec2 http://www.food.com/cookbook/jaffles-115827 Old advertisement for the original Jaffle Iron http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/18146567 Pizza Pocket in Rome Pie Iron - YouTube Monkey Bread Dessert in Rome Pudgy Pie Iron - YouTube Rome Pie Iron Pizza Calzone - YouTube
Now that looks useful! On my honey-do list is an outdoor rock fireplace that doubles as an emergency cook area/grill.
Wally world had em on sale a while back. Think I bought one out of a buggy for like $5. Not something I'd put in a bushcraft walkabout pack, but nice for the campfire / fishing for cat off the bank evenings or out back at the grill /firepit.
I modified one for a backpack. Shortened the wire for the handles, bent them slightly (for more tention) and gave it a wrap around wire hook. Being able to easily cook food on open flame allows me the ability to stay in the bush far longer with a high degree of comfort. Heck, I can steam fiddleheads in it. There aint nothin any better than squirrel and fiddleheads at a cozy camp down by the river with nothin but your horse and the sound of tranquility.