Learning from Cooking Mistakes

In this post, I am going to discuss my gear modification, and we're I went wrong with my backwoods cooking, so please learn from my mistakes. Since my last post, I have completely redone my hut, and my gear pack. On my hut, it is now just a roof which is a combination of a tarp and debris, with a overhang covering my fire pit. My gear pack now consists of the following:

Homemade Mora knife and sheath, hatchet, folding knife, ferro rod, bankline, paracord, twine, lighter, steel wool, rock salt, beef jerky, 2 bandannas, frying pan, stew pot, soup can , compass,  oil, water bottles, hard tack mix, johnny cake mix.

First, I started work on the fire, and since it had rained the past 4 days, this was not an easy task. I got a cedar bark tinder bundle and as much tinder as I could. I lit the bundle and it burned up without igniting the sticks. Then I used 0000 steel wool and that didn't work, so I moved to grass and the third bundle with that had enough coals that I was able to blow them to life. That done, I put the pot on the fire and got some water to a simmer. I say simmer because that's all that it was, wet wood does not burn very hot. 

Then I cut a couple slices off the frozen squirrel I brought out there, and put them in the water. I added the potatoes and when they were done, I served myself and my brother. Neither one of us liked the meat, but the potatoes disappeared instantly. I put the meat back on the boil, and broke out the jerky.

Next I went to work with my Johnny cake mix. I added water to it, and then realized that I had used corn starch instead of corn meal. Well, that was a bust. Next I did the hardtack mix. I added water, and then fried it. You bake hardtack. So I threw that out, and put some more mix in some aluminum foil and put that in the fire. It cooked real good, but when I went to eat it, it tasted like I was eating pure salt cake. So I threw it out. By now the squirrel meat was looking good so I took it off and ate it all. Clean up was simple; boil water and use the bandanna to wash the plate and knife off, then burn the trash.

WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY

First, I would make a bigger fire. Next I would use a "just-add-water" cornbread mix. Lastly I would stew the meat with some vegetables in a larger pot. Lack of cleanliness pretty much made the process miserable, and next time I will have a large bucket of warm, soapy water to wash all the dishes and utensils.