In this episode of the Primitive Camping & Bushcraft podcast, host Chris Speir dives deep into the essentials of outdoor cooking gear. From simple natural resources like leaves and twigs to advanced tools like grills and solar ovens, this episode guides listeners on how to prepare meals safely and efficiently in the wilderness.
Welcome back to the Primitive Camping in
Bushcraft podcast. My name is Chris
Speir and I'm going to be your guide to
enjoying the great outdoors. Have you
ever wondered how to turn the simplest of
you know natural resources like leaves
and twigs into a reliable life-saving
cooking setup in the wild? Well today
we're going to dive into the essentials
of cooking gear and we're going to be on
page 63 of the book Primitive Camping in
Bushcraft.
So if you got the book, follow along and if not, swing by and pick it up. All right, hang tight. At the end, I'm gonna give you another little thing, little tip trick or hack that you can use to cook with in the great outdoors.
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So cooking gear can include grills, stoves, solar ovens and any other device or apparatus used to cook or warm your food and to kill any harmful biological pathogens.
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That is the absolute most important or paramount or pinnacle or any other important word that you wanna use to do when you're out there. You need to kill the biological pathogens. So we're gonna fast forward in the book to page 216 real quick and what this is gonna do is give us cooking temperatures for different types of foods. Now I know what we're talking about here is cooking gear,
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but I really wanted to go over the biological pathogens and stuff like that in your food. So it's gonna be, we're gonna hit this again later on down the road,(...) but one of the aspects of it is that, when you're cooking, if you want to be extra cautious, you can bring a very lightweight food thermometer with you. I never done it, but some people are extremely cautious, especially if they're cooking chicken, any kind of fowl, stuff like that,(...) but beef, pork, veal, lamb and steak chops and roasts have to be cooked for 145 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 62.8 degrees Celsius.
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Any kind of ground meats needs to be cooked to 160 degrees Fahrenheit or 71.1 degrees Celsius.
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Ground poultry is 165 degrees Fahrenheit, 73.9 degrees Celsius.(...) Ham fresh or smoked and uncooked needs to be cooked to 145 degrees and 62.8 degrees Celsius. Fully cooked ham needs to be cooked to 165 degrees. All right, now when they're talking about fully cooked ham, they're talking about like stuff that was raw, that you're cooking straight from a raw ham to in the oven for like for Thanksgiving or Christmas or something like that. The big hams that needs to be cooked to 165 degrees.
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All poultry, breasts, whole bird, legs, thighs, wings, ground poultry, giblets and the stuffing that goes in it needs to be cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit or 73.9 degrees Celsius.
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Eggs are a different kind of critter here. Eggs are supposed to be cooked to 160 degrees. And I love sunny side up eggs. Well, a sunny side up egg is not a fully cooked egg and sunny side up is still has the gelatinous, you know, the egg whites on the top that ain't cooked all the way through and has not reached 165 degrees. But if you use hot sauce, like a Tabasco sauce or some extra vinegary hot sauce, it will actually kill the bacteria in that egg. It'll kill the bacteria and the same thing with oysters. That's why a lot of people use, whenever they're eating raw oysters, they will dip it in hot sauce and that kills the bacteria or are supposed to kill the bacteria on the oyster or the egg. Now moving right along, we got fish, shellfish, frogs and snakes. And I'm presuming that this will go for alligator as well.(...) It needs to be cooked for 145 degrees. You know, frogs and snakes and alligators should be done at 145 degrees because they're the same classification with the fish and everything like that. So anyway, I wanted to go over this cooking temps real quick because that is some very important stuff when you're out in the woods. And those temperatures will actually kill any harmful biological pathogens.(...) And, you know, when you go to a restaurant, all these foods are cooked to a temperature. They're cooked to temperature. That's when they know it's done. Majority of restaurants will stick a thermometer in there to make sure your food is completely cooked.
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So moving on from that, we got stoves. You know, stoves come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. And for an example, I have the, I got the flat pack stove. This is the stoker stove by Uber Leiben, Uber LeBean, however you want to pronounce it.(...) And this is a nifty little stove. It's like one of those little castles that you put together. It's got the four sides and the bottom. And you go ahead and throw that puppy together. It's a biomass stove. It's a bio stove or a biomass. And you can burn twigs and leaves and everything. Like I mentioned, when I opened the segment up. And then, you know, we have grills. Grills are another great option for whenever you go out into the woods. And I typically will bring a grill. I know a lot of times I'll bring a wood burning stove like this little, the Uber LeBean, Uber LeBean one. And I'll bring those dudes. But these right here, these grills are amazing.
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And they're lightweight. And we're going to get into some more discussion about these in a little while.(...) Then you got your pots and pans, you know, stuff like that. But, you know, I got the little Uber LeBean. I can never pronounce that. How do you pronounce it? Leave a comment. Let me know, Uber LeBean.
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But anyway, you got stoves that come from your fold up type. And they are shaped like a book all the way down to these little backpack and flat pack stoves right there. Then you got propane stoves, you know, you can use propane. And so we'll get into the propane a little bit later. But, you know, the biomass stoves are great because you can use anything as fuel. You don't have to carry extra propane cartridges with you or extra, you know, any kind of fuel source with you.(...) And you can use anything that you find in the environment with you. Now, you know, one of those things people be like, but what if everything's soaking wet? You're still going to find something to start a fire with. I can promise you that.
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So, you know,(...) moving from there, let's talk about the grills. And grills are a very extensive part of my backpack.(...) And I'm talking like the little, I'm not talking about the big giant grills. I'm talking about the small compact ones that will fit into your backpack, you know, like this little dude right here, if you're watching the video, this little grill right here is an amazing little grill. Now, let's break this part down.
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I had a comment on one of my videos here recently that said, hmm,(...) you know, is there any good American made products that you have found as far as bush pots? And oh, it's thunder and lightning outside. But anyway, as far as bush pots, and I'm like, and no,(...) the only ones that I have found that, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, if you're watching this episode and you make a good bush pot and American made, please contact me, let me know. And we'll take it from there. But the aspect that the majority of stuff is made in China came up and it led to a huge argument all over my socials. And one guy was like, it's made in China enough said. And he left the page and, you know, stomped out of the place. And I was like, dude, think about it. Pretty much everything is made in China. The device that you're trying to carry your argument on is made in China. Your selly tellies are made in China. The US companies are not going to,
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they can't compete. That's the problem. They cannot compete. So, I mean, not that it's a good thing. It's whatever, it is what it is. I'm not gonna get into political motivation on this platform.(...) And a lot of it is politics and it comes down to politics and it started before our lifetimes, you know, and I'm 50.(...) So a lot of that started way back then. And then now we're reaping what we sow back then and decisions that were made and the way people voted back then. So, but anyway, I'm not gonna get into the politics of that, but still, if you have a American made product that you would like to do a review with or whatever, send it my way. I'll throw it here on the podcast. I'll throw it in my YouTube channel and my Facebook page and we'll get that puppy out there. So where it was, man? Oh, we have the grill. So anyway, back to the grill.
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Now this grill is a great little asset to have with you. And it is stainless steel wire. It's a little six inch by six inch or so grill, maybe eight inches by eight inches. And it has legs that fold out. And then once you fold these legs out, you can set it over a fire. You could dig you a little hole and put this grill on top of that hole.
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Oh, excuse me. And then you have yourself a nice little stove.
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Now the downfall to that is that(...) you're not gonna be able to use this if there is an open fire band.(...) You know, if there's a fire band or anything like that, you can use a stove. And that's what stoves, that's what makes stoves different than grills. And that's what makes stoves more appealing than using grills honestly, is that in the event of a upright, you know, fire band, you can actually still use the stove because it is an enclosed item. I know that's the case here in Mississippi. I don't know in different states, it might be no fire at all, whether it's in a barbecue pit or whatever, but that's up to your legal authorities and your law enforcement there during those situations.(...) But, you know, as far as here, it does get dry here in the summertime, there's a drought.
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Bunch of these rednecks down here to drive down the interstate and throw out a cigarette butt.(...) And they say, you know, five miles in the interstate just burnt down. Man, I mean, the edges of the interstate, it's crazy.
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So stoves versus your,
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stove versus your actual grills. There is a comparison there. There is a use for one versus another.(...) Grills are great. You could do everything on a grill that you can with a stove. You can use a grill as a stove. You just put your fire up underneath your grill. That's all a grill is, is to elevate your food and whatever you're cooking with up off the ground for you to cook with. I mean, it's simple. It's the same concept as working in your kitchen on a stove. All the stove is, is you put a pot on a fire and you're in your kitchen. Well, the eye of your stove is your fire. It's contained, it's self-contained, it's self-contained on that eye. And it just heats that area up. And when you turn it off, it turns off, you know, but it fires the same way. All it is is a modernized fire. That's all it is in your house where you can cook it anytime you want.
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So, you know, following the folding wood burning stove has been a staple in my backpack for a long time.
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Then I started, you know, not experimenting, but I started taking out like the little grills and then started using the grills. I went on a two day kayaking trip. You could check that video out on YouTube here recently with a friend of mine, Dave.(...) And we used a, this stove right here, if you're watching the video, this stove right here, we use this stove and we cooked our food on it and we cooked our breakfast on it, our dinner on it, and we boiled some water on it for our coffee.
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But that stove right there is what we used,
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not stove, but, you know, grill, is what we used for a two day kayaking trip. And we had a blast. It was a great time. I enjoyed it and he enjoyed it, you know, and it worked perfect for what we needed it to do.
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So when it comes down to these biomass stoves and these grills,(...) you can use anything as fuel. You can use leaves, sticks, twigs. You can use, you know, trash. If you got to use trash, you can burn cardboard or paper or whatever. It doesn't matter, but you can use that to warm up your coffee or cook your food. In the event that, you know,(...) that's all you had was garbage. You know, I wouldn't cook plastic up underneath my food or nothing like that. And a lot of people, I can see the comments already. A lot of people is going to be like, oh, no, it's going to release all kinds of chemicals in your food.
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Anyway,(...) next.
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It kills me, man.
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So,(...) you know, these little stoves are amazing. Now they come in stainless steel or titanium. And I'm talking for both. I'm talking for the actual folding stove.(...) The little flat pack stoves or the grills. You know, grills are made now in the same way that these stoves are. They're made out of titanium. Titanium is extremely lightweight.
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Titanium is more expensive though, you know. And to me, I'm not going to go spend $100
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for one of these stoves when I can get one for 30. You know, I'm not going to do it. Yes, it weighs just a little bit more, but I'm not too worried about it. I'm not an ultralight hiker, you know. If you're an ultralight backpacker or ultralight hiker, that might be your gig, but I'm not into that. And I'm not going to do that. So I'll continue doing it the way I've been doing it.
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So grills are made the same advances as all these stoves. You know, grills have, they have ultralight grills. They got the same grill that I have there, which is made out of titanium. And it does the same thing. It's super expensive, but it does the same thing. You can get the little titanium ones that are four inches or six inches wide like that. You know, even if you bought the Pathfinder Bushpot series(...) or the Woodlands Camp Chef or whatever it is,
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if you bought those, those are like one of the most common variants of bushpots out there. And not that I'm promoting any business or anything like that, but still it has a stove or a grill inside there that you can use in these pots as an oven. And you can, I've used it before. I made biscuits, I've cooked bread in the woods.(...) Some people's like, why would you do that? Well,(...) I don't know. I thought it was pretty cool to do.
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(Laughing) So, you know, most of these things I bought at a local department store. Now there is one grill out there. It's Cooligans, Coolimans, or I forget the name of it. It starts with C.
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It's always in the camping section of these stores. Comes in, the packaging is green. It's just a little piece of cardboard that folds around. It's Cooligans, Cooli, ah, I forget the name of it. But anyway, these guys are,
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these grills that they have are pretty cool. It's like nickel plated or stainless plated. I mean, it could be, you know, chrome plate. I don't know what it is, but anyway, it's just a little grill.(...) And it's like four or five inches by eight or 10 inches. And it's got two legs that fold out up underneath there. You just fold it. It weighs nothing. It weighs absolutely nothing. You just throw that dude in your backpack.
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Once you get that dude in your backpack, you head out to the woods, you can do, you know, whatever you're gonna do, cook, and burn your coffee or whatever. But these little things are amazing. And I've started using those more than anything else. And if you're looking at lightweight options, that is a lightweight option. And, you know, I can't really say that I use it more than anything else like I just did, but I have used it a little bit more often than I have the other grills, to be honest with you, just because of the convenience. The way it folds up and the way it fits in my backpack, it actually fits behind.(...) There's this little pocket inside. And I slide that down in there with a little, I got a little cutting board about this big. This plastic cutting board weighs absolutely nothing. I think together, both of them might weigh four ounces.
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And I use that on all my trips and stuff like that. And cutting board's a great thing to have when you head out into woods, especially if you're like doing fish or, you know, squirrel.
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All right, so there's another one called the Bedroll Stove or the Bedroll Cooker.
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And Lord and Field made the one that I have.
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I think it was a pretty cool little design. It's three pegs that you stick into the ground. And these are probably eighth of an inch diameter sticks. It looks like tent stakes is what, you know, tent stakes, tent sticks or whatever.
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And you push them puppies in the ground and you hang a grill on it, or you hang a pot hook on there and you can actually cook your dinners like that. And it swivels on, swivels off the fire, you know, and it's actually a pretty cool thing. And the reason they call it a Bedroll Stove is because it's in this wax canvas bag. You put your stuff in there and then you could roll it up, put it in your Bedroll stuff and then attach it to your backpack and head on out.
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So those things are pretty cool. And I've been using that for several years now and I really, I really enjoy using those. And it really comes down to what are you doing? What do you need it for? What kind of camping are you doing? Now, some people are gonna be traditionalists. They're gonna go out there with just a bush pot and that's how they're gonna cook all their food, you know, and they can make a tripod. They can hang their pot over the fire with a tripod and some string and a toggle.
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But that's, you know, that's traditionally what I've done, you know, for years and years and years. And, you know, you don't have to have a stove. You don't have to have a grill to go out into the woods. Matter of fact, there's a lot of people will not even bring one of these with them whenever they head out into the woods. Some people probably listen to this episode. It's like, why in the world would you even bring the stove? It's an option. I'm just giving people options. Some people feel more comfortable with the stove. Some people feel more comfortable with a grill. Some people feel more comfortable with the bed roll cooker.
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Now, when we get into, we're moving into another situation. Let's say you're doing hiking up in the mountains where there's not much more biofuel or you're out in the middle of the Arctic or whatever, there's nothing but snow and you don't have the fuel to burn.
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That's when the price of the stove is going to be coming the propane stove. Or if you just like simplicity and you're not going too far and you're not worried about the weight, you bring a propane stove with you. Now that is perfectly fine. Me personally, I've used a propane stove maybe a couple of times on a couple of trips just for the convenience, but I never, it is bulky as far as the container and the stove. But now the stoves are getting kind of small and pretty soon, they got them to where they're about two inches by an inch and a half, in some cases an inch wide.
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And they're actually pretty, pretty cool. Especially, Jet Bowl's got some.
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Let's see,(...) what is the one that I got?
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Coleman has one. Sterno has one. And then I know I was at Walmart the other day and Ozark Trails or Ozark or whatever Walmart brand camping gear has one, it was like $14. And they're really compact little stoves. And these things are pretty cool. And my wife loves them.(...) Because in the wintertime, we leave it one on the kitchen counter. And this sounds silly.
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But I'll leave that stove on the kitchen counter and she'll go in there and light that stove and she'll make s'mores. She'll make a s'more, she'll turn it off and then she'll go about her business. And she absolutely loves making a s'more. And I leave the propane stove on the kitchen counter in the house and she makes s'mores anytime she wants them. But anyway, these stoves are great stoves. There's nothing wrong with them. It all comes down to personal suitability, personal what desires and likes and your personality, what do you want to use to do?
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What do you wanna use to cook your food when you're getting into the woods? Or do you wanna use anything at all?
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So biofuel can be scarce in some situations, some places. So propane stoves are the best. And the ultra light titanium stoves are extraordinarily compact, but they're extremely expensive.(...) So they do have the titanium versions of these stoves that go onto the bottle. So essentially, once you get out there, you're carrying the weight. It feels like you're carrying just the weight of the canister and you can get a little six ounce or eight ounce canister.
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And that's about it.
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It's not gonna be extremely heavy and it's not gonna be too very bulky. But for me, I just,(...) I love the thought of starting fire. I love the smell of the fire. And plus down here in the South, the smoke actually gets rid of the mosquitoes.
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And so that's a whole nother topic that I didn't even include in the book was mosquitoes.(...) How to deal with mosquitoes, we'll do that eventually.
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But the only real downfall to propane is that the fuel source is finite. The fuel source is limited.(...) You have what you brought. Once that's out, you're done. And so you have to come up with another way. So let's say you brought a small container and in two days you used it all up between boiling your water to drink.
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And let's say you didn't bring a water filter, you have to boil all your water.(...) You put it in a jet boil, you boil it because it boils it fastest, you're thirsty.(...) I know these are corny demonstrations or excuses, but I'm just saying,(...) you can run out of fuel. And if you run out of fuel, you're done. It's over with. That stove's no longer viable, it's useless. And so then you're back to bio stuff anyway. You're gonna be cooking sticks and leaves and twigs and all that stuff anyhow.(...) So now one last little thing that I mentioned in here is solar ovens. Solar ovens are pretty cool little gimmicky toys, not toys or items.
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Some of these companies are gonna be like, hey, you call my thing a toy. Well, if you got one that you want me to try out that's better than the ones I've tried out before, go ahead and send it over. I'll demonstrate that puppy how to use it on YouTube and I'll hopefully change my opinion. But right now my opinion with solar ovens is
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they're more of a hassle than they're worth bringing.(...) They weigh more than they're worth. And a good pot will do everything a solar oven will.
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Solar ovens, the idea is that you're in an environment where there is no cloud.(...) If you don't have any clouds, the solar oven will cook your food. It will bring water to a boil.
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So the idea, they look like a thermos kind of sorta and they opened up, you know,(...) and this is just the basics.
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And it radiates, the mirrors are focalizes, all the sun's raised to a point and it cooks the food inside there.(...) Or it brings your water to a boil.
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But the problem with that is, is that if you can't start a fire with a magnifying lens on any given day, you cannot cook your food in a solar oven. So the advancements on that still got some ways to go. But you know, I mean, if it's a perfectly sunny day, go for it. That's your job. That's what you wanna do. Go for it. I'm not against it. I'm just saying me personally, I will never have one to bring into the woods because I'm not gonna depend on that when I'm out there and about.
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So, you know, if it's overcast outside, a good rule of thumb is that, like I just said, if you can't start a fire with a magnifying lens, you're not gonna get your food boiled or cooked. And that's just, just facts.
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So as I stated before,
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you know, at the beginning of this show, boy, I got something in my, caught in my throat.
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So as I stated before,
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earlier, that hang tight at the end, I'll give you a little item that you can bring with you(...) and it helps with cooking. And you know, a lot of people do this anyway, but a lot of people haven't thought of it. And aluminum foil is extremely lightweight. You can bring, you can bring a couple of feet with you, fold it up and it compacts down and you feel like nothing's there.(...) Then you could wrap your potatoes in it, throw it by the fire. You could wrap fish in it. You could cook it. You could cook anything in aluminum foil, throw that puppy right by the fire. A lot of times you could put it on top of the fire, you know, stuff like that. And it will actually do a real good job with cooking your food. And so that is my little quick tip, is just bring you a couple of foot folded down in a little square of aluminum foil,
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