Basic Guide : Outdoor Cooking
01/
Picking THK
Twigs, husk and kindling are very important in starting a fire. That's why it's very important to pick dry THK!
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Standard kindlings are crunchy when you fold them into half, standard twigs are easy to break and produce a "crunch" when you break them and standard husk is stretchy and doesn't rip easily.
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Common places to pick THK are parks such as Pasir Ris Park and East Coast Park.
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Twigs and kindling can be found under common trees whereas husk can only be found on coconut trees.
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*Pick THK at least a week in advance or else the likelihood of the THK you pick being wet is very high and wet THK is not only hard to start a fire with but also produces a lot of smoke.
Kindling
Twig
Husk
02/
Turfing
Turfing is basically digging a fire pit. Wet the grass patch you are going to turf at with water before turfing.
Use a changkol to mark out 2 by 1 (2 feet for the length and 1 foot for the breadth). The pit has to be ankle deep.
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Note: Do not drag the soil. The purpose of turfing is to make distinct lines in the soil so that you'll be able to take out the entire patch of ground.
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How to Use a Changkol:
1. Put your dominant hand near the blade of the changkol and your other hand near the end of the changkol.
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2. Position your leg (the one on the same side as your dominant hand) in front and the other leg behind.
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3. Raise the changkol up above your shoulders and let gravity pull you when you strike the ground. Use your body weight to make a deeper and more distinct line.
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4. Continue until you've marked out a rectangle in the ground
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5. Position the blade of the changkol in one of the lines, slanted 45 degrees from the ground. Get someone to kick the head of the changkol until the blade is fairly deep under the patch of soil.
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6. Lay out newspaper in a stack near the patch of soil.
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7. Lift the changkol. The entire patch of soil should come up easily and then put the soil on the newspaper stack.
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8. Check if the pit is ankle deep, if not continuing turfing.
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Note: It's important to make sure that the fire pit is deep enough or else you won't be able to put the sufficient amount of THK and your fire won't be big or strong enough to cook anything.
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03/
Starting a fire
Remember to wet the ground surrounding the pit with water to ensure that the grass around doesn't catch on fire.
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To start a fire, make a cob house structure using twigs in the pit.
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Take a small bunch of kindling and fold it into half before wrapping it in a small piece of husk.
Then, put the kindling and husk into the middle of the twig structure.
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After that, use a matchstick and light the husk on fire. If the husk does not catch on fire after trying a few times, use another small piece of husk and light it on fire before dropping it on to the THK in the pit.
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Note: Put the matchsticks from the previous times you failed into the pit as the matchsticks are flammable.
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04/
Maintaining the fire
After you've started the fire, you have to feed the fire to maintain the fire long enough to cook your meal.
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The uses of each respective THK are:
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Husk
Husk is extremely flammable, hence, it makes a good fire starter. However, since it burns very easily, the fire will die out quickly and thus, the other types of THK are very important. Use a dry stretchy husk as those catch fire very easily.
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Kindling
Kindling controls the size of the fire. Adding more kindling makes the fire bigger, hence, whenever your fire is about to die out, you can add kindling and blow at the embers to rekindle the fire. Do note that this is only temporary and remember to add twigs afterwards.
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Twigs
Twigs are essential in every fire as they help maintain the fire long enough to cook your food. After your fire is fairly big, add twigs to maintain the fire. Twigs create embers which can be used to keep the fire alive. Add twigs to the embers and blow at the embers to rekindle a dying fire.
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Note: It's very important to use dry THK as wet THK creates a lot of smoke when burnt and is more difficult to catch fire.
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04/
Cooking
After the fire is stable and big enough, you can start cooking.
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Before cooking, you should have coated the outer parts of the mass tin with toothpaste.
Wet two supporting logs thoroughly and place them over the fire.
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Note: Make sure that the fire is centralized and directly below the mass tin so the supporting logs will not catch fire.
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After the fire is stable and big enough, you can start cooking.
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Before cooking, you should have coated the outer parts of the mass tin with toothpaste.
Wet two supporting logs thoroughly and place them over the fire.
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Note: Make sure that the fire is centralized and directly below the mass tin so the supporting logs will not catch fire.
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05/
Cleaning up
Put out the fire slowly by sprinkling water on the fire. Don't sprinkle/pour water directly on the fire.
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After the fire has died out, scoop the remnants with the changkol and put it on a stack of newspaper similar to the one you used to put the soil.
Put the soil you previously dug out into the fire pit and pat it down with the changkol.
Scrub the changkol with newspaper and water.
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Scrub the mass tin with a ball of aluminum foil.
