How to Make a Rock Oven in the Wilderness

Pile a bunch of rocks in your campfire in the right way and you've got yourself nature's answer to the Easy-bake Oven.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 14-function Pocketknives

1. Make a fire in a fire pit. Don't dig your pit very deep, but surround it with stones to contain it.

2. 

   Gather some rocks. Depending on the size and shape of the rocks, you will need 6 to 10 of them. Enough to make a complete box. Take your time finding good rocks.

3. 

   Build a box out of the rocks right next to your fire. The box should have a top, bottom and four sides, but the side opposite the fire should have one rock that can act as a "door." Leave it open for now. Ideally, there will be very little space at the seams, but do the best you can with your available rocks.

4. 

   Use a forked stick to carefully rake coals from the fire toward the oven. Surround three sides of the oven with coals.

5. Build the fire up, around and over your rock oven, keeping the doorway free of fire.

6. 

   Place your food carefully inside the oven, very much like you would with an oven at home. You can cook bread, vegetables, meats, fish and cereals in the oven.

7. 

   Cover the opening of the oven with your rock.

8. 

   Stoke the fire so that it completely envelops the oven in low, constant flames.

9. Check your food periodically to keep it from burning.

Tips & Warnings

• Cook something fun and unnecessary, like brownies in an aluminum tin, the first time you try a rock oven. That way, if things don't work out, you won't go hungry. As you master your rock oven, then you can utilize it as part of your outdoor kitchen.
• Finding a good flat bottom rock really helps as a cooking surface. Keep it clean of ash and coals as you move the other rocks around.
• Be very careful working with fire and hot rocks. Take some time to find really good forked sticks to use as tools, and keep your hands away from the fire.
• Avoid using rocks you find in a streambed, as these rocks often have small water-filled bubbles inside, which expand when heated and crack the rock.

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[KevinFink]

on 6/5/2007 Rocks from a streambed will not just crack - they will often explode violently, throwing burning hot, razor sharp shards of rock a fair distance from the fire with impressive force.