January 28, 201610 yr So in Roman times forging was done with charcoal and so was cooking. Don't think hot metal would be transferred as that would be wasteful...but hot coals might. When I take my Y1K forge to a big SCA event I'm set up next to a cooking area and we share hot coals back and forth---especially when they are raking out the bread oven(s) when I get a lot of "fuel" and I generally get them started with either hot coals or a "metal match"---a piece of scrap heated to high temps that they can stuff in their fire lay to encourage it. If you can find the name of the book sometime I will be very grateful! Now I have cooked over/in a bloomery iron smelter; keep the steak in the reducing flames and it can't burn; but heats *fast*!
January 28, 201610 yr 21 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Seen (and made) viking grilling iron done they way you described (As shown in the prune people Viking book)l Can you ask Sean about the roman example? I really want to grab that and run and unfortunately most of my cooking implement books are medieval and renaissance (and later). Now I have cooked steaks and kielbasa in the exhaust of an iron smelter before---if you keep them in the reducing gases they can't burn! Now you mention it he may have said Viking but my dents are screwing my memory. I've shot him an email, will get back soon as I hear. Sean holds a masters in history and has a thing for ancient iron so I'm never sure what he's going to try making when we get together. I know he was working on a Roman Legionary's tool kit. The sod cutter digging tool thingy was the subject of several sessions I think one of his "close but no cigars" is still under my forge. There are a LOT of couldamightabeens under my forge. Anywho, it's easy for me to confuse one Era and or civilization's with others, Sean has em all in his head. Heck the copy of "De Re Metallica" I have is his on loan and he doesn't have to read the translations or captions or whatever they're called. Heck, we spent a couple hours discussing the "academic's" tendency to translate old texts, papers, etc. into a version of what he thought was the right language, then load it up with needless filler words. <sigh> I love going on long drives with Sean I learn a lot of stuff and we have "good" disagreements. It's just too bad he didn't study for a marketable degree. Everybody in every class he took was hoping to work in the field. I have a Niece with a masters in Paleo archaeology AND specialized in MesoAmerica! She got to spend some time on digs but only as a brusher no preparation at all. Oh well, life is what it is. Uh, what was the question again? (just joking, I sent the question off to Sean before starting on this ramble. ) Frosty The Lucky.
January 28, 201610 yr 1 minute ago, Frosty said: It's just too bad he didn't study for a marketable degree. Hey, my degree is in Ancient Greek Language and Literature, and I make my living as a professional fundraiser. I've learned not to criticize anyone else's choice of academic field.
January 28, 201610 yr Makes me feel a little better about quoting Marlowe in another thread; of course my degrees are geology/geophysics and Computer Science.
January 28, 201610 yr Just now, JHCC said: Hey, my degree is in Ancient Greek Language and Literature, and I make my living as a professional fundraiser. I've learned not to criticize anyone else's choice of academic field. I agree with you on one score. If you can make it work it's good. Or in other terms, "If it's crazy but it works it's not crazy." IIRC Sean doesn't want to teach even though he's certified to do so. Dawn the niece couldn't afford the years it would've taken to work her way up the ranks. You are right though any skill is marketable some just not easily and I wasn't criticizing, though it looks like I was. I wish Dawn lived closer than a long distance call, she is as much fun to talk old human stuff with as Sean, neither of us can afford it though. Heck Thomas with your degrees I could probably get you in the door with a couple phone calls. Geophys. is or was an acceptible alternate for an engineering degree in the DOT geology, materials or "highway design" sections. Yeah, you'd be a score. Frosty The Lucky.
February 14, 201610 yr On January 27, 2016 at 6:30 PM, JHCC said: I've had pizza from coal-fired ovens in NYC -- it's pretty amazing. Yeah there's a few coal fired pizza places around here. There's this really good place that makes clam pizza which is so good! They also make wings on the coal fire. In my opinion, no where makes pizza better than the tri state area!
February 15, 201610 yr On 2/14/2016 at 9:54 PM, Forging Carver said: Yeah there's a few coal fired pizza places around here. There's this really good place that makes clam pizza which is so good! They also make wings on the coal fire. In my opinion, no where makes pizza better than the tri state area! You obviously have missed out on Piccolino's in Amsterdam.
March 10, 201610 yr Lunch today for Pete and I. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. This is the true meaning of Pittsburgh Rare. J
March 10, 201610 yr 7 minutes ago, Daswulf said: Hah! Looks good. Did you leave the scale on for added flavor? No, for added iron!
March 10, 201610 yr It came out great too! Perfect for when you have steak for lunch but no time to get away from the forge to cook. Definitely an "inbetween heats type of meal" lol. I took video of the 1 minute it took to cook. I'm having trouble uploading it though. I'll try again later.
March 10, 201610 yr No, meat doesn't stick to red hot iron for more than a second, it's 400-500f bare steel that sticks and badly. Even then just don't try to move it, it'll put a nice char on it and come free. I use a skewer to cook steak one bite at a time over camp fires, in the barrel stove or the forge. I call it "glory hole" steak, prawns, etc. I'm sure you guys who cook steak, etc. out camping know what it's like, the first bite is too hot to chew, the second and third are perfect and it goes downhill from there till the juices glue the meat to the plate. I cut it up first and poke it one bite at a time into a pocket in the coals, done in seconds. Potatoes bake nicely on skewers next to the fire, if you can't hold your hand there more than a second or two new potatoes will be done in about 5 minutes. Remember to turn them around once mid way through. Frosty The Lucky.
March 10, 201610 yr On 1/28/2016 at 2:30 PM, JHCC said: Hey, my degree is in Ancient Greek Language and Literature, and I make my living as a professional fundraiser. I've learned not to criticize anyone else's choice of academic field. I took one semester of ancient greek. The prof said he would pass me if I NEVER took another class of ancient Greek. True story. I was that bad at it. Tried hard, real hard, just never could wrap my head around it. I am taking notes about different cooking methods.
April 28, 201610 yr I recently built a new side draft forge and am getting a few forging sessions in after work and days off. Today i decided to not take a break for lunch and instead threw my grill over my nice hot charcoal coals. Forged steak!!! Anyone else ever cook over their forge fire? Sure makes for some REALLY hot coals.
April 28, 201610 yr There's already a thread on this. Search (cooking on the forge) and it's the 1st thread that comes up. Add your photo and check out the other ideas!
April 28, 201610 yr Hmmmm let's see in the 5-6 thousand years folk have been hammering on hot metal I think you may be the first one to think of cooking on the fire! Yes, most of us who've been doing this long have either cooked on the forge or forged in the cook fire. Frosty The Lucky.
April 28, 201610 yr Steaks do best if they are heated to critical and then quenched in a bath of A1- draw the temper of the middle to a red, and the outside to a dark brown and it should be forged perfectly.
April 28, 201610 yr 39 minutes ago, Ridgewayforge said: Steaks do best if they are heated to critical and then quenched in a bath of A1- draw the temper of the middle to a red, and the outside to a dark brown and it should be forged perfectly. lol Littleblacksmith
April 28, 201610 yr On 3/9/2016 at 2:53 PM, natenaaron said: I took one semester of ancient greek. The prof said he would pass me if I NEVER took another class of ancient Greek. True story. I was that bad at it. Tried hard, real hard, just never could wrap my head around it. I am taking notes about different cooking methods. I cannot let this pass, It was just 'GREEK' to you? George
April 28, 201610 yr So how many of us have cooked in a bloomery smelting iron from ore? Yup it was part of our smelting ritual and several times I have had to fish food out of the fiery furnace! When cooking over the forge I have found that using charcoal is tastier than using coal; though coal works if you have a sealed pot...
April 28, 201610 yr typical at a job I had way back when, to warm our meals on the rim of the casting cupola it held quite a few ton of grey iron....
April 28, 201610 yr I worked as a welder in a machine shop. We made parts for cement block making machines. The pieces that made the holes in the blocks were called cores. Four sides and a top. All the seams were welded up inside and out. We would wrap our lunch in foil and stick it inside of one of the just welded cores and keep stacking more cores around it. It was like using an oven.
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