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Gary350
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Stone Soup

I learned a new way to cook. Collect several smooth 1 lb rocks from the river or stream. Build a hot wood fire in the BBQ grill or a camp fire on the ground then put several rocks in the fire. In about 45 minutes rocks will be hot about 800 degrees. In the mean time fix your soup. Put mix vegetables of your choice in a bowl with herbs, onions, and meat if you want meat. Pour chicken broth into the bowl until vegetables are covered. Bowl can be, wood, glass, metal, or a bread bowl. Remove a rock from the hot fire blow away most of the wood ash then slowly put hot stone into the soup. The 800 degree Stone will cook the soup that is why it is called Stone Soup. Each bowl of soup gets its own stone, soup will be cooked in about 10 minutes. Remove the stone and enjoy your dinner.

Vegetables that cook slow like potatoes & carrots need to be cut very thin so they cook at the same speed at other items that thicker or larger. Cut meat in small thin slices so it cooks fast too.

This works best if your bowl is too deep, the 800 degree stone produces a hard boil that will splash the liquid out of the bowl if your not careful. The only thing I have in my kitchen that makes a good deep bowl is a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup. I have an idea to make a batch of home made bread and roll it out about 1/4" thick. Turn several glass baking dishes upside down then cover outside of the bowls with bread dough then bake them in the oven. I can probably make bread bowls without cutting a bread loaf in half and digging the bread out of the center. I love bread bowls but I hate to waste good bread.

Slices of German Sausage and chicken made a good soup with mixed vegetables, onion, carrots, corn, peas, green beans, potatoes, parsley, thyme, basil, tomato, broth, pinch of red pepper, salt, pepper. Not bad for first time experiment. LOL.

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MoonShadows
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Never heard of stone soup. That might be something unique to do when guests come over...and a real conversation starter. Have you done this yet?

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applestar
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I remember learning the heated cleaned/scrubbed rocks were used to boil water in hanging/suspended leather “pot” — but have forgotten by whom ... was it native Americans? Eskimos? Australian aborigines? somewhere in Africa? I think I came across it in history lessons as well as camping survival. I believe it was pointed out that any flammable container can be used to boil water this way, including hollowed out log.

But this was using a large and deep “pot” filled with water. Add heated rocks to bring to boil, then add ingredients in order of cooking, keep adding rocks, keep skimming the floaters (including ash). ...I always wondered if the practice of thoroughly skimming soups and stews dated back way back.

...it also kind of makes the ...is it “fable”?... of “Stone Soup” have a more practical underlying origin. I was in a Mom’s group of pre-schoolers once in which we would have “Stone Soup” get togethers, for which we all brought soup ingredients to make soup and baked bread together.

It’s a fun idea to make individual servings this way, but I can’t picture how a large heated rock could be put in a shallow bowl or even a deep one and not lose most of the contents due to the massive initial sizzling and splattering....? The rock has to sink below surface, and the container has to contain the upheaval of heated displacement. MOREOVER - the splashing liquid and ingredients are boiling hot and could -WOULD- cause injury.

...I see you said you tried this... how big was the rock you used? One description of a 1 pound rock on the Internet said “about size of your fist” (picturing my fist and DH’s fist side by side haha). How deep was your bowl?

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applestar
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Oooh furthermore, I remember now that depending on type of rock, initial plunge into cold water in the “pot” could cause the superheated rock to shatter, chip/flake, or crack.

...You wouldn’t want that going on in your and your guests’ faces.

Yeah The more I think about this — You should DEFINITELY wear full protective gear if you decide to experiment with even just putting heated rocks in water.


... As for if you batch-cooked the soup in a large container, I guess you would avoid/skim the floaters but also not scrape the bottom of the deep “pot” full of sunken rock pieces. In a story I read somewhere based on this concept, camp cooks knew which kinds of rocks to gather for cooking — this would be taught to apprentice cooks, etc. I can still image children assigned to bringing rocks from around the campsite showing them for approval.

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Gary350
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I picked up several rocks at the river. When you put a rock in the typical soup bowl liquid level goes up then soup boils splattering liquid out all over the place. A 6" deep kitchen mixing bowl should work better liquid has room to rise up and liquid does not splatter out. I am having FUN experimenting with this. If I have time today I might do more experimenting. Applestar your right you can boil water in a paper bowl on the kitchen stove that was a 7th grade science experiment when I was in grade school.

Image

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applestar
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Sounds like you are on your way to perfecting this technique. :-()

I have this link in my kitchen/recipe idea file. It sort of goes hand in hand with your stone soup idea. You could prepare/make a bunch of fresh soup combos in jars and make your soup. :wink:

How To Make DIY Instant Noodle Cups | Kitchn
https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-d ... ups-222560

gumbo2176
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Cook them until doomsday and they'll never get tender, but it you can get one down, it should hold you for a while. Passing it would not be pleasant though!!!! :> :>

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Gary350
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This is the original video, how to make stone soup, it took me a whole to find this video again. Back in the day when people had no cook stove and no pots & pans how do you cook soup with no pots or pans. The soup bowls look like dried gourds maybe. Build a fire with lots of stones while they get hot fill the bowls with meat, vegetables & water. Put a stone in each bowl food is cooked and ready to eat in 10 minutes or so. Click the link watch the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6qLm0cYltM

There is another video where they make stone soup for the whole village. The big flat rock area next to the village has a dip in the rock they build a big fire full of stones several feet from the dip while village people fill the dip area full of what ever type meat they have, fish, rabbit, coat, vegetables and water. Then they start putting stones in the soup until it boils, they keep adding stones until it is cooked, then the whole village eats.

I use to do back country hiking & camping it was always a lot of trouble to haul cooking equipment 20 miles into the wilderness to cook, wish I had known about stone soup 40 years ago.



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