Being self-sufficient is one thing, but nailing a steak on a fire, now that is really off-grid living.
Whether you live off grid for survival or pleasure, being able to find tools in the wilderness for cooking is both achievable and exciting.
To be successful in cooking a steak on a stone comes from finding the perfect stone, something not too thick but definitely not too small. Here’s a guide to stone cooking – because we didn’t always have pots and pans.
Find Your Stone
This stone should be roughly one inch thick, keeping the stone at this size means it will heat up at an efficient rate rather than having to wait for hours for the stone to gain enough heat to cook a steak.
Related: 7 Primitive Cooking Methods You Still Need To Know Today
It is so important to remember that rocks full of moisture can explode when heated. Try to avoid glassy-looking rocks and go for a more rough rock. Granite is a great choice and is what we have used here.
Build Your Fire
We have dug a hole about 6 inches deep to ensure the flames stay inside the hole which will in turn help to create an oven like effect which will direct the flame onto the stone.
We found two large pieces of fire wood to hold the stone up, placed dry leaves, sticks and more fire wood beneath the stone.
Light Your Fire
Whether you like to light the fire from scratch or use a match or blowtorch, that is up to you. But it is handy for emergency and survival situations to know how to light a fire with the tools you have at your finger tips in the wilderness.
Dead branches are the perfect fire starter. Not only are fires great to keep warm but they are even better for cooking a steak.
When lighting a fire for cooking its important to make sure you keep the fire going, so have ample amount of wood, kindling and dry leaves near by to keep topping up your fire.
Related: How To Dig A Native American Dakota Fire Hole
Ensure your wood is untreated and clean. Maple, hickory and oak wood are great choices for cooking on a camp fire.
Cooking Steak On A Stone
Now the easy part, getting ready to put the steak on, once the stone has heated up, pour oil onto both the stone and the steak. You will want to use a canola or vegetable oil.
Be sure to rub this onto the steak with your choice of seasoning. Allow the oil some time to heat up before placing your steak, seasoning side down onto the hot stone.
Leave the steak to cook for 5 minutes, before flipping this over, then no more than 4 minutes on the reverse side, this will of course vary depending on the thickness of the steak.
Related: 11 Meat Processing Mistakes You Are Probably Making Right Now
Remove the steak from the stone and place on a chopping board or rock to rest for a further 3-5 minutes.
Eat and enjoy, the taste of flame grill with a side of freedom from electricity and power makes for a delicious dinner.
Key Points To Consider
Give your chosen stone a scrub before use, the heat will also help to kill any bacteria. The thinner the stone – the quicker it will heat up.
Don’t forget to put your fire out when you are done if you no longer have a use for it, this can easily be done by dousing the fire and fire bed with water and ensure it is cool enough before filling back in the hole you dug prior to cooking.
Related: 94 Wilderness Survival Tricks
Ensure you have a good look around the area before you begin, many areas of North American forest and grassland hold flammable materials that can lead to wildfires.
Having a good understanding of the weather is a must. Wet wood is not a good source of heat for a campfire to cook on.
Never chose your stone from next to or in a watering hole, this stone will likely have trapped water which is an indicator it will likely explode when heated.
If you find a great stone, you can certainly hold onto it. Just ensure once it is cooled down to give it a clean, you now have a frying pan for life. Dried grass can be a helpful cleaning tool for the rock, especially in a SHTF situation.
A flint striker is a handy little tool for surviving in the wilderness where matches aren’t always a viable option.
Seasoned hard woods will create less smoke when compared to other woods, this can be especially handy if trying to remain unnoticed.
If lucky enough to have other food to accompany your steak, such as vegetables, cook these on the same stone while the steak is resting, allowing the vegetables to soak up the meat juices and use the remaining oil.
Self-sufficiency in today’s economic climate is so very important. Life can be unpredictable and being able to both fend for yourself and provide for a family is essential.
Being able to live off-grid for either survival or pleasure is a skill that is often overlooked by the everyday person but for those who want to be prepared for anything, it can be the difference between life and death.
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Key points to consider, says put your fire out with water. I disagree on that, water will cause smoke to rise up and could cause you to be seen by someone.?
Don’t waste your water, put dirt on your fire and cover the whole fire quickly, so no smoke will be made. Bad enough the smell will attract unwanted guess.
Cook with caution…
Done some primitive cooking before. Was diffrent but can be done easily.
Good article for a time of Survival or just something diffrent for the family to do one night.
Maybe, be that wild man one night for the wife and cook her a stake on a rock. Cave man style.lol
Something to think about.
Stay sharp
We have a new troll.
Same troll, different name
A sense of humor will carry you a long way when all else turns black – that also was provided by the great Creator for times when a man has to step up to lead himself and his family out of the smoke and ruins —–
Don’t think God is humored to much at all of us down here on “HIS EARTH”, right now…
Agreed
I read your articles and comments often. Though it’s time for you to do some more research and reconsider your view of cooking oils.
I’m in my 60s so I remember when canola oil came into fashion. It was ‘canola’ – ‘can’ because the idea originated from Canada. I think ‘ola’ was for ‘oil’. Nevertheless canola came from machine oil. They took machine oil and turned it into a food just because they said so. So if you are eating canola oil in your diet, you have fallen into the trap of thinking it’s healthy. And vegetable oils are no better – often filled with GMO’s.
I’m not a big fan of canola oil, but sorry, it is a natural seed oil – unless you are buying something I don’t see..? There may be “counter-fit” forms out there, but real canola oil is not “machine oil”.
Canola (rapeseed) is a brassica (relative of broccoli, cabbage, etc), and I believe is non-GMO. A field of Canola oil seed plants is a beautiful sight in full bloom – a few local farmers where I live tried it back when it became popular, but harvesting required different equipment than we normally use around here, so the trend died out here quickly.
The seed place I buy sprouting seeds has canola seed for growing sprouts – I think it’s called True Leaf Market – I’ve never tried the canola sprouts, but I’m sure they are similar to a broccoli sprout.
If you have any documentation of canola oil being contaminated or “made” out of machine or petroleum oil, I would appreciate seeing it.
Check these out for canola oil info. myenaya.com/the-dangers-of-canola-oil, samllfootprintfamily.com/the-inconvenient-truth-about-canola-oil, bulletproof.com/diet/healthy-eating/what-is-canola-oil
Canola is near 100% GMO, Soy bean oil is also. I always avoid them.
Yes, it is a natural seed oil. It is what they do to it that makes it bad for you.
I would have been much more impressed with this article if the author described how he gathered the seeds in advance of procuring the steak to make his own oil. Now that would be a complete recipe.
After doin a lil “catching up” on oils, boy are you right! Years ago i got rid of everything except Virgin Olive oil. I cook with it, butter and bacon grease. However, i just learned a bit about Refined Coconut oil that makes me think i need to add it to my regimen. Initially i was pretty skeptical about the “machine oil” origin, as i’ve worked in machine shops, repair shops, etc for most of my adult life and never saw any non-petroleum based products used. But, the truth is that canola oils did come from machinery usage, mostly in the maritime industry and after WW2 wound down it was repurposed as cooking oil and has been tweaked numerous times since, mostly not for the better. Thanks for the info, it has opened my eyes to another healthy oil that can be used safely.
Rapeseed oil was originally used for industry because of its high erucic acid content which was harmful to the heart muscle. Subsequent breeding and then GMO tinkering has greatly reduced that these days. The new plants were called Conola to differentiate between the industrial and the edible oil types. Wish they would do the same with hemp to differentiate between the medical and the industrial types.
Also, if you are in a SHTF situation, and trying to cook, are you going to have any oil handy? Probably not.
As many other comments point out, canola oil is a vegetable oil made from selected varieties of rape seed and is often but not always GMO. Personally I’d use some of the fat collected from the animal the steak came from. Better flavour and probably easier to come by in the wild. The fat around the organs, kidney, heart, intestines, is usually the best and easiest to collect.
Oil seems the least of the problem, where ja get the steak? and the bacon pictured? Looks to me like if you got all that just bringing a pan wouldn’t be a bad plan.
The store…….
Good article, but I’ve sort of been doing this since I saw Riker do it on Star Trek: Next Generation back in the 90’s. He made eggs though, if I remember right. I did really scrap the dirt off. Don’t know what the wildlife has been going to the bathroom on.
I just want to mention, never use slate in any fire pit or for cooking on.
It will snap, crackle, pop, break, and shoot slices/pieces away from the fire everywhere.
Thank you, helpful article; appreciate it.
Agree on avoiding wet stones. Article recommends granite but as this is a crystalline rock with differing coefficient of expansion between crystals (e.g. quartz and feldspar) it is one of the most likely to ‘explode’ when heated. Basalt, while containing roughly the same minerals, has fine crystals and can withstand more temperature variation. Don’t know about slate? – not native to my area.
Can’t see using firewood to support the stone either- when it burns the stone will fall, putting your hard-won steak into the ashes. Use other similar rocks and clay as the base of the ‘stove’.
When extinguishing a fire, make sure that the covering will not collapse if someone steps on it or they will have third degree burns to the feet from the still-hot ashes below.
Survval
I moved to a small village in March of this year,
Thought it was a nice little village to live in .
Its now eight moths latter and my house has been broke into.
My car ramps stollin Two power saws. Bow anrrow.
two pair of cow boy boots , Gas out of my car and truck..
, So if you think little town are safe and friendly.
Think a gain. A lot of them are hard up as hell .
They will steel you bline , If you do not have the right kind of lock
they can pick it or force it open,
Chance are when your new to move in,
There going to tell you that they have a lot of good people here
REALLY ??????????????????????????????????????????????
Your trust value drops to zero.
It maters not how many lights you have on out side,
You need to keep your guns load at all times,
Put in drive way alert alarm’s
And Join no clubs or churches till you know how they run there village.
They might even call you and pose a a health insurance salesmen and at the end of you phone call be for hanging up on you, They think they got you on the hook to buy,
Then they will ask you what you yearly income is,
This is none of there business,
And if you refuse to answer that question,
They will quote you what they think it is , ,
That way they will know how hard to tax you.
Find out how much they can steel from you,
and watch any improvement youmake,
and get in side your house when your not home,
If you live a lone , your a pretty good target for them.
This is what i have been Putting up with in KENDALL ,Wisconsin
Yup we got some good people here,
My advice when your treated like that ,
Do no business in that village you do not need to,
It may be best at look in another place a way from a lot of population..
But even that is getting rear,, and if you do find that small peace of heaven .
The price will be clear to mars for it.
No longer the moon,
So if you think a small town villages living is wonderful . to live in .
Give all this some consideration , .
Keep your guns loaded,
Its the only thing these low life’s may understand .
Death comes quickly at gun point. .
When the real law is to lame to in force,
Most small village have a police officer .
This helps but some do not,
Something to check if you de side to leave the city.
I moved from a 13000, to 250 ,
Never had any thing stooled in the 13000,
As for your in come , Its a bout how there going to get there hands on it
in a small village,
There some times have a hard time coming up with money to keep
up there village,
Well the truth is , if you do move to a small village,
Beware of all this, Its better to keep to you self.
And keep what you have locked up or it will grow feet and walk off,
And get a dam good lock that can not be picked.
And I am sure that a issue like this has never been talk a bout no this site,
I like this site really well because they do not block your statement.
Many of the people are good people that share there comment on this site.
I for got one thing,
These small towns people like to mock you in Kendall .Wis.
Vary Clicky,
Small mined that have fallen in to the BS and not enough brains to see there way out.
Can’t help but notice that the pictured steak is almost burnt on the outside and medium rare on the inside. This means that if I cooked it to medium well as I like, it would be nothing but charcoal on the outside.
To avoid this trouble, you should never cook it over a high flame. Wait until you have a good set of even coals, which also means your rock will be well heated and hasn’t exploded. Lol
I also weigh heavily toward using the fat from the animal you are eating rather than highly processed, possibly gmo (if you are eating canola, you’d better HOPE it’s gmo, because natural rapeseed is toxic to humans) oils that also often have a lower smoke point.
Fun fact, rapeseed oil WAS used exclusively for industrial lubricant, up until WWII when there was a shortage of cooking fats. The name canola was originally just the brand name given by the Canadian oil company that produced it, but was quickly adopted as the common name of all rapeseed oil, possibly because people don’t like to use the word rape in casual conversations.
It really took off in usage in the 80s as a “healthy alternative” oil because the human body cannot digest it properly, so it was assumed that it wouldn’t count as caloric intake. Of course this was during the “eating fat will make you fat” philosophy wherein everything fat free was supposed to be better for you. More in depth research has since determined that the body doesn’t just benignly pass it through because it can’t digest it… go figure.
Skip the stone, get a good bed of coals and cook the steak right in top of the coals. I cook all my steaks on top of wood charcoal now.
Several comments: Supposedly this is for SURVIVAL.
1. It is doubtful that you’ll have a nicely cut STEAK to cook on a stone. More likely poorly butcher venison…
2. CANOLA oil or some other? You are scrambling to survive in the wilderness, where are you going to have commercial oil? Have you packed it on your back for a week, ranging the wilderness?
If you are doing this primitive thing for fun, this will work fine. If you are looking at SURVIVAL, you better rethink your methods
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, very tasty
Finding the right rock and building the fire is the easy part. Finding a steak out in the wilderness is going to be a challenge