Cooking... with your car

Cooking... with your car
Reusing some waste heat in from your engine bay to cook a meal on your way home.

After I showed this to a few people, I found out that there is a book called "Manifold Destiny" on this very subject. I have not read it yet, but I'm told that there are quite a few recipe's with locations and times (miles).
 
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Step 1Gather Some Ingredients

Gather Some Ingredients
This was mostly improvised... But on my menu:

+Baked Chicken and Herbs (chicken breast, flour, your choice of herbs - I used mostly basil)
+Italian Chicken (chicken breast marinated in zesty Italian salad dressing cooked with pepper and onion)
+Red and Green Peppers and mushroom Noodles (used noodles from a ramen package, added a little EVOO, and cooked in vegetable stock)
+Baked Potato Pieces (salted with a little cooking oil)
+Baked Apples (sliced in half with a pat of butter and scoop of brown sugar)
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125 comments
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Sep 1, 2009. 8:03 AMSeaSkyShore says:
My husband and I are on our way to seattle from north idaho soon. This will be perfect for a nice mid trip dinner. I can't wait to try it. Perhaps some baked chicken with corn and some apple pie for dessert....
Jul 10, 2010. 1:11 AMKasm279 says:
Well, hello from Idaho! :D
Jan 19, 2012. 11:30 PMLadawnAschan says:
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Jan 4, 2012. 8:39 AMLynnBrownPhotography says:
Great idea, especially for when you are camping or something! :)

-Lynn
Jan 4, 2012. 8:35 AMJohnSams says:
Haha! Cooking with your car... Why not? Great idea.

If you have to cook in the dark, I would recommend a good flashlight, perhaps some kind of headlamp. You can read some of these LED Flashlight Reviews for more information.

Let's cook! :)
Dec 23, 2011. 8:33 PMcatherinemarquez46 says:
Really amazing, driving while cooking means a lot of things. I really want this recipe. the energy egg
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Dec 9, 2011. 10:57 AMdsuru says:
 i want to try this Racipe......
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Nov 20, 2009. 12:15 AMViolet_blue says:
Lol>you drove 100 miles and overcooked the chicken
 
Dec 3, 2011. 5:03 AMmban2 says:
hahaha, i think you should think very careful about how long is your journey and what kind of food that you want to make with your car

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Nov 24, 2011. 7:49 PMGene Updyke says:
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Aug 5, 2010. 12:29 PMspark master says:
Back in the 70's this was discussed in Mother Earth News. I took fried eggplant parm and made sanwiches and put them in the engine compartment, I wrapped them will, but it was skunky. The item MUST be in a meatl sealable container to work well, but it indeed cooked my eggplant parm and melted the cheese and made it very hot, albiet stinky. A cookie tin inside a cookie time would be nice.
Nov 18, 2011. 12:49 AMaleewya41 says:
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Aug 6, 2010. 7:04 AMspark master says:
Hi Treb, possibly , but under a car hood there is usually a smell of gasoline and in an older car (70's vintage Valiant) it definitely smelled like gasoline a bit. It transferred to the food. I cook daily on an alcohol stove for fun (eggs), so I understand wanting to do this, I mearly want to share with those that will try it that they need to seal their tasties in a reasonable vapor proof , heat conductive package. you can have cool water (some have claimed cold, i never tried this) you take a water jug wrapped in towels soak the towels and tie to fron grill (you might want a resevoir under it somehow ) then drive, after an hour of driving you get cool water (evaporation of water cools the water), if you have a foor rack it is even better, do it on the roof. Therre are versions of this concept here on instructables using flour pots and sand with water. sparky
Nov 3, 2011. 7:38 AMPhil B says:
Even with a "normally aspirated" car (i.e. uses a carburetor) I would want to check for something that may be causing gasoline to seep or leak--heavy float (common after a few years), hardened gaskets, loosened screws).

Once I was to meet my wife so we could go someplace and she had not eaten. I wrapped a frankfurter in aluminum foil and rested it on the exhaust manifold for the 30 minute drive. It was nicely cooked when she ate it.

Back in the mid-1960s I saw an article in the Minneapolis Star about a family that cooked roasts and potatoes on their engine when taking family vacations. It was the days before the Interstate highway system was widely in use and roadside rest parks were easy to find. They drove for a period of time, stopped, and turned their food so it could cook on the other side. When the food was done, they stopped at a rest park and ate it while seated at a picnic table.

My daughter was interested in this and I checked into the book "Manifold Destiny." It is out of print and available copies were quite expensive. I expect a person could do what you are doing--experiment and make notes.

I thought it would be interesting to make a basket or enclosed box that would absorb heat from the engine, but would also protect it from air drafts and from falling down to the road, as well as from tearing or opening of the foil so the food was contaminated by dirt or oil.
Nov 3, 2011. 11:00 AMklincecum says:
BTW, normally aspirated, or naturally aspirated doesn't mean it has a carburetor. It refers to engines without turbo, or superchargers. It refers to how it breathes.
Nov 3, 2011. 12:09 PMPhil B says:
You may be right. I remember hearing or reading "normally aspirated" as a reference to an engine with a carburetor. I do not remember where or when I heard it used that way, though.
Nov 3, 2011. 8:37 AMspark master says:
I never bought a copy but I saw it once, it may have been mentioned in Mother Earth News. Double cookie tins would work or real stainless pot in a cookie tin. you could add some dry sand in outer tin around pot to act as thermal fly wheel, but then you will add to cooking time. (no free lunch you must heat the stuff before the meal gets a going.

If you have a way to rig the outer pot safely even permanently you could add a few rows of foil ribbing. You use the tape used on exhaust ducks off boilers (stainless or aluminum metal tape). people use that technique to make collars for "heiny can" pots and thus get better boil times for Alcohol stoves (see you tube vids as well as )If you go to a camping store look at "Jet Boil" items. Google Bill Wrigley and alcohol stoves, and see his stuff, he came up with the foil tape idea.You could just take heat sinks from old computer equipment and rivet them on the outer can.

My car is now too new to screw with it, so I will not be mangling the guts of the engine compartment! But if I see a place for it.....hot dogs fer lunch with kraut and homemade NYC dog onions, mmmmmmm.. bettr then Hojo any day..

ttfn

Aug 6, 2010. 7:30 PMspark master says:
BTW do you trebuchet? at the neigyhbors or with their pets!!!!! such a chuckle, I need to make a cardboard one, just for chuckles. The plans are here on Instructables. Looks pretty cool. again, anything to piss off the neighbors. Unless they want one as well. big enough we can have water balloon wars. Hey , Hot time summer int he city!! bye foer now sparkie
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Nov 11, 2011. 9:11 AMDELETED_coupon015 says:
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Excellent receipe, it was a total success with my family! A+++ ;)
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Nov 3, 2011. 11:57 AMdasgemuse says:
Respect to the mazdaspeed
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Nov 2, 2011. 4:01 PMkarterricky says:
Wow, this is amazing. I never thought of this before. Nice post trebuchet03
Jun 10, 2008. 7:20 AMfatray says:
Mazdaspeed, lol.
Nov 2, 2011. 3:14 PMtaichung116 says:
I had been try it before , Put one chicken leg in the enginee, but I did contrl the cooking time so it's not hot enough alos fall down in a small hole in my car enginee. But I feel it's intresting. My experience, maybe put one steel plate and binding it. Maybe suitable for the long time driving! Expecialy in a rough road??

Nov 1, 2011. 11:06 PMjaryjohn23 says:
(removed by author or community request)
Jul 1, 2011. 9:50 AMfgredauer says:
I love Baked Chicken`s! Will test it soon !
Thanks
Mar 24, 2010. 1:34 AMdavidbue says:
There is a whole website dealing with this phenomena. It's an online cookbook called roadroast.com

The site is not that much visited but it's also just launched. Seems like a good idea tho.

/David
May 14, 2007. 12:57 PMLithium Rain says:
AWESOME!!! Just one question though...would it completely wreck the engine and other stuff in there if all of the food spilled?
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Author:trebuchet03
I'm an Engineer in San Francisco. Mass producer. Former Intern. Rapid Prototyper. Sometimes, I post Instructables. My Favorite number: 42 By profession - I am an energy engineer. I count electrons p...
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