On a recent work trip to Madagascar I had the opportunity to meet several work crews in the jungle, and witness how the local people had developed a myriad of ways to put a pot over a fire to cook (rice or soup). I would have assumed that a single best setup would have evolved to dominate and render all other designs obsolete; as you will see this was not the case. I am not going to go into detailed descriptions of how to construct these cooking stoves, I have never attempted these myself and the images are really quite self explanatory.

***Make sure that you are not building a fire under dry forest conditions and always have several liters of water ready to put out your fire if it gets out of control***

The example above can be called the Delta design.

Find a Y shaped section of a branch
Sharpen the base
Push, or pound it into the ground on a slight slope
Affix two other branches to form a V into the crook of your Y shaped branch
You can adjust the height of the pot by sliding it towards or away from the Y and adjusting the position of the supports to hold your pot up.

Step 1: TRICORN DESIGN

This was actually the most common setup that I saw. You basically push three separate sections of branches into the ground to support your pot. Nice wet wood is better here because the pieces will get charred.

Step 2: THE HANDLER

This was the design that really got me interested. In this case I think they chopped off a sapling near the base with a machete and trimmed the edge so that if fit snugly through the handle of the pot.

Step 3: THE FULL KITCHEN

These guys were really organized. They shoveled a notch in to the slope and built a simple rectangular frame (without nails or rope) to hang the pot, but also to keep the bugs off their pans.