Once you find a suitable spot, clear the ground of anything that might burn – leaves or dry grass. If the ground is very damp, make a stand with live branches to light the fire on. Place small green twigs, no more than 60 cm long, on the ground like grill grates. This will allow the air to circulate under the fire. Green branches will not burn out soon and will remain in place as a hearth. If the wind is very strong, you can dig a small hole and make a fire in it. So you can protect the fire from the wind, especially at the moment when you will kindle it. Fallen trunks can be used to protect the fire. But remember: a fire, lit under the protection of a fallen tree, must be watched all the time, and when leaving, carefully extinguish.

COLLECTION OF FUEL FOR THE FIELD

These are materials that ignite easily: with their help, you can easily set fire to branches collected for a fire. Such materials are dried grass stems, birch bark, pine cones, bracken fern – even dried orange peel or an old, empty bird’s nest. In a word, everything that easily flares up when a match is brought to it. (Some suggest using dry leaves, but they only smolder, not burn.)

One of the best materials for lighting a fire is pine resin. It is a kind of sap that can be found under the bark. Resin is often oozing from damaged areas of the trunk. If there are many fallen pine branches nearby, chop up the knots and you will see resin-soaked wood, or scoop up resin from the bark of living trees.

Stock up on material for kindling, collect brushwood. For a fire, dried branches on trees are best suited – they are drier than those that have fallen to the ground. Break off branches 30–40 cm long. If there are no such small branches on the trees, saw off the larger ones and chop them into pieces.

OUTDOOR IMPROVISATIONS

If you cannot find a suitable ignition material, cut thin strips of wood from a thick branch or log and cut them into pieces no larger than a match. To light a fire, you need a handful of these. You can use a cotton or woolen cloth to ignite (just before the hike, check if it is on or not), toilet paper, plain paper, cardboard and a card soaked in vaseline.

The best woods are birch, cedar, cypress, spruce, larch, blue spruce, holly and yew branches. The ability to distinguish between tree species is a very useful skill. Scouts recognize whether a branch is suitable for a fire in the following way: they hit it, and if there is a crackling sound, it means that it is dry and will burn well. If the branch is bent or does not crack, it means that it is damp from the inside or still alive and is not suitable for a fire.

Kebab in the pit

This method is one of the most technologically simple: it does not require a grill, a kebab, or even a marinade. Meat – beef, pork or lamb – just cut it into small pieces, season with salt and pepper, and then wrap each piece in foil. In the ground, you need to dig a hole such that the meat takes up no more than half of the space in it. In the pit, stones, previously heated over a fire, should be laid, burdock leaves on them, and meat wrapped in foil on top. All this must also be covered with burdock leaves, and covered with earth or sand on top so that the pit is not visible.

In this way, the meat will be cooked rather slowly, but gourmets assure: for the sake of such a unique taste it is worth the wait! The kebab can be dug out of the ground in about 3.5 hours. The meat is very soft and juicy.

Kebab in charcoal lemonade

The brazier can be easily replaced with a simple construction of bricks folded in a circle. Inside you need to make a fire, and when the wood burns out, fry the meat over coals in a grill for meat with a clamp. You can hold such a grate in your hands and turn it over without fear that the kebab will fall out of it.

Meat marinated in lemonade is best cooked on a wire rack.

For this cooking method, gourmets recommend an unusual marinade, which is especially suitable for pork. A kilogram of meat will require the same amount of red onions, a liter of cola, half a liter of mineral water, 3-4 lemons and various seasonings to taste. Pour cola with mineral water into a large container, add lemon juice, chopped onion rings and seasoning there. Put the meat cut into pieces in the marinade and put under a press in a cold place overnight. Cooking shish kebab relies on a wire rack, periodically pouring lemonade marinade over the meat. The taste of such meat is very bright and rich.

Shish kebab on an open fire

This method will appeal to those who do not like the long process of preparing meat directly for frying. In order to cook a skewer on a skewer, the meat does not need to be marinated and cut in advance. A piece of meat weighing about a kilogram is suitable – pork or lamb is preferable. You need to string the meat on a skewer or a regular stick and fry it directly over an open fire, slowly turning it over and pouring it with marinade: you can use any sauce that you have enough imagination for.

When the meat is covered with a golden crust, it’s time to cut the top layer into a plate with a sharp knife, and continue to cook the rest over the fire. Pieces of meat should be sequentially cut off as they cook, until you get to the very center. Fans of this method believe that this is the only way the kebab is evenly fried and it turns out perfect.