i have cooked Pot Roast with all the vegies wrapped in foil and laid on the manifold of my old plymouth station wagon—put it on in the am when we started out and stopped that afternoon late at a picnic table next to a lake and chowed down—it worked just fine—-wrap it well with several layers of heavy duty foil—dont know how well it would work on the little 4 banger that we drive now–but i bet it would on the 318 in my van![;)]

I collect old Popular Mechanic magazines, while browsing through an early "50’s" edition I saw a tailpipe cooker…. basically a pot inside a pot with an exhaust pipe connection….

I drive about 35K a year for business. I carry a mini kitchen and Weber suitcase grill w/ me all the time. Engine cooking is ok but fails about 20% of the time due to vibration, failed foil, or other reasons. I use it only about six to eight times per year and usually only for pot roast and baked potatoes.

I cooked my first "blockburger" about 45 years ago shortly after reading the PM article cited by Kiowa1.

During the late 60s, I was motoring through western North Carolina with my younger brother when we encountered a traffic stoppage becouse of an accident ahead. Since our foil-wrapped blockburgers had been "grilling" on the engine for over an hour, I popped the hood to see if they were ready to eat. Seeing me with my head under the hood, a state cop at the accident scene wandered over and asked if we were having mechanical problems. "No," I replied, "we’re just taking our lunch off the grill!" The state cop slapped his forehead and exclaimed,"Why didn’t I ever think of that! I’ve been driving patrols for 20 years and could have enjoyed many hot meals cooked on my engine block!"

A couple of years later, "Manifold Destiny: The one! The only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine!" was published. A quick check reveals that a few used copies of the book are available through the Amazon website.

When you go to the original recipe on the website ( http://soup.allrecipes.com/az/MnifldStw.asp ) it does list both times in different places on the page. I suspect the 4 to 5 hours is the correct time.

One of the reviews of this recipe (from 3/15/2005) contains the following:
"No joke, we used to do this when camping but wrapped chuck roast and veggies in alumunium foil, placed on engine, then set off to our destination. When we got there, maybe 8 hours away, our dinner was complete. By the time we (sic) camp was set up, we could sit down to eat. No kidding!"

When I was young (about 60 years ago), my father would put a can of baked beans on the manifold to heat up when we went on a trip, so we could have them hot with the picnic lunch we took. It always worked then, but car engines may well have been laid out differently at that time.

I’m skeptical. Travelling from Phoenix to North Dakota a few years ago, I stopped at Rudy’s BBQ in Albuquerque bought a rack of ribs, a variety of sides, iced tea and a bottle of sauce to go. I ate half of the ribs and the sides and had the other half-rack wrapped in foil to take along with me. Late the next day, somewhere in Kansas or Nebraska, I stopped and put the foil wrapped ribs atop the engine and resumed my trip. When I stopped to eat an hour later, the ribs were warm but nowhere near hot! I’m no expert, but I’m thinking that as long as the car is moving forward, it stays relatively cool under the hood. If you really want to cook under the hood of the car, I think the car should be parked and running (not terribly efficient, but might get the job done). Would love to hear more from folks that have actually done this.

With the pot holes we have on the LA Freeways…..

It would really be called

"All over the Manifold Stew!"

[:D]

60 MPH … !!! ???

I am so offended.

Clearly this should be in the new FAST Food Forum.

Moderators ???

Even with my truck, not enough room for the dutch oven.. But tightly wrapped in aluminum foil works just as well..

It’s good to see to talk on "real" road food.

I remember an article from "Popular Mechanics" (1960’s) that was about
car engine manifold cooking… all kinds of recipes… I remember they cooked hamburgers, hotdogs and beef stew…
I showed the article to my mom and remember her not thinking much about the idea… I thought it was cool…

Trout on the manifold is another one — wrapped in aluminum foil. Yet another along the same lines is fished poached in the dishwasher — yes, wrapped in foil, and no, not the easy clean-up thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Top

Kinda like squid al la muffler cooked by Portugese fisherman in New England.
Top

That must have been the "smoked" squid recipe.

Kinda like squid al la muffler cooked by Portugese fisherman in New England.
Top

I noticed that too.