The Canned Tuna & Toilet Paper Cooking Hack For Your Travels

On my festival travels I have gotten to know a dude who had served in the Israeli army and who shared a rather useful cooking hack with me one night when we were sitting by our tents talking about life. And since I am in the middle of my "Hitchhiker's Guide to Actuality" series, I thought this might be a great time to share it with you all - to share something useful pertinent to the challenge of hitchhiking and to mix things up a bit.

Remember, the detours and discoveries are often what can make hitchhiking such a marvelous experience. The little things, and the insights you will take away from your journey.

First of all this hack applies to canned tuna, or canned fish of any sort. Now that I think about it, any canned food that is soaked in oil would probably work with this hack, so if you can find some canned and oiled artichokes or something like that you may want to give this hack a try as well.

This hack will work especially well with tuna because it is so dense in fats and energy which makes it a great hitchhiking food, especially the way we are "preparing" it here.

As my friend Dany stated, all you basically need is a can of oiled tuna, a can opener of sorts, and few pieces of toilet paper. Yes, really! You will also need a lighter in order to "cook" this mighty "dish".

The process

First of all, dig a small hole in the ground for the can, giving it some extra depth for wind protection.

Take a few pieces of toilet paper and fold them until you have a thick layer of them - anything from half your fingers thickness and up should work. Also take a few pieces of toilet paper and crunch them up into some sort of loose ball.

Now open the canned tuna and make sure you don't spill that oil. Remove the lid and place your prepared toilet paper layer directly onto the surface layer of the tuna. It will act as a sort of protection layer against ash and it's a good idea if the layer covers the entirety of the open can without much TP reaching over its edges.

The TP layer should already start to soak up the oil, now place the crunched toilet paper ball onto the TP layer and make sure it starts soaking as well.

Take that whole gizmo-contraption and put it into the hole in the ground.

Now take your lighter and light the crunched TP ball on fire until it becomes a self-fueling blaze. The oil from the can will act as fuel, continuously keeping the flame alive like an old oil lamp.

Now you simply wait a bit. You can peak beneath the TP layer after a while to see how much oil is left in the can. Cooking times can vary, I think I gave mine a good 15 minutes or so when I first tried it.

After you are done you simply remove the TP layer and its ashes in one swoop, leaving you with some deliciously cooked and seared tuna. Awesome!

It's quite ingenius actually - not only will the tuna be warm, there will also be a light sense of roast to it because we used an open flame to heat it. It may get somewhat crunchy towards the sides of the can and it's perfect for being eaten right out of the can with a fork.

If you are a deluxe traveller you have some bread with you to put it on - but just the fish itself is a great replenishment of your energy on the road and will be totally welcome if all you had for days were snacks and cold foods.

A can of tuna does not weigh too much, is rather small and you won't have to bring extra cooking gear like pots or a camping stove, which is a perfect combination if you want to travel light and still have some sort of warm meal along the way that will fuel your body for a while.

So to all of you vegetarians and vegans out there: Should you ever try this with some sort of oiled veggies will you get back to me and tell me how that worked out for you? I'm rather curious.

In gratitude for having elevated all our travel and survival skills I want to say: Thanks for that mighty travel hack Dany!

Bon appetit!

If you want to read up on my hitchhiking series thus far here you go:The Prospect & The Challenge - Foreword
Part 1 | Preparation - Tackling Fears & Hugging The Unexpected
Part 2 | Preparation - Time, Distance & Availability
Part 3 | Preparation - Clothing & Apparel

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