I try to help readers think “outside the box” when it comes to improvising in an emergency and in this case that means “inside the bag”. When I teach emergency and primitive cooking classes I introduce the idea that conventional cooking apparatus is not needed in order to cook food. I’ll use a trowel or garden hoe to make hoecakes over coals or I’ll make soup in a rotating Gatorade bottle. It generally comes down to providing a barrier between the food and the heat source. In this case a plastic bag is used to contain the raw eggs that are submerged into boiling water to cook.
Boiling water is limited to 210 degrees Fahrenheit and thus cannot “burn” food that is cooked in it. It’s best to use a thicker plastic material as a container so a freezer bag works best. An added advantage is that having a transparent material allows you to monitor the eggs while they’re cooking. As usual, room temperature food elements cook quicker than when they’re frozen. Knowing these simple facts allow you to be both efficient in cooking and creative in your cuisine.
Eggs alone taste great but you can “take it up a notch” and create a gourmet omelet by scrambling the eggs and adding onions, bell peppers, sausage and more. Simply add the elements into a plastic bag, press out excess air and close the seal. You can hold the top of the bag by hand and submerge the bottom into boiling water for about 4 minutes or so. If the bag seems too hot to handle, you can use a stick to poke just under the seal and suspend it over the boiling water.
Although you can eat straight out of the bag after it cools a little, I prefer using a spoon, so don’t forget to bring one along when you try this at your next camp-out.