Cooking With Your Car’s Engine 101
Hot Engine, originally uploaded by Ethan Parker
Ever heard the expression, It’s hot enough to cook an egg on the hood? If it’s that hot underneath the hood, it’s got to be hot enough to cook an entire rump roast inside the engine. Well, that is if you’ve got one of those engines that is, Clean enough to eat off of, as they say.
The green movement has brought us a batch of instructions (an even a book) by folks who have learned the fine art of cooking with their engine. Most any motor is a good source of heat, as we all know, so why not take advantage of it and put some of that to good use.
Some people claim that they can cook an entire meal by the time it takes them to commute from their office to their home. Imagine pulling into your driveway, with the smell of garlic herb chicken, hot potatoes, and steamed asparagus waiting for you and your family. Brings new meaning to the phrase, Daddy’s home!
How’s it Done
The process of cooking food on your engine is the same concept as using a grill. There are actually a number of items in your vehicle that heat to variable temperatures, so you will want to use this knowledge in order to keep from burning (or under cooking) your chosen menu items.
To give you a general rundown of your cooking surface choices, your basic exhaust manifold (headers) will give you the most heat. This is where you would put your raw meats, such as chicken, beef, pork, or even an entire fish.
Vegetables, rice, and noodles seem to cook nicely on the manifold or valve covers, while the radiator/radiator hose, is a good place to warm up items, such as leftovers. There are three words of caution for those who would like to try this at home (err, I should rather say, on the road).
One, make sure that any raw meats are cooked all the way through. Two, wrap your food well in aluminum foil, as spilled food all over your engine will lead to snickers from your mechanic. Three, don’t hit any massive bumps, or you just might lose dinner all over the road!
The Hot Rod Grill
Okay, while this sounds like an interesting endeavor to accomplish in life, for those who think that cooking on their actual engine is weird, you might be interested in the Hot Rod Grill (HRG). It is actually a scale model V-8 engine, complete with aluminum/chrome air cleaner, valve covers, manifold, and headers.
The headers actually serve as an escape route for the heat and smoke, while the rest of the design is simply a die cast aluminum rendition of the outside of an engine. It feature an electronic igniter (for the propane), temperature gauge, high quality stainless steel grates, and a drip catcher in the form of the oil pan (spark plug skewers sold separately).
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something new pops up and proves you wrong!
