Cooking on an engine: hot dogs.

Independance Day weekend was special for us this year. We celebrated our independance from those pesky Britons and, this year, our fledging indepence from anything resembling a conventional cooking applience. I say fledging because the rest of the year we cooked like normal people. In fact, it was really just this one isolated incident of engine-top cooking. Here's how it happened...

There was very little pre-meditation.

We were making a the five-hour drive home from "up north" at the tail-end of our Independence Day weekend of camping. As I pulled-in to a gas station to fill the car's tank and empty my own, I felt the initial hints of coming hunger. Sometimes gas station hot dogs hit the spot for me, but it seemed weired to buy one, when we had several left-over weiners in our cooler...

Do you "smell what I'm steppin' in"?

Hmmm....I'd eat a hot dog right out of the cooler, but it'd be cold still. I had heard of people cooking food on their car engines...since my hunger was still faint at this point, and I knew we'd have another stop in about an hour...this option became my only option.

The gas station didn't sell aluminum foil for anything less than the price of gold (by weight), so I opted for a .50-cent alumninum container (it came with Diet Coke in it) instead - it was no more and no less than what I needed. I opened the top with my Leatherman, fished two cold hot dogs out of our cooler and popped the hood. Arthur gave me a hand

Arthur and I strategically placing the hot dogs.

Technically, the hottest part of the engine would be the exhaust manifolds, but on a Subaru Legacy they're kind-of burried (low on the engine block). So I found a decent spot on top, near the intake manifold, where the can would be supported between the brake fluid resivoir and the alternator. Anyway, I wasn't looking for high-heat: I prefer slow-cooked.

If I had not bought "bun-length" dogs, they would have fit in the can.

Closing the "oven door" I wanted to ensure that I had enough clearance.

An hour later...perfect engine-cooked hot dogs.