the kettle had some action today.....

Loaned my 20 gallon kettle out to the guys up at camp several weeks ago for making a batch of Hobo stew at a GTG we had up there. Then our buddy Brian (who lives a quarter mile from camp) asked if he could use it for his pig roast yesterday, they cooked around 8 dozen ears of sweet corn yesterday. I brought it home this morning and we did a modest 2 dozen for our annual labor day picnic at mom and dads place. Something about cooking over that fire that makes the corn taste better......call me crazy!

Starting the fire..


fire's goin good


kettle's on the boil


in goes the corn....


10 minutes later she's ready!

Your far from crazy, or we are all crazy. Cooking outdoors over a fire, on the grill or in a smoker is the best!

Is that the same kettle you use for maple syrup?

Nice kettle.

I like to peel the husks back on corn, remove the silk, soak them for an hour or so. I then put butter and salt on the corn, pull the husks back up and grill them until done. They steam in the husks, and taste fine with a slight smokey flavor.

Dennis, yes this is the same kettle I used to use for making syrup. I have since built the evaporator, which is WAY more efficient, but I think the kettle cooked syrup tasted better because it got some of the smoke while cooking.....

Very cool setup.

Love the yellow chute in the background, did you use that for loading the kettle or feeding the fire?

I think we're gonna do a big kettle of ham and bean soup in a month or so, hope to can a bunch of that to eat over the coming winter this year. That stuff is fantastic fresh or reheated in a pan on the woodstove when the snow's flyin'.....

Defiant, believe it or not I overkilled that project too! I weigh 205lbs and I take of for a "test" ride every now and then...just to be sure it is safe for the kids!

Man that brings back memories of my grandparents...they used to have a large caldron out in the back yard they used for everything.
I wonder what in the world ever happened to that caldron...got me thinkin now...

Yeah it brings back memories here, too! That kettle, believe it or not, is one I made out of a washtub from an old Speed Queen wringer washer. It's all stainless steel, easy to clean and should last forever. Not to mention it's waaaay lighter than the old cast iron or copper kettles.

The one my Grandparents had was solid cast iron. I would love to know where it went. Bet one of my Aunts carried it off to be a planter or some crap.

My wife would kill to have that kettle set up...Looking Good Scotty!

We use it an awful lot! Simple to make too!

Scott, I'd love to see a picture of the evaporator.

Here it is, Sav!

Here's a little video of our first batch of 2012 finishing off. We made the pan out of stainless steel, it is 4' x 3' x 9". The pan holds 50 gallons of sap, versus the kettle's 20 gallons. I can boil off around 25 gallons an hour when the fire is stoked religiously. That evaporator sucks up almost a truckload of wood in two days cooking!

Cant believe I missed this thread!??! Looks great as always.

(Dropped my phone in water Sat at my Sons Football game, it has worked on and off until yesterday).

Stacked wood in the background looks great. I dont want to hear about other peoples stacks. You are in the Wall Of Wood Hall of Fame too. Your stacks are a sight to be seen.

Maybe you should cut down on the sauce a little

Not suppose to play football in the pool Dex!

need to find me a kettle for soups/stews. would like an old cast iron.

Scott - where did you get that kettle? I've seen something like it at Lehman's Hardware (in Ohio Amish country) but it was wicked expensive.

Thanks,

TimfromOhio

Tim, that kettle is stainless steel, out of an antique Speed Queen wringer washer from the mid 1950's. I believe it was only one year of production that they used the stainless steel washtub in those washers. I found that one in a barn I tore down a couple years ago. I TIG welded a stainless steel patch to close off the agitator hole, and made the chain hangers for it. I have a total of 0 dollars in the kettle (one bottle of maple syrup for my buddy who owns the TIG), a couple dollars in chain, and the pipe to make the tripod was free from pipe and a scrap trampoline at my neighbor's scrap metal business. Look on ebay, from time to time I see those stainless washtubs on there. Or check out the web, never know what your gonna find!

Thanks Scott. Question though. How do you drain the syrup off? I did not see a spigot on the pan. Did I just miss it?

There is a small outlet at the one front corner of the pan (1/4" stainless pipe nipple), if you look at the one frontal picture you can see it in the bottom corner of the pan. have a pipe plug in there, when I drain of off I take that plug out. I have to make a longer pipe with a ball valve on it, if I was to put the ball valve right against the pan, it would get too hot. Still some modifications to do on it, hopefully get all the bugs worked out of it next season. Every year you learn something new!