In today’s world, appliances that rapidly heat our food through electricity are prevalent; electric ovens, cooktops, and microwaves are found within most kitchens in the United States. Our kitchens not only have efficient cooking methods, but they are also climate controlled, which makes cooking more convenient, consistent, and streamlined, while being less reliant on the weather. Kitchens are rooms that are well designed to provide you with the tools needed to prepare the ever present necessity of nutrition.
Despite the ubiquity of our modern cooking devices, we often consider rustic cooking methods to be more flavorful, such as grilling, smoking, or roasting over a campfire; all of these methods have one thing in common: fire. Why is it that we choose to leave our kitchens and modern technology that are ideally suited for food preparation to embrace a rudimentary style of cooking? Think about it, we could electrically cook our food to perfection without any burning, yet it is the smoke, char, and caramelization that we desire, which are all qualities in the direction of burning. Don’t simply take my word for it, feel free to leave your opinion in the comments or following poll.
Consider this: if the power goes out and you no longer have access to electricity, you cannot cook your food in an oven or microwave; how are you going to heat or cook your food? Sure, you could order food, go to a restaurant, or eat precooked meals, but if the power outage is widespread and prolonged enough, you will have to cook at some point. What are you going to do?
I suppose the obvious answer is fire, our old friend that can be summoned in a moment’s notice. Regardless of the extent of an outage or catastrophe, fire is always hot and absolutely capable of cooking. While it is a significant inconvenient to lose the use of your conventional cooking devices, you could choose to focus on the positive side and enjoy the unexpected, yet delightfully adulterated, fire-roasted meal.
Though our technology and knowledge is ever advancing, I like to think that rudimentary technology is never truly obsolete.
Onward American 