How-To Experts at Storey Publishing - Storeys Curious Compendium of Practical and Obscure Skills

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by publishing practical information that encourages personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Carleen Madigan, Sarah Guare, and Hannah Fries

Art direction and book design by Alethea Morrison

Text production by Erin Dawson

Indexed by Christine R. Lindemer, Boston Road Communications

Photography and illustration credits appear under

Text 2020 by Storey Publishing, LLC

Ebook production by Kristy L. MacWilliams

Ebook version 1.0

September 15, 2020

Most of the text in this book is excerpted from previously published books by Storey Publishing. For a complete list of titles and author credits, see .

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Be sure to read all of the instructions thoroughly before undertaking any of the projects or techniques in this book. Follow all manufacturer's safety guidelines. Take proper safety precautions before using potentially dangerous tools and equipment or undertaking potentially dangerous activities.

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Are you curious about how things work? Do you like to roll up your sleeves and make stuff? Then this book is for you! Since we published our first book catalog in 1983, Storey Publishing has been teaching people how to garden, farm, cook, craft, build, fix, and heal. Our authors who include renowned herbalist Rosemary Gladstar, award-winning butcher Adam Danforth, and best-selling fermentistas Kirsten and Christopher Shockey are all experts in their field. They live their passions, tinkering, researching, teaching, and exploring, and their books are the distillation of their vast sea of knowledge.

We have sifted through this treasure trove of expertise to find the most compelling, useful, interesting, and enjoyable projects and information from the hundreds of Storey titles on our office shelves. As you flip through these pages, we hope you are delightfully surprised by what you find. Like to garden and bake? Maybe you should try baking bread in a flowerpot (see . And if you are hungry for more, be assured that theres a Storey book to guide you deeper into the topic of your choice. May the passion and enthusiasm of our authors be contagious, and may your life be enriched by the satisfaction and joy of having done it yourself.

The Makers and Doers of Storey Publishing

Build a Fire Pit for Outdoor Roasting

[Adapted from Cooking with Fire by Paula Marcoux]

Theres nothing quite like crisp, juicy meat cooked over a fire. An efficient and pleasant roasting hearth can be as simple as a saucer-shaped depression neatly lined with like-sized stones. Egg-shaped or oblong rocks about the size of a grapefruit or large orange are ideal. Some sand, for bedding the stones, is helpful if your soil is very heavy.

1. A rough, lumpy depression in the lawn is the perfect site for a new fire pit. Eyeball the size of the hearth youll need, based on your cooking plans, and scratch it on the ground.
   
2. Remove any turf and dig out a shallow, shapely pit a few inches deeper than your intention for the finished specimen. Rough it out with a shovel and use a trowel or your hand to smooth out the saucer. If your soil is heavy clay, you might want to spread about an inch of sand in the pit to make it easier to nestle the stones.
   
3. Line the pit with stone, starting from the center and working outward in a spiral. Tap the stones down with the butt of your trowel, another stone, or a rubber mallet. After the center of the hearth is established, work against the slope at the rear to build a subtle fire-back, intended to bounce heat back at future roasting projects.
   
4. Sprinkle sand or light soil over the whole thing and use a small broom or hand brush to sweep it around, allowing it settle into the cracks. Your pit is ready for roasting! It can be easily enlarged or modified with spit supports or a tripod to support a great range of cooking projects.
   

Smoke Meat on the Stove

[Adapted from Smokehouse Handbook by Jake Levin and Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll]

Stove-top smokers are a great way to start playing around with smoking without investing a lot of time, energy, or money. Its more than likely that you already have everything you need to put together a stove-top smoker: a pot, a steamer basket, aluminum foil, and wood shavings or sawdust. Youll need a good range hood fan or an otherwise very well-ventilated kitchen, or do it on a hot plate outside. Stove-top smoking is best suited for hot smoking smaller cuts of meat that only need a short smoking time foods like fish, poultry, steaks, pork chops, and tenderloins.