I Tested Wilderness Cooking Hacks

0:00 Food is often the difference between surviving in the wild and not.

0:03 And for years, the Internet has claimed that it's figured out

0:06 survival food hacks that will not just help you survive, but thrive!

0:09 But which of these will actually work?

0:11 Which are safe, and which should never be attempted?

0:13 That's why I'm bringing in wilderness and survival

0:17 expert Coyote Peterson to put these to the test.

0:19 Coyote, where do we begin?

0:21 I always like to start with fire.

0:22 There are many different ways to start fire,

0:24 from friction, your magnifying glass to...

0:26 harness the power of the sun to start a flame.

0:28 And supposedly, if you've got a bag of Doritos, you can start a fire.

0:32 I always feel like they start a fire in my tummy when I eat them!

0:34 Let's test it.

0:35 You got this.

0:36 You got this.

0:37 I see flame on the Dorito.

0:38 Oh, there we go!

0:38 There we go!

0:39 Okay, that Dorito is definitely on fire.

0:41 Wow!

0:41 That's working shockingly well.

0:42 Flamin' Hot Doritos.

0:43 That's my favorite kind.

0:47 Oh, yeah, we're good now!

0:49 We made fire!

0:50 From Doritos!

0:51 Does it work?

0:52 Yes, it does.

0:53 Is it safe?

0:54 I mean, relatively.

0:55 Would I trust this?

0:56 This one's got me a little stumped.

0:58 That's insane!

0:58 Cook a cheeseburger on this.

0:59 I wouldn't ever probably dump out all my Doritos into a fire like that.

1:03 But see the inside of the Dorito bag?

1:04 It's silver.

1:05 You can use this as something to flash and signal

1:07 at an airplane or somebody to let them know that you're in danger.

1:10 You can also use this to put water in, or if you injure your hand,

1:13 you could wrap this up to keep it dry and make

1:16 sure that you didn't get any infection into those cuts.

1:18 I'm going to go double thumbs up on this one.

1:20 That's pretty cool.

1:21 That's a thumbs up!

1:21 So we have bread on a stick.

1:23 Now, how the heck is this going to work?

1:25 If you're in a survival situation where you somehow find yourself with flour,

1:30 water, salt, baking powder, you can make bread.

1:33 Oh, yeah.

1:33 You also need a Ziploc bag.

1:34 Massage it, knead it throughout the bag.

1:36 Make sure that that water is evenly distributed.

1:39 Let's see how we're looking.

1:40 It is beginning to look like dough.

1:41 This dough could really use some more hydration.

1:43 But you take your dough and you wrap it around a stick or a log.

1:48 I like this rig.

1:49 This is a good rig here.

1:51 You're going to set this over an open flame, being careful not to burn it,

1:55 rotating it occasionally until it's baked throughout.

1:58 Took about 20 to 30 minutes, and we have Bigfoot's toe.

2:01 Yeah, I'll try it.

2:02 Looks pretty good.

2:02 Oh, it's actually quite soft.

2:04 Breaking bread here.

2:06 Wow!

2:06 Actually really good.

2:07 Now, do you have butter in your pocket as well as salt, Josh?

2:11 Josh!

2:11 No!!

2:12 This one works.

2:13 I mean, the bread tastes good.

2:13 If you had, like, something to eat with this, it'd probably be even better.

2:16 I think it's got some bitter elements from the smoke that's hit it for so long,

2:20 but overall, I mean, it's safe, it works.

2:21 I would trust it if I had all these things.

2:23 Camping hack.

2:24 Not necessarily a survival hack, but we're gonna say thumbs up.

2:27 Okay.

2:28 So there are obviously smaller versions of cooking an animal, right?

2:31 You can cut it up, maybe you have segments of an animal, whatever.

2:33 But what if you have a whole bird?

2:35 Say, a whole chicken, supposedly.

2:36 If you take the chicken...

2:38 Who needs a glove?

2:39 And you set it on a stick.

2:40 This is the first time I've ever seen this.

2:43 Place a bucket, ideally a metal bucket, over the chicken.

2:48 What's the next step?

2:49 I think we're supposed to lean burning logs against

2:51 the bucket so that the heat cooks the chicken.

2:53 There's a lot of residual heat, but that wouldn't be enough to heat it.

2:56 Now that you've put the coal base on top of the bucket,

2:58 on the other hand, I think you have tons of downward heat.

3:00 So, what I think will happen is we'll end up with a half-cooked

3:04 chicken that's mostly burnt and then raw the rest of the way.

3:06 I think that if either of us try to eat any of this chicken,

3:09 we're going to get extremely sick.

3:10 Coyote, I think you're wrong.

3:12 I'm going to say we got a 50% cooked chicken, possibly 75%.

3:15 And is it okay to eat 75% cooked chicken?

3:18 No.

3:18 I guess we'll find out.

3:19 This takes a while to cook,

3:20 so we're going to check on this at the very end of the video.

3:23 So in the meantime, let's move on to the next hack.

3:26 So you've stumbled upon a can of unmarked soup.

3:29 Great!

3:29 You can eat the soup,

3:30 but you can also use the can to turn it into a stove to heat the soup.

3:35 This feels kind of dumb.

3:36 I feel like you could just put something in a fire and call it a day.

3:39 We're here to test it.

3:40 I've got a lot of problems with what this one is.

3:43 The biggest risk that you would face in cutting apart a can

3:46 like this is that you might accidentally slice your hand open,

3:50 and then you're in a worst-case scenario.

3:52 Let's get the soup out.

3:53 Slop it on in there.

3:54 So now, if you built a fire and you put that into the fire,

3:57 it could be fantastic, but you can technically put some wood or some

4:00 charcoal inside of it and light that, heat it up,

4:02 and then we've got warm tomato soup.

4:04 Or if you need to boil water to then drink it.

4:06 This is true.

4:07 Did you bring anything for grilled cheese?

4:10 So after everything's said and done,

4:12 this feels more like a weapon than it does a stove.

4:15 Assuming you have some coals in there and you got some wood.

4:18 Okay.

4:18 Pan goes on.

4:19 Just like when I used to live under

4:21 that bridge before my YouTube channel was cranking views!

4:24 Does it work?

4:25 Yeah, sort of.

4:26 Is it safe?

4:26 No.

4:27 It doesn't look real safe to me.

4:30 It's just a smoke bomb now.

4:32 This pan is going to look bad after this.

4:34 I can almost guarantee you, though.

4:36 It smells terrible.

4:37 Oh, my gosh!

4:38 Thumbs down.

4:40 Is this supposed to be flaming that much?

4:41 Somebody call the fire department!

4:42 This one's out of control!

4:43 So if you're somehow lucky enough to have a bunch of tools with you,

4:47 but you don't have a grill, maybe there's a way to make a makeshift grill.

4:50 This is really a question of: can

4:52 you make something high-quality and enjoyable here?

4:55 A lot of these hacks just kind of get you

4:57 by, but this one might actually help us properly thrive.

5:00 Supposedly, all you need is a disposable sheet pan,

5:03 a wire rack, and some hot coals.

5:05 Burger time.

5:06 Chef!

5:07 I'm a little skeptical that we're gonna be

5:08 able to cook these patties all the way through,

5:10 but I guess we'll see what's gonna happen.

5:11 With the kinds of foods you're normally preparing,

5:13 I don't know if this is like grade-A Wagyu or something like that.

5:16 No, it's just from H-E-B.

5:17 Diamond Kosher, the best salt brand in the world.

5:19 I may not have drinking water, I may not have any clothes,

5:22 but I will have Diamond Kosher salt.

5:24 Okay.

5:25 You know, I can actually...

5:26 I can hear some sizzling happening.

5:28 I think these are actually going to cook.

5:29 How long?

5:29 Look at that!

5:30 We got some flame going!

5:32 It's actually too much flame.

5:33 Oh, my God!

5:34 Okay, this is actually working shockingly well.

5:36 It's the actual fat that's leaking out of the burger

5:38 that's helping these coals build up a little bit of flame.

5:41 My one goal here is when I flip this, I just want an amazing Maillard.

5:44 I want to flip it, and I want you to be like, "Oh, my God!" What's a Maillard?

5:51 That looks pretty good.

5:52 That looks good.

5:53 That's Maillard, baby!

5:54 Okay.

5:54 Hypothetically, anything that is metal and/or very, very heatproof,

5:58 that could handle coals in it and any form of metal

6:01 mesh that won't let things fall through, it should work.

6:04 What if you want a cheeseburger?

6:05 Oh, this guy came prepared!

6:08 Let's go...

6:09 The finishing touch, the cheese.

6:10 I mean, this is not bad looking, guys.

6:12 I'm pretty impressed.

6:13 Cheers to Josh!

6:14 Cheers!

6:14 Josh's Juicy Burgers.

6:17 Oh, wow!

6:18 That's actually really good.

6:19 Yeah.

6:20 That is insane how juicy that is!

6:22 Does it work?

6:23 Yes.

6:23 Is it safe?

6:24 Yes.

6:24 Would I rely on it In a moment?

6:26 If I was driving out somewhere and I didn't have a grill,

6:29 but I was planning on grilling,

6:30 I probably would have all of these things already on hand.

6:33 I'd give it a pass.

6:34 But like, in the world of survival, how are we going to survive with this?

6:36 Yeah, I think we give it a mid.

6:38 Moving on.

6:39 So in a survival situation, if you come across water,

6:41 it's obviously going to sustain life.

6:42 But you can't just drink water out of any source because

6:45 there could be all sorts of bacteria and amoebas in it.

6:47 So you would want to boil water.

6:48 Now, supposedly there is a hack where you can put water in a paper cup,

6:51 put it in the fire, and then get that water to boil.

6:54 Think this is gonna work?

6:55 I'm skeptical.

6:55 I mean, it's a paper cup.

6:57 Let's see if we can get that water to boil.

6:59 That's 1,000% on fire!

7:00 The water's changing color.

7:02 That is impressive.

7:03 Everything is burning around the actual water itself.

7:06 Oh, wow!

7:07 Yeah, that's pretty...

7:08 pretty warm.

7:09 That's pretty warm.

7:09 However, given the fact that we have all

7:11 these chemicals that probably seeped into the water...

7:15 Let's give you a thumbs down.

7:17 Look at that!

7:17 We found an egg.

7:18 It might be an eagle egg.

7:19 Now, for this hack, we're going to show you how to use an egg to cook an egg.

7:24 This sounds clinically insane.

7:27 You take a toothpick and the goal is to remove essentially just the skullcap,

7:30 so to speak, of the egg.

7:31 So we don't have a saw,

7:32 we don't have anything sharp enough to cut it, but we have a thumbtack somehow.

7:36 Well, you've got one shot at this.

7:38 It's got the chef's touch, so.

7:40 Oh!

7:41 Oh, you got this!

7:42 No one taught me this in any of the restaurants.

7:43 Well, there is a device to do this with, actually.

7:45 Really?

7:46 You don't carry that around in your camping stuff, but you have a thumbtack?

7:49 Well, this is a survival situation.

7:51 Nice.

7:52 Okay.

7:53 Well done.

7:54 Not bad.

7:55 Well, let's cook it.

7:56 Okay.

7:57 We have sticks.

7:57 The sticks are supposed to support this, and this is

8:00 essentially gonna sit on the ground and turn into a fire...

8:03 How?

8:03 We're gonna put oil inside of the egg,

8:05 and then we're gonna shove a paper towel in there.

8:07 And then you can light the paper towel, and it will burn off of the oil...

8:11 Vegetable oil care package!

8:12 Please!

8:13 Please!

8:13 Please!

8:14 You are dead before this happens, 100%.

8:16 Now, you could have camping fuel...

8:18 That feels like an appropriate amount.

8:20 Feeling good about this.

8:21 Look at that!

8:22 Okay, got that paper towel.

8:23 All right.

8:24 Hopefully this works.

8:24 If there's a will, there's a way.

8:26 It is lit!

8:27 Nobody move!

8:28 Ooh, it's boiling!

8:29 I haven't...

8:30 had a pheasant egg like this since 1983.

8:32 I can't tell when you're telling a real story or if you're making...

8:34 I believe in almost anything you say.

8:36 Yeah, but a good story sometimes can help

8:38 the time pass faster when you're in a survival situation.

8:40 Once we got the fire going the right way, it is cooking the egg.

8:44 So I'm gonna mix it around a little bit,

8:45 make sure that we're just not getting stuck to the bottom of the...

8:48 Cup?

8:49 Oh, it's definitely gonna be stuck.

8:49 Oh, it's a little fried on the bottom.

8:50 It's actually kind of nice!

8:51 That's nice.

8:52 Now we're soft scrambling.

8:54 It's scrambled pretty nicely.

8:55 I mean, it's egg, and scrambled, it's not really cooked.

8:59 Go for it.

9:01 It's not bad.

9:03 Oh, no!

9:04 That's horrible!

9:09 Oh.

9:09 No...

9:10 Oh, my God, it's gross!

9:12 What are you talking about?

9:13 Does it work?

9:14 Is it safe?

9:16 I guess, sort of.

9:18 But like, would I trust this?

9:19 How...

9:20 I give it mid because I enjoyed building this, and the fire's still going.

9:24 But hey, in a worst-case scenario,

9:26 if you had some animal fat and an egg in your bag, you could build this fire.

9:29 The more you explain this, the more I'm realizing this is incredibly dumb.

9:32 Yeah.

9:34 Moving on.

9:34 You're in the wild.

9:35 You got a heat source, you got fire.

9:37 Great!

9:37 But you might need to cook something, like a piece of meat or a steak.

9:40 Like this wild boar that we killed off-camera

9:42 and that we've cut this nice piece of meat out of.

9:44 That was crazy how you killed it

9:45 with your bare hands and no tools or weapons whatsoever!

9:48 Yeah.

9:49 So, obviously, you would season it with a little bit of Diamond Kosher.

9:51 Of course, because you carry that everywhere.

9:53 Carry it everywhere!

9:54 If you were to put a rock into your fire and let it sit for long enough,

9:57 it would get very hot.

9:58 And supposedly, that should cook your meat.

10:00 That's a good sound.

10:01 Are we going for a medium-rare here?

10:04 I think so, yeah.

10:04 Okay.

10:05 I'm the chef now.

10:08 We're gonna flip.

10:09 Ooh, it's cooking, but it doesn't have any...

10:11 Maillard.

10:12 No.

10:12 Maillard.

10:13 This is a gray-ass piece of meat, but I mean,

10:14 at the end of the day, we're trying to survive here.

10:16 And it's just wild boar.

10:18 All right, well, we got it.

10:19 We got a little piece here...

10:20 looks nice.

10:21 Actually tastes pretty good.

10:23 No, it's not bad.

10:24 It's juicy.

10:25 Oh, yeah!

10:26 Man, I don't hate that!

10:27 I like the salt on it too.

10:29 Good touch.

10:29 A little chef's touch.

10:31 So...

10:31 I would give this...

10:32 thumbs up.

10:33 I would as well.

10:34 If you somehow have a can of Pringles,

10:36 supposedly you can turn them into mashed potatoes.

10:39 If you look at a Pringle, it's like pureed, compressed potatoes.

10:42 So hypothetically, this should work.

10:44 You crush it, you put it in a pot.

10:45 Did you wash your hands before?

10:47 I did not wash my hands, just so you know.

10:49 Perfect.

10:49 Little bit of water.

10:50 I don't actually know how much to put in there.

10:52 Oh yeah, it's boiling a little bit.

10:53 My hope is that once it starts to boil, the dried potato will absorb the water,

10:58 and then it will gain volume and be like a fluffy mashed potato.

11:01 See you in a sec.

11:02 Honestly, this looks like scrambled egg.

11:03 This is an unholy potato.

11:05 Something about this isn't right.

11:07 I feel like if I was out in the wild and I had a Snack Stack of Pringles,

11:11 I'm not sure that I would break them

11:13 down to this situation versus just eating them dry.

11:16 But it seems like it's just going to be

11:18 a salty watery- I didn't even think about that!

11:20 Why the hell would you do that?!

11:21 Just eat the Pringle!

11:22 What are we doing here?!

11:24 I like my Pringles dry, for sure.

11:27 At first, I was like, "Well, hold on." And then my brain kicked in, it was like,

11:30 "Stop, that's enough!" Nothing about this is remotely like a mashed potato,

11:34 except for maybe the gluey starchiness.

11:36 It somehow made the Pringle taste about 50% less flavorful.

11:39 What do we think?

11:40 Does it work?

11:40 Technically, it did work.

11:42 The water did get absorbed into the Pringles crisps.

11:45 Is it safe?

11:46 Yes.

11:46 Would you trust it...

11:47 in a survival situation?

11:49 I think you're just wasting a lot of time to make this in a survival situation.

11:52 Like I said, I'm just gonna stick with the water and ration out the crisps.

11:55 That's a thumbs down.

11:57 Sorry, Pringles.

11:58 I'm not sorry!

11:58 I'll never do this again.

12:00 Moving on...

12:01 In a survival situation, sometimes you don't want a rip-roaring fire.

12:03 You want something a little smaller, a little intimate.

12:06 Maybe a candle, per se.

12:07 I heard that you can use animal fat

12:09 and steel wool to make yourself a camp light.

12:11 So we have a pan full of pork fat.

12:14 This is boar fat, my friend.

12:15 It's definitely boar fat.

12:16 That's gonna go into...

12:17 a jar.

12:18 And then you're gonna take some steel wool.

12:20 Now you gotta wrap it around a rock.

12:22 All right?

12:22 So there is your weighted wick.

12:24 You then drop it down.

12:25 The real problem is that the fat is...

12:29 pretty, like, wet still.

12:31 I mean, let's just see if it lights.

12:32 Yeah, let's just see what happens.

12:35 I think you're better off saving it for...

12:37 cooking.

12:38 Oh, yeah, for cooking, or just drinking the bacon fat.

12:41 Thumbs down.

12:42 So you've created boiling water, but now you need some nutrients.

12:44 You know what makes great tea?

12:46 Pine needles.

12:47 This one maybe not a necessity survival hack.

12:49 But also maybe you want to wind down, calm down a little bit.

12:52 Now, you could hypothetically do this.

12:54 It doesn't have to be in a teapot.

12:55 It could be in a regular pot, it could be in a bowl.

12:57 Anything you could put on a fire.

12:58 Right.

12:59 Ever seen any of these?

13:00 Delicious for making pine needle tea.

13:02 So all of the sap that is inside those needles

13:04 is going to seep out into that hot water.

13:06 Lots of vitamin C in this too.

13:08 It's all about confidence when you're stuck out there in a survival situation,

13:11 and pine needle tea can be a huge move.

13:13 We forget survival is also aiding the human spirit.

13:16 So now we wait for it to steep.

13:17 These are definitely going from vibrant green to a kind of off-brown color.

13:21 Yeah.

13:21 So we've got our tea.

13:22 I'll serve you first.

13:23 Oh, look at that.

13:24 Crystal clear.

13:25 Kind of was hoping it would be green.

13:26 A bunch of stuff floating in there.

13:27 Doesn't smell all that great, does it?

13:29 No, it doesn't.

13:30 Let me know if it's super hot, because your glasses are also super hot.

13:31 Maybe it is hot.

13:32 Yeah, it's really hot.

13:34 I just burnt the tip of my tongue...

13:37 and it does not taste like pine needles at all.

13:39 It does not.

13:40 I threw some extra pine needles in mine just now.

13:42 A little topper.

13:43 Oh!

13:43 Oh, smell that.

13:44 That is better.

13:45 See, I'm treating it more like a tea.

13:46 You got to be gentle with the tea,

13:48 you know, a little better, a little more fragrant.

13:50 Yeah.

13:50 Just try not to get a pine needle in your mouth.

13:52 But not bad.

13:53 Adding the pine needles after the fact does enhance the flavor.

13:56 And if you somehow had some sort of, like,

13:57 a honey or something to add to this, and I needed to survive,

14:00 this would calm me down.

14:01 I'm already feeling more relaxed.

14:02 I kind of like this one.

14:03 So does it work?

14:04 I would say yes.

14:05 Yeah.

14:06 Is it safe?

14:06 Yes.

14:07 Would I trust it?

14:08 So far, so good.

14:08 That's a thumbs up.

14:10 And now the time has finally come to unveil our chicken from earlier.

14:15 Did it actually cook properly, or are we gonna get food poisoning?

14:18 All right, this is the moment of truth.

14:19 It's been cooking for about 45 minutes.

14:22 Let's see.

14:22 Is this gonna be a delicious golden rotisserie chicken,

14:25 or are you gonna be eating raw bird?

14:30 All right.

14:31 Wow...

14:31 It looks better up top than it does on the side.

14:33 Would you like to do the honors?

14:34 I would love to do the honors.

14:36 Let's just get a little bit of breast action here.

14:37 It's pretty tender.

14:38 Ooh!

14:39 And juicy.

14:40 Oh, yeah, that's cooked chicken right there.

14:41 I cannot believe that that actually worked.

14:44 That's pretty good.

14:45 In a survival situation, I wouldn't necessarily cook a chicken,

14:49 but if you're—oh, I dropped my wing!

14:53 I feel the wing is really good,

14:54 but I really have my doubts for the lower part of the chicken.

14:57 That's clear liquid, which is a really good sign.

14:59 It's...

15:00 pink, but I think it's pink because of the cure,

15:02 because you'll notice this is where all the red would gather.

15:05 We've got a little bit of bloodiness here.

15:07 a little raw there.

15:08 Yeah, it could use a little bit more cook here.

15:11 So basically, if you started cooking the chicken like this and then you...

15:15 took it apart, used what you had remaining

15:17 of the coals to finish off the chicken, you'd be in pretty good shape.

15:20 So, okay, does it work?

15:22 Yeah, technically, yes.

15:23 Is it safe?

15:24 Mostly.

15:24 Would I trust it now that I've seen it?

15:26 I kind of would.

15:27 Now that I've seen it.

15:28 Yeah.

15:28 I'm more of a believer.

15:29 But just knowing that cooking a wild bird on an open fire,

15:32 you can at least see what it is that you're doing.

15:35 I think I'd give it a thumbs up.

15:36 I think I'll give it a thumbs up, too.

15:38 We cooked that for about 45 minutes.

15:40 If we had let it go for maybe another 10 minutes, it would have cooked through.

15:44 A big surprise, but not as surprising as this!

15:47 Okay, Josh, so if you found yourself in a desert survival situation,

15:50 there is a delicious fruit out there that you can eat called prickly pear,

15:53 which I'm sure you know what that is.

15:54 But the problem with prickly pear fruit is

15:56 that they have little spines all over them.

15:58 So if you just took a bite, like an apple,

15:59 your mouth would be full of those little irritating...

16:02 spines.

16:02 What you can actually use is your sock to filter out the juice.

16:06 So, how do we go about that?

16:07 Well, first thing you're gonna need is a sock.

16:09 I got one right here already preloaded with prickly pear fruit.

16:11 Nice.

16:12 Well, wait a minute.

16:12 Where did you get this?

16:13 From the store.

16:14 Are you sure?

16:19 The next thing you want to do is crush the fruit apart.

16:21 You want to be the smasher?

16:22 Sure.

16:23 That's not a hamster in there, it's fruit.

16:24 Trust me.

16:25 All right, break it apart.

16:27 Oh, yeah, buddy.

16:28 Really get in there...

16:29 Now we're getting all of that juice...

16:32 wrung down to the bottom of the sock, and just like that.

16:37 Go ahead, get your mouth in there.

16:39 Get some berry juice...

16:40 Oh, yeah, that's fresh right there, huh?

16:43 Oh, it's great!

16:44 Prickly pear fruit not only gives you a little bit of confidence,

16:47 but also some vitamins and some nutrients.

16:49 Sweet, isn't it?

16:50 It's actually really good.

16:51 A little salty...

16:52 What's that from?

16:53 Probably just my toe jam.

16:54 Well, out of all the hacks, I gotta be honest, this one works.

16:57 It's safe.

16:58 I would definitely trust this because you...

17:00 likely will have a sock on.

17:00 I mean, I don't think that's out of the question...

17:02 This is a very realistic survival hack.

17:04 I would use this.

17:04 But...

17:05 How...

17:05 are we going to wash our hands?

17:08 This is a really good idea.

17:10 Stream is...

17:10 is good.

17:11 Ah, they say I'm like a camel.

17:14 Alright.