Can You Cook on A Car Engine? Manifold Destiny, a Recipe Book and Guide to Cooking on Car Engines
There's all sorts of unique and unusual cooking methods out there and topping the list is the practice of cooking on a car engine.
In fact, authors Chris Maynard and Bill Scheller have written a successful book that's now in its third edition. Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine (Simon & Schuster, $14) has been revamped to include new recipes that are perfect for chefs who like to cook on their car engine.
Notably, the authors of Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine claim that theirs is the only guide to cooking on a car engine.
Can You Really Cook on Your Car's Engine?
The answer is yes - it is possible to cook food on a car engine. Authors Maynard and Scheller came up with the idea in 1984. Bound for Boston, Massachusetts in their Volkswagen Rabbit, the friends had purchased a pound of brisket in Montreal.
"They intended to lunch on the brisket somewhere down the road, but knew it would not be nearly as tasty cold as it would be if eaten as intended - piping hot. Inspired by old tales of truckers cooking hot dogs and beans on their truck engines, they purchased some foil, wrapped up the brisket and wedged it in a warm cranny beneath the air filter," the authors recalled in an announcement on their book's new edition.
Within an hour, the brisket was warm and ready to eat within an hour. This, it seems, inspired authors Maynard and Scheller to experiment with the practice of cooking on a car engine.
The authors of Manifold Destiny started out just heating pre-cooked foods on the car engine, but eventually, they developed recipes for cooking and baking a variety of foods on the car engine.
A Guide to Learning How to Cook on a Car Engine
Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine provides all the information a traveling chef would ever need to know. The book explains how to wrap foods in tin foil before placing the food on the car engine to cook. Manifold Destiny also provides an array of recipes that are perfect for cooking on a car engine during that upcoming road trip.
This car engine cooking guide also provides tips on how to develop new recipes, with advice like "keep the number of ingredients low, don't use a lot of liquids, never place or remove food with the engine running, and keep food packets away from moving parts, especially the accelerator linkage."
In addition, this guide to cooking on car engine cooking also provides tips for cooking on various car models. Some interesting car cooking facts include the fact that the "late '8os Toyota Camrys have built-in bun warmers" and "the Chrysler Sebring is the car equivalent of a steam table."
Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine also provides answers to frequently asked questions, like "Won't the food smell or taste like exhaust, motor oil, etc.?"
To this, the authors answer with a resounding "No!," explaining, "The fluids are safely encased within the engine and the exhaust should be exiting out the tailpipe. If your car is leaking oil, gas or exhaust fumes under the front hood in sufficient quantity to contaminate your triple wrapped food, either your car won't be running long enough to cook it or the exhaust fumes will kill you before it's done! So not to worry!"
