Dinner in a Can

We love spending time with our friends Mark & Wendy.  They, like us, love discovering the latest gadgets and gizmos.  This weekend, they introduced us to the concept of "milk can cooking."  Apparently, back in the day, farm hands used to use the old-fashioned milk cans (used to store milk during the trip to market) to cook a nice, hot dinner for themselves while they were working.  The new-fangled cans look almost exactly like the old milk cans except for the fact the new cans have latches instead of screw-tops like the old ones.  You put all of your food items in the can, latch down the lid, and then put it on your stove burner.  Mark & Wendy used potatoes, corn on the cob, cabbage, cauliflower, onion, carrots, mushrooms, chicken drumsticks, venison marinated in garlic, beer, and half a bottle of Italian dressing.  It took about 50 minutes for the meal to cook in the can.  In retrospect, I feel the Italian dressing may have been a bit too much--the result was that the carrots & cauliflower were too tangy for my taste.  If I attempt this recipe on my own, I'll substitute beef or chicken bouillon in place of the dressing.  I'd also leave out the cabbage and cut up the potatoes so they can truly absorb the flavors of the cooking liquids.  I'd also add some fresh rosemary sprigs to "kick it up a notch."  I'm thinking I can duplicate this meal in my turkey fryer--it too has a rack to hold the food off the bottom of the pot and it has a steam hole like the milk can cooker.  I will probably just have to weight the top down with something heavy to keep up the pressure.

What the can looks like...

Adding the beer 'n' butter!

The finished product!