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Several times a year, we have meetings in the woods. Most of the time, we are too far from cafes or towns to eat, so I cook or have someone else cook while I am with the meeting.

During the cogongrass survey, I had many of the loggers and truck drivers ask when I was going to cook for them again. I think this is because they liked it, or they wanted a warning to know which day to lay out of work.

For the OCFLA tour of Dr. Fairey’s property, I asked a coworker to cook the chicken. The day before, I began marinating the chicken in my made-up sauce. The cook said that when they got it out to put on the grill, the chicken looked so bad that they wanted to throw it in the river but they feared the alligators would come out and get them in retaliation. In spite of how the chicken looked, I do not think we had a crumb of it left and we cooked extra chicken.

When I went to Americus during logging of our property, I perfected my grill recipes for the woods. Of course, my loggers got the marinated steaks as well as marinated chicken and pork chops.

My stepfather would not eat much, but each time I grilled one of my “woods” recipes, he left nothing but the bone.

Everyone has secret recipes and I really wonder, why? I use to guard these recipes, but I think it is better to share them.

So here are the recipes for good meals in the woods.

Ribeye steak marinade



1 jar of Black STRAP molasses (Not regular molasses)

Almost the same amount of Worcester sauce

Add a little Dales Marinate steak sauce. This can be overpowering so it usually makes up less than 15 percent of the total liquid.

I am not trying to plug any one grocery store but the only place I can find the black strap molasses is Piggly Wiggly.

Choose good quality steaks cut about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches thick. Salt both sides of the steak. I use a skinny tall container and push the steaks down into the marinate. The longer you marinate, the tastier it is. I marinated some steaks from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon and they were GREAT on the grill. Caution -- Your steaks need to cook extra slow with no flame. You do not want to burn the marinate. A good rare to medium rare steak on the grill means slow cooking for 30 to 40 minutes. If cooked slow enough, the steak will be pinkish red from edge to edge with no blood. The above recipe works great for chicken as well!

Grilled pork chops



First let me say that the cut of the pork chop is just as important as the cut of any other meat. I prefer pork chops cut from the rib end of the pig, which has more fat. I do not like lean pork chops.

Have the pork chops cut 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches thick.

Buy Chef Paul’s dry seasoning for Poultry, yes, the chicken spice and not the pig spice.

I place the pork chops in large zip lock bags with lots of spice and shake until the pork chops are coated. The longer you let the pork chops dry marinate, the spicier the pork chop. I do not like hot spicy foods and this marinate does not get real hot, but it does add a wonderful flavor.

Again, slow cooked on the grill is the best.

Baked ham for quick lunches



If there is no time for grilling in the woods, I buy a fresh ham, stick cloves in it, pin cherries and pineapple to it with wooden toothpicks, make a glaze with mustard, brown sugar and apricot jam and smear it on the ham. The pineapples, cloves and cherries help the glaze stay on. I bake it in the oven very slowly at a temperature that takes about 4-1/2 hours to cook.

In the woods, I provide bread and all the condiments. This is a quick and easy lunch to serve in the woods when we have a lot of class work to complete.

If you try these recipes and like them, give me a call and let me know at 534-6280.

Beth Richardson is an agent with the Clemson Extension Service in Orangeburg County.

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