There's something about cooking over wood...

[elfs]

Biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham has proposed that cooking was a necessary step in human evolution, because cooking breaks down fibers and improves the bioavailability of many nutrients we don't normally extract from raw foods.

But more than that, we cooked over woodfire. And I would not be surprised at all to learn that cooking over a woodfire is engrained into our genes in a way that, say, cooking with gas or electricity is not. As we camped, we were always cooking with wood, and damn if it didn't make everything we ate taste better. Even pancakes and scrambled eggs. There was something to the smoke that was utterly wonderful.

Comments

[wyrdone.livejournal.com]

Making moonshine is easy. Making moonshine *safely* is hard. This is why the revenooers were all hot to trot about catchin dem shiners.

Seriously, moonshining is illegal in the US due to federal BATFE laws.

Now, on the philosophical topic, if you want to learn how to make it safely. There are a lot of resources on the web. http://homedistiller.org/ being one of the better sites.

[grum]

Your characterization makes moonshine sound like meth. Easy to make, hard to make safely, a nightmare for public safety officers... illegal.

Tangentially, I was recently offered a vial of epinephrine by an anesthesiologist in an OR on the grounds that it was only one chemical reaction away from meth. He seemed surprised that I didn't take it. I didn't like him much for that and other reasons.

[wyrdone.livejournal.com]

There *are* serious health ramifications if you try and make shine using the wrong equipment. Heavy metal poisoning being one of the more serious. There is a reason why commercial stills are made from copper or stainless steel. Granted it's less of a concern now since they don't sell lead piping or solder anymore, but other metals like aluminum and tin are reactive and drinking aluminum salts suspended in alcohol are not good for your health.

And that's not accounting for if you get the run bad and get too much acetone and/or methanol in your run and make someone go blind. Or Butanol and 2-propanol (rubbing alcohol) and just make them sick.

*steps off the soapbox*

Now, if you use the right equipment *and* learn the process right (helps if you have some knowledge of chemistry), you can make some damn good stuff. Homemade brandies are superb if aged for a few years after. And essence of mead is heavenly.