Cajun Microwave

After meeting with a contractor at work and shooting the breeze for awhile I was mentioning to him an Ugly Drum Smoker that I had seen online and my desire to make one. Giving credit where credit is due....(Cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-uds-so-far.html)
He began telling me about how they cook food down home, which for him is Louisiana. They make a wooden box, lined with metal and fashion a grill pan for the top, resulting in what they refer to as a Cajun Microwave or in his own Louisiana tongue a “Coonass Microwave.” (This seems to be a Louisiana version of redneck)

Well after carefully researching it online and finding ourselves with a few scraps of plywood and misc. other items, my co-worker Elvis and I began our own version. Trial one was when I took it home for a couple of days to burn off any toxic fumes from the galvanized metal surfaces.



Being more of a Redneck than a Coonass and not having a full understanding of the principals of this contraption, I built a roaring fire just hoping that the box, (which is underneath the fire) would heat up enough to actually cook. And since I had a decent fire burning I decided to try the only thing I could come up with on short notice, which was a pan of muffins. The muffins were supposed to cook at 400-420 for 20 minutes. I placed them in the box, put the grill pan back on and built up my fire, assuming that I would have one heck of a time getting this contraption to anything close to 400 degrees.

There seems to be a learning curve to this box, which I first experienced about 10 minutes into the experiment when I smelled the burnt odor of muffins.
With a little help from my wife, (did I mention that it takes two people to take the top on and off) we uncovered the burnt embers of my muffins and concluded that the box did indeed get much hotter than I had expected.



So, trial two took place at work after a few modifications and hopefully a better understanding of this Cajun Dutch oven on steroids. Modifications include, installing a thermometer, making two adjustable vent holes in the sides, adding a fire suppression holder, (otherwise known as a cup holder) and finishing the grill on top. No sense wasting all that charcoal on just heating up a box, might as well have a few sausages, hamburgers, etc.. while we wait.

Trial two commenced with a 9 lb pork loin seasoned and wrapped in foil, not to mention a few Hot Itilian sausages for the grill top.

With the top back on a charcoal fire soon had the oven (box) at 350 degrees. It actually was quite easy for us to control the temperature by just adding a few pieces of wood as needed.

While running around at work and actually getting a little work done we managed to keep an eye on the fire and let the pork roast for 2 and a half hours. Opening the box was like opening the oven on Thanksgiving. The aroma filled the work area and people started pouring out of the woodwork to try a sample.

It turned out so well that we have tried it several more times at work and at home cooking everything from chicken to bread. with fall approaching fast I think I just might have to try a pie or two. All in all we consider this Cajun microwave a big success.



Total cost $20.00 ($15 for the top grill grate and $5 for the thermometer.)