As I sit tucked in a nice warm house considering the ice storm that’s likely to start any minute now, power outages are on my mind. We recently did a post on the most important issue of how to heat your house when the electricity goes out. Once you make sure you and your pipes won’t freeze, thoughts turn to other issues … like food. Cooking food, to be specific.
Sure, you could just eat cold food. Every prepper should have plenty of ready-to-eat food on hand, in my opinion. Hot food though; that’s an important morale booster. This is especially true when the house is less-than-usually warm. And do you really want to be or deal with habitual coffee drinkers who can’t have their coffee?!? So it’s important to be able to do a bit of cooking; and do it safely.
Salty & Spice recorded a podcast about cooking without power to accompany this article, here it is
Cooking on a grill or camp stove
And a good one too, for many things. Just don’t be that guy who tries cooking on a propane grill or any other camp stove into the house, I beg of you. Besides the fire risk, that generates a big carbon monoxide risk.
Camping options take up less space and fuel
If you have a grill and lots of gas, great. If you don’t, buying one just for backup cooking may be overkill. Camping stoves, such as hobo stoves for backpackers, pack small and light and use the minimum fuel to take care of business. My personal favorite is the Kelly Kettle system. A couple of points to keep in mind when using these:
- Figure out how to set them us and use them before it’s dark and freezing outside and you’re all hungry and cold.
- That testing will show you what types of fuels you need and how fast you go through it. Stock accordingly.
- That testing also shows what cookware is compatible. Not everything sits safely.
- A concrete pad such as a sidewalk is a nice stable, noncombustible surface to place the stove.
Lighting a rocket (hobo) stove at The Place.
Some gas stoves will do fine with no power
And some won’t. If you have a gas stove already and it doesn’t require an electric fan — Now you’re cooking! But you might check if that electric fan is needed. Some stoves won’t work without them.
Fireplaces work if you’re set up to use them
While doing a post on burn care, I learned that fire injuries – spills of hot contents and people blundering into the fire – are the leading cause of serious camping injuries. The home fireplace is no safer if it isn’t set up for cooking. Everyone I’ve seen that does serious cooking over fire has a fireplace crane or something similar to get the pot over the heat.
These cranes are on hinges so you can bring the pot off the fire for safe placement and removal.
Making sure you have a safe way to handle the hot cookware to avoid spills or hand burns is another big deal. Did you ever notice the old style coffee pots had wooden handles? They don’t easily catch fire and tend to stay cool enough to let you pour the coffee.
Cooking aids
First and foremost, make sure your cookware is suited for the task. If you put much of the modern nonstick-coated, aluminum-alloy cookware over a fire, it will be ruined. It’s not designed for that sort of uneven temperature application. The old cast iron stuff will work like a charm; especially the dutch ovens that can be hung over a fire or have coals heaped on top for slow-cooking or baking.
See the rim on the lid of the Dutch oven? That’s a big deal for slow cooking with coals. Also, season the cast iron ahead of time.
I also find a big, widemouth thermos nice. I boil some water in the Kelly Kettle or electric hotpot, then pour it into a thermos with some stew blend veggies and TVP at breakfast time and it’s ready to eat at lunch. That’s a hot lunch for no extra effort.
We also keep some backpacker meals. They have only about a 3 year shelf life, but they’re nice either out at The Place, here during power outages, or, you know, backpacking. (We don’t have any relationships with any companies, but we like Backpacker’s Pantry products.) Their cooking involves pouring some boiled water into the envelop and letting it sit for a few minutes. Instant hot chocolate, coffee, and/or tea can improve some attitudes in a hurry with minimal work, too.
One last equipment tip: Have lots of aluminum foil on hand. It’s great for wrapping meat and veggies and putting them on a hot rock or under some coals to cook.
From my Red Cross work, it seems as if cooking is the second biggest source of house fires (behind electrical flaws). Makeshift methods increase that risk. Plan ahead and you can have hot food safely; power or no.
Just curious Spice…how did the weather turn out there? BTW just last week I spent an entire day without power when we had an ice storm here in Cincinnati. I can say with confidence that I’m still not as well prepared as I should be.
Those one day reminders are great teachers, aren’t they? By great, I mean great motivators…not because they’re fun. We did indeed have ourselves a nice little blizzard. Our power didn’t go out, although some nearby did. However, the wind-blown ice got into our heating/cooling unit and unbalanced the fan (we think). The unit started making disturbing vibrations, so we shut it off until it has a chance to melt off/ we can look at it. I’m calling the checking of the alternate heat source we’d completed the day before a prepper win, since we just had to turn on the wall unit and are running on that for the moment.
I would like to add that the Wonderbag style of pot insulating device will cut down on fuel use, and possibly decrease smoke signature (if using a fire) and allows for safe slow cooking a meal. I think a cooler that is just the right size for your pot might work well too if any extra spaces are filled with insulation like crumpled newspapers etc. The insulated pot meal also can be brought inside to finish cooking once heated thus reducing exposure to elements or potential threats.