Emergency cooking (practice)

[adam2]

By way of experiment, I recently tried cooking without mains services, fairly successfully.

1) Beef stew. Brought to the boil on an oil stove and then left on the woodburner for several hours. Excellent result, and no different in principle or result than use of an electric slow cooker. Oil use estimated at 0.1 L

2) Bacon and eggs, fried on the oil stove. Cooked fine but the oil stove felt very unstable and the oil container got alarmingly hot.

3) Boiled pasta on the wood stove, not very successfull as it got hot enough to burn and stick to the pan but not hot enough to cook properly.

4) Tinned soup heated on induction cooking ring powered from a vehicle with the engine running. Sounds a waste of petrol but it was so quick that petrol use was minimal. Load was about 100 amps at 12 volts, but only for 2 minutes at the most.

5) Boiled about 25L of water very quickly in a catering size aluminium pan on an improvised rocket stove, and then kept it simmering for about 30 minutes. Did not actually cook anything but this was a test to asses the viability of bulk preperation of soup, rice, pasta, for a crowd in an emergency. Also a test of heating shower or laundry water.
Not easy to light, but I had not perfected the design. Worked fine once hot.

For those with gas or electric cookers, I would urge not just equipming yourself with alternatives, but testing and practicing in order that problems and pitfalls may be revealed BEFORE the emergency.

[vtsnowedin]

Apparently you have never cooked a meal over a real camp fire. Is that allowed in the UK? A few rocks and a small fire built between them with a heavy pot or pan sitting on the rocks over the fire and you have it. Get the fire hot enough to boil the water in the pot and the pasta will come out fine. Yes you should practice this as it is an essential survival skill.
A boy scout handbook might be useful for exurbanites that have never built a fire.

[biffvernon]

Is that allowed in the UK?

Of course!

[adam2]

Apparently you have never cooked a meal over a real camp fire. Is that allowed in the UK? A few rocks and a small fire built between them with a heavy pot or pan sitting on the rocks over the fire and you have it. Get the fire hot enough to boil the water in the pot and the pasta will come out fine. Yes you should practice this as it is an essential survival skill.
A boy scout handbook might be useful for exurbanites that have never built a fire.

Yes, I have cooked over a camp fire, useful for camping or in an emergency. Not had much recent practice though.
The recent tests were with a bit of technology in the hope of producing faster or more consistant results, or in the hope of cooking INDOORS without utilities.
A camp fire uses a lot of wood which is fine in a wooded area, but it might be in short supply in other situations.

Camp fires are allowed in the UK but are prohibited at many campsites and at most outdoor events.

[BritDownUnder]

I tried to make a solar oven last year but did not get time to test it. I also bought a parabolic stove but again have not tested yet. Been so busy recently.

Any uncovered fire outside is illegal here in this part of Australia but in times of crisis that will get forgotten. You can buy 'fire pits' covered with a mesh at the local DIY shop.

I do have a wood burner in the house which has a stove top and oven which have been tested. The oven uses a lot of wood for cooking but the stovetop is fine for boiling and even frying meat. I also have a small portable gas stove for outside use. I am thinking of making a suitable rocket stove.

I normally use an electric stove.

[boisdevie]

Pretty well set up here for emergency cooking. Have a bottled gas cooker in the house with a second full size gas cooker in the camper. Also have portable cartridge using two burner cooker and a hobo stove. And two woodburners in the house.
So when the zombies arrive I'll still be able to heat up my tinned beans.

[vtsnowedin]

One good item to have in hand is a cast iron dutch oven. You can apply heat to it by any method you have including setting it right in the fire or running a propane torch under it. You can cook a lot of different things in it from roasting meat, to boiling pasta or stew and even bake bread or biscuits in it. Stew with dumplings on top is a personal favorite.

[Snail]

Is a rocket stove and woodgas stove the same thing? I've been using a small woodgas in my (floorless) tent for heat and cooking. With cat litter pellets and using natural firelighters, it lasts for over an hour and is virtually smokeless. With lots of care it could be used inside a property. I've also used twigs cut small with secreteurs and wood shavings etc in it. I brought mine, but could easily be diy'ed.

I've also got a mini gas stove (30 gas cannisters can be had for approx £30). Used just for cooking, these will last a long time. For someone in a flat, a portable gas stove is really the best/only option for offgrid cooking.

[raspberry-blower]

Is a rocket stove and woodgas stove the same thing?

Nope! Not from what I can gather - the sites flogging them are explicit in this.

Anyway, for those of you that are interested in making one rather than buying: How to make a cheap, simple wood gas stove

[Lurkalot]

Is that allowed in the UK?

Of course!

Yes as said it's allowed but sometimes with conditions. I may have said that I'm involved in re-enactment and we have to have raised fires on most sites so as not to cause damage to the grass. Completely out of place in an historical setting but people do get very attached to their grass. Our fire tray is essentially a steel table some 2ft x 18" around 16" off the ground and has a frame with a assortment of spits and pot hangers and gets used throughout the summer months so we have plenty of practice with it.
There is a "joke" that we are supplied with English Heritage safety wood that is generally too damp to get a decent fire out of. We tend to bag it up , take it home and use it a few months later.
We also have a bread oven that comes along too and that works well . I've used it out of season although owing to the weight of the thing it has to live and be used on the front garden so should keep the neighbours entertained.
Further to the original post we have portable gas stoves and I recently made a hay box cooker using polystyrene boxes salvaged from a market food trader.

[RenewableCandy]

Apparently you have never cooked a meal over a real camp fire.

Oh, vt you're priceless This is the UK. If mains services are off, it'll also be dark, and pouring with rain! I've enjoyed a picnic in the snow, but eating in the rain is just miserable. It'd also make the fire difficult to light...

[adam2]

Apparently you have never cooked a meal over a real camp fire.

Oh, vt you're priceless This is the UK. If mains services are off, it'll also be dark, and pouring with rain! I've enjoyed a picnic in the snow, but eating in the rain is just miserable. It'd also make the fire difficult to light...

Yes
The last time that I used a camp fire "in anger" was some years ago in the exhibitors camp ground at the Great Dorset Steam Fair.
Fires are normaly prohibited, but may be allowed by special permission provided that it is too wet to light a fire.

This was a challenge ! we had a supply of dried wood with us, soaked it in diesel fuel and used a flare to light it.
The venison fried in garlic butter was most enjoyable but we had to shield the frying pan with a newspaper, and replace the paper when either the edges caught fire or the middle got too wet !

This was all a most amusing challenge, but would have been rather less entertaining, if cold, wet and hungry in a real emergency.

[vtsnowedin]

Apparently you have never cooked a meal over a real camp fire.

Oh, vt you're priceless This is the UK. If mains services are off, it'll also be dark, and pouring with rain! I've enjoyed a picnic in the snow, but eating in the rain is just miserable. It'd also make the fire difficult to light...

Yes
The last time that I used a camp fire "in anger" was some years ago in the exhibitors camp ground at the Great Dorset Steam Fair.
Fires are normaly prohibited, but may be allowed by special permission provided that it is too wet to light a fire.

This was a challenge ! we had a supply of dried wood with us, soaked it in diesel fuel and used a flare to light it.
The venison fried in garlic butter was most enjoyable but we had to shield the frying pan with a newspaper, and replace the paper when either the edges caught fire or the middle got too wet !

This was all a most amusing challenge, but would have been rather less entertaining, if cold, wet and hungry in a real emergency.

May I suggest a tarp on poles and ropes to give a single slant roof over your fire to let the smoke out while keeping the rain out of your stew or on the fuel.

[RenewableCandy]

You may, but the UK's also a very windy place. Especially when it's raining. In fact, it wasn't til I got to China, at the age of 26, that I ever experienced rain without wind. It felt strange. People could actually use umbrellas while riding bicycles.

[vtsnowedin]

You may, but the UK's also a very windy place. Especially when it's raining. In fact, it wasn't til I got to China, at the age of 26, that I ever experienced rain without wind. It felt strange. People could actually use umbrellas while riding bicycles.

It isn't exactly calm up here in the hills of Vermont. Just have the low side of your tarpaulin towards the oncoming wind and come all the way to the ground.