I'm curious as to how folks are planning to handle cooking during a long term emergency at home (no power or gas) or if they need to bug out. What type of stoves/ovens they have or can make and what fuel they plan on using.

I have a couple of Coleman stoves with 4+- (Stabil-ized) gallons of fuel as well as a couple cast-iron dutch ovens and skillets for campfire cooking and a soda-can alcohol burner and a wood-gas stove made from a bean can. I plan on making a larger wood-gas stove (paint can sized) when work slows down a bit have been eye-balling some multi-burner type wood-gas stoves with ovens I saw on the web.

I now have a Campingaz Micro Bleuet stove, along with a few cans of gas.
I also bought a lantern, working out of the same cans.

Previously, I only had my alcool stoves (Trangia + penny stoves) and a few "solid fuel stoves" (esbit stoves, emergency candles ..)

This topic came up yesterday with my wife. We are in Galveston County Texas and have been watching Dean.

We have our large gas grill with 3 full 17 lbs tanks. A Coleman propane stove with an adapter to use the large propane tanks. About 4 small propane canisters. We have a duel fuel Coleman stove with both white gas and unleaded fuel ready. We also have a charcoal grill with charcoal ready. I guess I could build a fire and burn wood if I had to!

LOL
Mike

The apartment complex we live in recently banned gas grills on all but the first floors so we had to give up ours. A few months ago I bought the White Box Stove over the internet and have tested it a few times boiling water, it's like a soda can stove only sturdier. It runs on denatured alcohol and is small enough to be easily tossed in a backpack and should be adequate for two. I grew up around campfires and wood stoves so if wood was available I would improvise a setup with that as well.

(BTW while trolling the net I did come across aluminum dutch ovens)

Since we live in a motorhome, we always have a propane stove/oven with us, and a microwave/convection oven that we can run if necessary on the built in generator. Large propane tank built in, which we always keep full (when parked we run off of a seperate five gal tank). Off of either tank we can also run our propane BBQ. Dutch Oven in a storage compartment. (side note, we always keep the 100 gal fresh water tank full too) In the car we keep a single burner propane stove and several throw away bottle of fuel. In my day pack (which is always in the car) is a soda can alcohol stove and a bottle of yellow Heet for fuel, along with a Wallyworld grease pot. Couple more bottles of Heet stored in the RV. And speaking of alcohol stoves, as soon as I can bring myself to drink a small can of RedBull, I am going to try using it and one of the Bud aluminum beer bottles to make a stove similar to the White Box Stove mentioned above. Should be much tougher than a soda can stove. In the car is also a USGI canteen/cup/cup support stove. Axe and Sven saw are in the car, so we can build a fire if necessary. All of that should hold us for a while...

Camping stove: whisper lite, with 2 cans of white gas. I also have 2 Esbit stoves with about 20 tabs (one in car, one in BOB).

But really, if it was that big a deal, I'd just make and use my camp fire. You don't really need anything all that special to toss on to some coals, or hang above.

I was looking at a photo of the White Box Stove, and wondered what those three things are around the top, just below the rim, that look like screws. What purpose do they serve?

Sue

It depends upon the nature of the emergency and if I'm holing up or bugging out.

1) Bug Out/Short term emergency: Esbit stove with extra tabs. The goal is to boil water and add to mountain house backpacking meals.

2) Holing Up/Long term emergency: My Weber charcoal grill with my extra bags of charcoal. Charcoal is a lot cheaper than propane or gas, but it becomes a lot of work for just cooking small meals.

I'd like to get a Coleman Road trip grill with both the 1 lb. and larger propane tanks. It could be used for bugging out with a vehicle or staying at home.

They are pop rivets, apparently used to hold the two parts of the stove together, instead of the JB Weld that is usually used (and always cracks, in my experience)...

I've got something of a Svea 123 /Optimus collection and enough white gas to keep me cooking for a while. In my BOB/Get-Home-Bag is an MSR Pocket Rocket and one cannister of Iso Pro (80/20 blend of isobutane and propane). Long term, I'd be someplace with a large supply of cordwood.

I have a grill2go Its similar to the road trip mentioned above, bought it a few years ago. I can do at least half dozen meals from a 1lb tank and have a few of those then I have the adapter to connect to 20lb tanks and have two of those. I filled up a 20lb tank a couple years ago and cook out several weekends in the summer and do at least one or two family reunions and that one 20lb tank is still going. I could probably last a year if it was my only means to cook.

Campfire for long term

Short term

Propane - Mr Heater/Mr Cooker

White Gas - Coleman or MSR whisper.

Cast Iron Dutch Over & Skillett

My grandmother's Northridge Ca home had two brick fireplaces. One was unique in having a reproduction spit for cooking. Sadly, the earthquake toppled both chimneys and the house was redtagged. My two burner Coleman became the dedicated coffee station with my 2 huge blue speckle enameled coffee pots. There was a small one room 'cottage' among the fruit trees with a half forgotten wood burning stove. I watched nieghbors I grew up around gather seasoned fruitwood, home canned foods and strike anywhere matches. If you have any relatives who went through the Depression pay attention!

Short term I have both a GAZ with re-sealable canisters and a Primus with 6 canisters on hand for ea.
For real long term I have a SEVA 123 that burns about 4 oz. per hour and I stock 2 gal of fuel. I figure we are set for 4-6 months.

Yes, pop rivets. I had researched alcohol stoves and was all set to try my hand at it then happened to read someone's comment that if the stove was stepped on it would be cold meals for the rest of the trip (a Leave No Trace hiker i think). The stove feels like it could take a beating and still hold up, but is still small and lightweight.

Short term: I have a couple boxes of stirke anywhere matches that i'll just keep lighting and hold close to the meat until it cooks.

Long term: I'll rig a bicycle powered generator and have the kids pedal enough to power my George Forman grill.

- Coleman camp stove with 2 cans of gas
- Propane grill
- fireplace/open fire

I have a variety of esbit-style stoves and solid fuel. Also some alcohol stoves with some meths.

Also a petrol stove, which I no longer use for camping because it scares me. I'd probably have to syphon petrol from neighbors' cars (after they've turned into zombies and been decapitated, or whatever).

For the medium term, my main hopes are pinned on an open fireplace. I have a stock-pile of coal which should provide warmth and cooking for a few months.

Long-term I'm probably stuffed regardless. I live on the edge of the countryside so hopefully could find enough wood. A lot depends on the situation, eg whether there were other people trying to collect the same wood.

Alcohol burners for me. Fuel is everywhere and with methanol like HEET (yellow bottle) costing about about $1 per bottle, operation is very cheap.

After all of my propane, butane, alcohol, and heet and Sterno is consumed , I still have a lot of seasoned, blown-down timber left over from Ivan and Katrina. Not going hungry here in L.A.!

In our BOB we have a Vargo Stove

Its very lightweight and we have both esbit fuel tabs and denatured alcohol to power it. In our Backpacking gear (back up ALICE) we have a Clikstand with a trangia alcohol stove. The clikstand works really well and its worth the cost with all the use we get out of it. Nothing is better than quiet cooking and clean smells. White gas or kerosene smell on the hands is meal mood killer ;^).

I need to find a way to bake with these stoves though. Has anyone used the BakePacker ? Or used another method (besides heavy cast iron dutch ovens)?

Cheers,
Logan.

There was a method for baking on a stove that I have not tried, despite reading about it many years ago. Its one of the many thousands of things still on my To-Do List.

The theory is to put your food to be baked in a covered pot inside a larger pot, with some airspace all around. Set the smaller pot on a metal canning jar ring (the wide-mouth size might be best).

I think this would probably take some experimenting. And if anyone tries it, I would like to hear how it goes.

Sue

I've also read about baking in a pressure cooker with the weight removed/valve open (but I never got around to trying it, either). That might produce similar results.

We do something like that with a crock pot, and a dutch oven, all the time. I realize that the crock pot required electricity, but I mention it here 'cuz it works so well. With a smaller round crock pot, a Wallyworld grease pot works perfectly, in the larger oval ones small loaf pans (get the non-stick surface ones for ease of cleanup). Rather than a Mason jar ring (which I didn't think of), we used three large (3/4" or so" stainless steel nuts (as in nuts and bolts). Arrainge them properly, and sit the pot/pan on them. Real easy is Jiffy biscuit/cornbread mix, but you can use your own mix as well. You will have to experiment with cooking time, and may be surprised, as we were, to discover that the biscuits will actually brown on top. We even stack the loaf pans, using a couple of pieces of coat hanger wire to place one pan above the other. We have even made two pans of different stuff at the same time. More experimentation requred for times/temps in the the dutch oven. My wife makes killer biscuits that way, in a round bread pan within the oven. Works like a champ...

ps: we do NOT usually cover the pot/pan within the crock/DO, but I guess that could depend on what you are baking...

Additionally, Coleman used to make a simple sheet metal oven, complete with thermometer, that sat on top of a camp stove. A friend once made a perfect (well, it was eatable) birthday cake while elk hunting in the mountains of Colorado. I haven't seen one in years, but now Coleman makes this , an oven with its own power. I haven't seen one yet, so can not comment on how it works...

And here's http://www.instructables.com/id/E4NBVPKF35J1OOE/?ALLSTEPS a recipe for baking bread in a pressure cooker.

While looking at your link I found this one. Cooking with hot rocks in a pressure cooker sounds like the perfect "survival" cooking method...

Cooking with hot rocks can work well - I've used them to heat water for tea or instant soup. I haven't used this particular method, but some of the comments at the bottom of the piece are dead on: Do NOT use sedimentary rocks - they can have moisture pockets that will cause them to explode when heated. Look for solid stones with no visible layers.

I too have heated with hot rocks, but never cooked. And you are right on about the rocks...

I've used an Outback Oven and it worked really well for biscuits and brownies. (I also used it a number of times to heat up Chunky Soup so I didn't have to stir constantly to prevent scorching and for some reason, it made the soup taste better. If anyone else tries it let me know if it's universal or I'm just wacked.}

Well, there's this: folding oven
It's supposed to work on any stove.

While looking at sites for alcohol stoves I came across this site alcohol stoves The man who makes the stoves was using simple cooking gear to create an oven of sorts. In his video section he shows how to use it. He did a test of the White Box Stove (not made by him) which helped me decide to by the WBS. I have never made a purchase from him (may in future) but was impressed.

As with most questions, I think it depends on what situation you're in. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so our most likely long-term situation is an earthquake. I live in a city, and my expectation is that there will be plenty of cars with nowhere to drive them, so I have a Coleman stove that runs on white gas and unleaded gas, along with a siphon and a car opener. (Not to mention the propane stoves with little green propane cans and the big bottle.)

I'm less concerned about fuel than food, as I assume I'll be trapped in a certain area by collapse of overpasses, so there'll be plenty of cars to siphon, but less food after the run on stores. If we do run out of fuel before we run out of food, I'll be happy to start tearing down all the wooden fences the city required in our development. :-> I'm confident there'll be plenty of wood in the collapsed frame houses in my area of town.

In 3rd or 4th grade, we did a "project" in class (read: the teacher did the work), where we heated the rocks, and then threw them into a bucket of soup. Worked rather well, actually. Just eat the soup around the rocks. Probably should rinse them first.

Not sure how any issues with rocks exploding was avoided. i throw this out here for contemplation only!

Klose trailer BBQ Pit smoker with a wood/charcoal steak grill and a propane fish fryer burner. The pit will burn wood, charcoal or propane. Heavy duty king kooker 2 burner propane grill. Freestanding wood fired BBQ. Outback Camping Products Stainless Steel Camp Stove/Oven that works with 20+ pound propane tanks; 6-40 pound; 8=30 pound. A couple of whisperlite international multi-fuel single burner camping stove.

14-20 pound tanks (I cater! ), several wood burning steak grills.

I like the look of the White Box Stove enough that I picked up several aluminum beer bottles to experiment with.

One thing about the soda-can stoves... they certainly are somewhat fragile but after making 4 or 5, putting one together is quick and easy with just a multi-tool and a large safety pin (To poke the holes. I don't bother with metal tape or JB Weld.) The cans and fuel are readily available anywhere except the backwoods. I think of it as another skill in my survival/emergency preparedness arsenal.

Agree completely, my problem with building is the test firing, apartment dwellers as pyromaniacs are frowned on and the rangers at the national park/archeaological site wouldn't be too happy either. Where is the fun in building if you can't tell if it's done right?

Hello all, I'm new to the forum.

In many areas, storing enough petroleum based fuel for long term is tricky, illegal or against covenants (if they're discovered). One area I've been investigating is solar, retained heat cooking, or high efficiency methods.

Heat-retention/Fire-less cooking takes the food to the desired temperature, then puts it into insulation where the heat continues to cook without the further expenditure of potentially scarce fuel.
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Heat-retention_cooking
http://solarcooking.org/heat%2Dretention/

Solar ovens, obviously use the sun to cook food. Most of these are a far cry from the elementary or jr. high science projects.
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://solarcooking.org/plans/

Another method I've been studying is the low-tech/high efficiency fire pit or stove from Aprovecho at http://www.aprovecho.org/web-content/publications/publications.html

They take the basic fire and make it much more efficient, thereby using less fuel. They have videos and printable instructions for making the Vita stove, a rocket stove, even a dung burning stove (hey, pioneers in the 19th century used buffalo chips!).

My 2¢ worth.

Thanks, and Welcome, Newguy...

[quote] along with a siphon and a car opener./quote]

Philip,

Can you please tell us more about the "car opener"? Is it something to bypass the siphon blocker?

Thanks.
-Blast

Thanks newguy! The variety of solar cookers was good to see, I've been wanting to try building a solar cooker and this gives me lots of new ideas.

Re: the White Box Stove...

I watched the YouTube video of the guy reviewing the WBS, and my brother said they look like they were made from some kind of beer can that is heavier than a regular Coors (etc) can. He said he has seen heavier aluminum beer cans that sort of look like aluminum bottles with a neck. Looking at that review video, the inside is smaller than the outside.

Is this true? Is there such a thing? If so, can you give brands?

The WBS maker's site says its made from "recycled materials". WHAT recycled materials?

Sue

Aluminum beer bottles are just starting to hit the market in a lot of places. So far I've only heard about Anheuser Busch, Iron City Beer and Heineken. I've only seen a few of them in clubs thus far and haven't seen any on store shelves.

Well... Clubs and ebay of course... You can buy anything on ebay.

Then again, I really haven't been looking at the local market. Perhaps I'll make a run tomorrow and see what I can find.

I am about 99.9% positive that they are the aluminum beer bottles that Bud/Bud Light come in. I am half way done making a WBS, just gotta cut the neck down to fit upside down inside of the base, then pop rivet the sucker together. Measuring for the inside part is gonna require some exact measurements, so that the shoulder of the neck part fits just right inside of the base, and the end of the neck just hits the bottom of the base (does all that make sense?). If/when I ever get it done I will let you know...

Adding to the list of beer brands available in aluminum bottles; "JW Dundee's - Pale Ale" from High Falls Brewing Co., Rochester, NY and "Moose Drool - Brown Ale" from Big Sky Brewing Co., Missoula, MT. I've heard that there are a couple of Mexican brands available in aluminum bottles but I haven't tracked them down yet. The "bottles" are of much heavier aluminum than cans.

The "JW Dundee's" have a recessed but flat bottom and the "Moose Drool" bottles have a concave bottom that looks like it would lend itself nicely to the "penny stove" design in a sturdier version.

Mini (5.5 Fl. Oz.) "V8 Juice" cans look like they'll fit nicely inside the cut down beer bottles and a regular soda/beer can will fit over them for a "stove snuffer". I'll post a report after I build a couple of stoves.

No markings anywhere on my stove to suggest where it came from. It's a double wall type. Center opening is smaller than the outside. Measuring across the bottom it's about 2 1/4 inch while the hole in the center is a little over 1 inch. It has a sort of foot/rim on the bottom with the bottom being indented but not dished. 2 1/4 in height. It is much thicker than a soda can, made from aluminum. weight on postal scale is a hair under 1 OZ. I believe I read somewhere that is was made from some type of beer can, and it looks as if you cut off the top and flip it, then jam it into the bottom. The top edge is smooth with no leaks (or glue) I can see. Well polished,no burrs, simple clean design, well executed IMO.

In looking at the neck I seen no indentations of threads but I am looking at the inner side of the can and the part with the threads may have been cut off. Wider pots were recommended due to the side burning flames and the supplied windscreen didn't fit the pot I chose. Through e mail I mentioned this and was sent a new longer and wider screen to fit. good service.
(no affiliation, just satisfied customer)

No threads on the "bottles" I picked up, just a rolled over lip for the regular style bottle cap (for those that remember bottle caps) to be pressed onto.

Sorry for the delay in responding - I was on vacation.

Yes, its a Biel tool by Paratech. It's not made cars; it's a fireman's forcible entry tool. I am confident it will bypass the siphon blocker. :-> (My assumption is that it is a long term emergency, so damage to cars is irrelevant when human life is at stake.)

Hey Thanks Tirec,

I recently heard a story on my local NPR station about a microbiolost at California State University, Sacramento that has been using solar cooking to not only cook food but also pasturize water in some 3rd world countries. I did some searching for commercial solar ovens for those of us not too confident in the efficiency of our building abilities or don't appreciate the long term utility of aluminum foil and cardboard.

Check out this Solar Oven. It weighs 20 lbs so you wouldn't be bugging out on foot with this thing but I could see using this on the weekends, in an power outage or even tailgating. All you need is a sunny day (even if its freezing outside) apparently.

Cheers,
Nemo

Now that is a nice tool, my nod in that direction is the significantly cheaper Stanley Fubar II (the mini Fubar) which I thought was a nice small scale solution but it pales next to your Beil!

Philip,

Thanks for the response. Looking at the tool, how do you use it? Do you somehow yank out the anti-filter screen without hurting the rest of the system or do you just punch a hole through the gas tank?

I'm still a bit confused.

-Blast

I have a BakePacker (the ultralight), and found that it works really well. Honestly, much better than it has any right to. It seems like the Outback Oven might be more versatile, but the Bakepacker nests in your cookware, and is small/lightweight. It does require that you keep water boiling (with a lid on the pot) for 20 minutes, or however long it takes to cook your food, so it does use a lot more fuel than boiling some water for a dehydrated meal and then shutting off your stove. Keep in mind that nothing browns when you use a Bakepacker. You basically get a plastic bag full of biscuits, or whatever you're cooking. You peel the plastic bag off the biscuits, flip it onto a plate, then peel the rest of the plastic off. The outside of the food where it was in contact with the bag is moist, but not wet or soggy at all. A biscuit or pancake ends up being kind of like the Chinese steamed buns that you get at dim sum. So far, what I've made (mostly of the pancake/biscuit variety, from recipes from the included book) has been tasty, much easier than trying to pan-fry a pancake in a microscopic backpacking skillet, and cleanup is a snap -- drink or pour out the water, throw away the plastic bag.

Make sure to lay in a supply of oven bags, otherwise you won't be cooking anything. Experimenting on the stovetop before you hit the trail is a good idea, too.

Hurt the system.