The more involved I get with this forum the more I realize just how wide a range of styles and beliefs there are. One thing I'm curious about is your varying opinions on emergency cooking? Do any of you carry cooking gear as part of a BOB or emergency kit or is the ability to make fire considered sufficient?

I've been watching a lot of Man vs. Wild and Survivorman lately and I always find it interesting that Bear Grylls eats so many things raw but Les Stroud cooks/boils damn near everything first.

Kit warning!

Personally I carry a small bag with a small alcohol stove (Vargo Titanium Triad), a folding solid fuel stove containing 4 fuel packs (similar to the Esbit pocket stove), and a mini Bic. A little while ago I added to it so it could double as a 'food and water' kit when I go lightweight hiking. I didn't add much just some collapsible chop sticks, salt and pepper packets, water purifications tabs, a disposible fork and spoon, my Gerber LST knife, a Wet Ones towelette, a couple of alchohol swabs, a small container of sea salt crystals (for food or to refill my MSR MIOX pen), a 1/8 oz. bottle of Tobasco and a 1/4 oz. bottle of 'special' hot sauce just for me (Blair's Megadeath). When I'm camping I carry a bottle of alcohol fuel of course but for emergency scenarios I keep it around because it's so easy to get fuel from a drug store or gas station. The re-usable solid fuel packs make dandy fire starters and the pocket stove can act as a wind guard for the alcohol stove.

I keep a stainless mug (A prison replica) tethered to my 1L Nalgene bottle that I use as a one person cooking vessel.

Overkill for survival no doubt but the extra stuff adds next to no weight and all fit in the same container (a pencil case) just fine. If nothing else it adds a lot of peace of mind knowing that I can cook/boil/purify no matter what should the need arise.

Thinking about how over prepared I am on this angle, I'm curious to know how many of you even bother...or for those who do, what your pack?

I'm not all that fond of cooking, even at home, and I'd rather have someone else BBQ lunch or dinner for me. But if someone isn't with me that will catch, kill, gut, age and cook the errant chicken or cow for me, I keep it rather simple.

So, I am more into carrying some water, an oven roasting bag, a leg of pantyhose, a tiny stove & alcohol, a metal cup, a spoon, firemaking implements, teabags & sugar, a few of those little thin packets of soup mix that come with Ramen-type soups (I use the cheap noodles for other meals, so I have a crock full of packets), maybe some cocoa packets, maybe a couple of instant oatmeat packets, and some granola bars.

And if I stagger back into the campground and someone is BBQing, they WILL share!

(Interesting historical note from the Overland wagon train pioneers: death from cholera was very common, as they didn't know the bacteria in human waste was contaminating the water sources they used for drinking and eating. Much of the water tasted bad, so many of them drank a lot of coffee, and cooked a lot of porridge, thus killing the bacteria. The ones who drank the water "raw" were often the ones who died.)

Sue

I don't carry cooking kit per se but a small metal cup that nests over a Nalgene bottle is a recent thoughtful addition.

Need some means to boil water or melt snow to truly make use of firemaking supplies.

If suffering thru a cold night by an expedient fire the activity of heating and consuming the hot water will help pass the night better than just tending the fire.

I take an MSR stow away pot and I use it like a psk. I keep the contents packed inside and keep this pot at the bottom of my maxpedition fat boy. It works for me. This way I always have something to drink and cook out of.

I love sitting around and cooking over a fire. As a scout I once had to spend a night on a frozen lake with limited supplies...including no wood. I'll never again have to stuff food into my pants just to thaw it enough to chew!

The irony was we had been out there to catch fish but couldn't cook any of them!

I carry a cup that nests over a Nalgene bottle and a coleman Peak 1 butane stove. I also carry a cheap cafeteria style steel teaspoon. Mostly, I make hot chocolate for a pick me up, but I also carry Campbell's instant soup packets and salt. I don't think there are too many things I'll catch that I can't chop up and make some sort stew out of.

I'm also considering adding a Squishy bowl to my army kit, since the move to camelbaks instead of canteens means no more steel canteen cup. The Squishy bowl can't do everything that a metal cup can. But its super light and will squish into a tiny space in my camelbak. So I at least have some option for cooking or boiling water.

"...The ones who drank the water "raw" were often the ones who died..."

Makes sense to me. Do you know what fish DO in water? I figure that God made water, for me to use to make coffee, iced tea, etc...

Depends on the kit.

For the most minimal, there isn't room for anything to cook with. *shrugs* Chlorine tabs for water.

My ditch kit in it's current configuration has the outer pieces of a French mess kit, and a small Esbit stove. I have a small vial each of salt and chili powder, a couple of ramen seasoning packs and a small spoon. Brew kit has lemon crystals.

My BOB/camping bag has this . I carry two pint bottles of denatured to fuel the trangia, along with a small platform so it can use Esbit or triox tabs and candles, and I carry spare Esbit tabs in my pack. It will also burn small wood or other solid fuels. To cook in, I've got a 1.7L storage canister that has been drafted to serve as a cook pot (works very well, and much more robust than the grease pot it replaces) and two Nalgene cups. Lexan spoon and fork, and a big vial of salt, small vials each of black pepper, chili, garlic and curry powders, and eight assorted ramen seasoning packs. Brew kit has both lemon and lime crystals.

In my daypack I've usually got my .7L titanium cup, a couple of tea bags, a pack of sugar, some candy and a granola bar. I might add a Thai Kitchen pack of rice noodles (weighs nothing). I figure if I'm stuck out unexpectedly I can heat up a cup of my favorite tea and plan my next move. Unecessary? Probably. But it gives me comfort, a plan, and reminds me to STOP (Stop Think Observe Plan) should the situation arise.

In my BoB:

I carry a US Army messkit with: metal spoon, Triox tabs, kitchen matches, and SOS pads.

I carry Bic lighters, assorted dry foods that need hot water (instant grits, Raman noodles, etc). Salt, pepper, and sugar packets (always); Ketchup and taco sauce packets (most of the time), and 4 MRE's.

My EDC includes a Buck 110 knife.

I routinely carry 10 days of rations and enough water purification tablets for 24 quarts/water.

You guys bring up something really obvious that I hadn't even considered...FOOD!

I should really put together something even if it's just some ramen noodles and tea bags to keep in my bag all the time. I've never tried MREs...are they heavy?

That's a lot of the rational behind my cooking gear. I read a good post on a British site last year about carrying a brew up kit. The idea is that if you're turned around, you can relax for a few minutes and make a cup of tea. Stopping to make tea or hot chocolate lets you run through the S.T.O.P. process with out having to admit you're lost to start it. Ever since I've tried to carry some sort of brew kit. From what I currently carry to the bare minimum of an MRE heater and hot beverage bag. The MRE brew kit weighs nearly nothing and fits in a coat pocket.

Both MREs and the Mainstay, etc., survival rations are pretty hefty. The latter are highly concentrated and quite dense.

I have a 3-day ration "bar" (it's actually the size of a large paperback book) in the car bag, and I notice the weight. That's why it's in the car bag. The larger emergency backpack (I guess you could call it a BOB) has two of the same bars in it, as well as several packets of instant soup, ramen noodles, tea bags, and some hard candies. It contains a Swedish surplus mess set, an esbit stove and a dozen tabs.

For day hikes I carry a power bar or two, a packet of instant soup and a couple of teabags in case I get lost, break a leg, etc. I carry a stainless cup on my nalgene bottle, but don't take a stove. Materials to make a fire for cooking are readily at hand wherever I hike.

"...SOS pads..."

Interesting. For cleaning the kit/spoon, or for something else? Seems to me that SOS pads, while they do a great job of cleaning pots and pans, are messy. Do you also carry a zip loc bag to put in in after use, let it air dry, what? Plain old steel wool, or just sand and some rubbing, might be easier in the long run...

I don't like cleaning which is why I keep things minimal (by my standards anyhow) but I keep a couple of wet ones and a half dozen alcohol swabs in the kit just to keep things sanitary...the alcohol prep pads make a decent fire starter if I need a fire and this is all I have handy.

OBG,

I always carry the SOS pads in a ziplock or else I'd have to wash the dry powdered soap out of my messkit before I could use it. Remember what soap residue on eating/cooking equipment does to the human body, oops, gotta RUNNNNNNNNN!!!!

Hacksaw:

One word: CLIFFstove

Designed, creatred, adored, and shamelessly promoted by.....

.....CLIFF (like, who else?)

Cliff, I gotta tell ya. That stove of yours is fantastic! The first time you posted that I remebered that I had an old canteen cup that leaked. I got as far as removing the handle and had to stop for other things. Can I ask how you cut the top/bottom of the cup off?

Wow Cliff that's awesome. I love to see home made solutions to the problems we come up with. I see similarities between your stove and what I've fudged together only I didn't build anything...I just pieced it together ghetto style...I'm lazy like that.

I recently visited Alcatraz and found the replica prison cup I bought at the gift shop fits over my 1L Nalgene bottle perfectly (not unlike a NATO canteen/cup combo). Not wanting to waste my investment I ran a test over the weekend. With the alcohol stove I can boil water in 5 minutes with alcohol left over for later use. I haven't tested with the Esbit style stove yet. In the picture I'm using the Esbit style stove as a wind guard...purely optional but since it's in the kit, why not?


Here's some pictures of the rest of the setup:

Nice cup, but you'd probably find the spacesaver-type from GSI or Olicamp to be more efficient due to their flat bottoms, and they probably hold more. They also go over the bottom of a Nalgene bottle.

Other than that, nice fire/cook bag.

Hey Cliff, I am lugging a couple of spare GI canteen cups around, just for turning into one of your stoves. You haven't by any chance come up with plans, measurements, etc, to keep me from wasting a cup have you???

Really nice, guys! Clever, inventive, useful, recycled.

But Cliff..... ah..... what does the keyboard do? Do you type the temperature level you want in it, or what?



Sue

I hear you. I don't know about SOS soap, but regular soap coating the outside of a cup/pot used over an open fire will allow you to wipe the black soot off with a paper towel...

OBG, bar soap or liquid dish soap? Talk about making my cleanup easier.

For now, an esbit stove and some hd aluminum foil.

It was challenging the first couple of times to kill something in the field, dress it, cook it, and eat it then and there. The first time was a fish, then frogs, then rabbits. Over the years I've gotten to where I can stomach a rare bite of deer loin as soon as the hide is off.

Of course, I prefer it with a bit of char, fresh off the grill, but I can't stomach what Bear does on his show sometimes. Sheep eyeballs, even boiled in a geothermal pool, are just not good eats.

One of the funniest stories that I have from my days as a Scoutmaster involved this. We told a new scout to "soap the pans and griddle" to make it easier for clean-up. The kid did a great job of soaping both inside and outside! We figured it out when the first round of pancakes seemed to be too bubbly.

Important lesson learned: Anyone can issue instructions. It takes far more work to be a teacher.

Duh. Foil is brilliant! I carry HD foil in my pocket kit but not in my cooking kit...how dumb is that?! I'll have to add a couple sq. feet tonight.

Don't forget the other old one: Those who can do, those who can't, teach.

(sorry Teacher, I just had to do it...)

"...a rare bite of deer loin..."

I don't know. Lots of wild critters have cooties that I prefer to cook a bit before I bite into a chunk...

OK, to answer a couple of questions about the CLIFFstove:

Matt26: I used a drill to cut a few starter holes in the bottom of the cup, then a hacksaw, and then a file. Used the drill for the air holes, too. DONT' FORGET AIR HOLES!!! This thing will get HOT!!!!!!!!. The wire is steel wire I found at a jobsite and bent into shape.

OldBaldGuy: No, I've never made plans for the thing. I winged it totally, using the Jack Karouac, stream-of-consciousness-and-a-bottle-of-Cuervo design approach. (So yes, there are a few "starter / oops" cups still in my workshop....)

Susan: The keyboard is there because my current version of the CLIFFstove is fully Bluetooth enabled, so I can set the cooking time and intensity from the warmth of my bivy bag. (The CLIFFstove can also hold 20GB of music or movies!) But since I got an iPhone, I don't use the Bluetooth features much anymore....

Best,

.....CLIFF (like, who else?)

Yes. The thread is about emergency COOKING. Thank goodness. Deer sushi hasn't caught on for a reason.


Frank2135

OBG,

It's ok, I'm also a teacher. That statement seems more true to me now that I've been in education for nearly 7 years (after 15 years in the business world).

I teach people with no experience how to ride motorcycles. Our rule is those who can, get to keep teaching. Those who can't, don't have a job anymore.

"...That statement seems more true to me..."

I'm sorry to hear that, I was hoping that it was just me...

I guess this could be filed under cooking, such as it is.

I just discovered that Bisquick doesn't really need milk for making biscuits. Two cups of Bisquick and 2/3 cup of water, and it's biscuits. Not as dense, but perfectly good eating. Butter and homemade wild blackberry jam.... mmmmmmmmm!

Sue

Yep, you got to be careful, even with sushi(the fish kind as well as the deer kind).

Raw meat is not something I indulge in too often, and some types never. If you are going to do raw, then you have to make sure the animal is top quality to begin with, the cut is from a good location on the animal, and it was handled during the slaughter and butchering properly. Even then, like you say, it can still have parasites, which is why I never eat pork unless it has been cooked to at least 170 degrees throughout.

I used to eat my steaks rare. I have moved it up a notch to medium rare, just for a little margin of safety, though likely any contaminated or tainted meat is still going to get me.

Still, a nice warm bite of fresh venison backstrap after a kill is sometimes warranted, as it is akin to eating a rare bite of steak anyways. I don't do the "Dances With Wolves" raw liver thing though. I prefer my liver to be cooked through.

I have found that the older I get the longer I'll cook a steak as well. Since my teens I've gone from medium rare, to medium, and finally to medium well. So I guess I'll never get around to trying that Chicken Tartare....

Oh, noo to the raw chicken deal, too. I may eat duck breast cooked a little rare, but only seldom, and any other fowl gets cooked through.

I guess my west Texas heritage is what drives me to continue eating beef and other truly red meat on the rare side. I won't ever order a steak cooked anything more than medium rare. Even my pot roasts have to bleed after resting on the cutting board.

I should know better, especially being a microbiologist , but the preferred way (at least for the youngest and myself) to eat beef is to cut the meat into cubes, soaking it in teriyaki sauce and eat it raw. I do (sort of) cook beef, but it is always red in the middle, just has so much more flavor.

My son-in-law, my oldest and wife require I cook the meat to at least medium-rare (what a waste of good meat), while my middle, youngest and I prefer the meat on the very rare side.

My rule of thumb: just show it to the flame and if it is not mooing, it is perfect .

Pete

If it is beef, and it was on the grill long enough to stop screaming, you over cooked it.

But birds and fish... yeah, well done.

"...But birds and fish... yeah, well done..."

And hamburger, don't forget to good that well done...

If the beef is good quality (and most is these days) and the Teriyaki sauce has enough acid, salt, or other ingredient which will kill microbes, you should be fine...as long as you soak it long enough.

Medium well. That will kill anything in there.

I hope.

Went to a Japanese restaurant a while ago and had some raw (thinly sliced) beef with a Teriyaki type sauce. I'm not a raw meat eater but it was pretty delicious.

One of my favorite combos at a local restaurant is grilled rare Ahi Sashimi, with just the outside 1/8th inch or so cooked, rolled in sesame seeds, and served with a soy and sesame dipping sauce, with wasabi on the side. Then the 2nd part is a 20 oz cut of prime rib, rare to medium rare, with an au jus and a horseradish dipping sauce on the side. Maybe a little salad in-between the two, otherwise, just a glass of a good peppery Lemberger with the prime rib.

I have a Brunton Crux stove in every vehicle and back back on the place. It stores in the hollow of a gas canister in a padded case, along with a mini-bic to light it. This is kept inside a Everlight stick-free titanium 1.0 L pan and lid, in it's stuff sack.

Besides the stove, there is room inside the pan for teabags and sugar packs for 14 cups of tea, a small sponge/scouring pad, spoon, and tube of bio-degradable soap. Weighs right at 1 pound.

The gas cylinder has enough fuel to boil water for 3 Mountain House meals a day, with 2 cups of tea, for a week, if you don't waste it.

If you use the smaller 3 gram cylinder, you can store a cylinder, Crux stove, tea or coffee, 3 food bars, and repackaged freeze dried meals (9 meals), along with a folding alpine cup and a lot of survival gear, all in one of those soft sided lunch bags Wal*Mart sells for a couple of dollars, for a simple and un-tactical/survivalist looking 3 day BOB on the car seat beside you, or under your desk at work.

The stove itself weighs only 3 grams, hides in the palm of your hand (screws onto the stove), boils water extremely fast, and will even simmer, something even a large stove has trouble with.

The Crux has been replaced with a newer version with a better pan holder, but I saw REI had a big sale on the older Crux without the case the other day on their website.

If I put any stove in the car it will be of the Omnifuel type so that it can be run using Gasoline.

You might think that, but there are a lot of organisms that thrive under some pretty unusual conditions (high salt, high or low pH, high temperature, low temperature, with various levels ofO2, without O2, etc.).

Pete

1- Knock off horns

2- Wipe his old nasty butt

3- Drag across coals. . .ONCE on each side

4- Consume with gusto

Man, y'all are ruining good meat! Just show it a picture of a fire then plop it on my plate. Blood is what makes it taste good.

-Blast

Pete, you saying that puts me in mind of crab legs.

Hacksaw, thats a nice striker+steel+magnesium rig in the background of your 3rd picture. Where did you get it??

I've been looking for another good one for my kit.

It's a Coghlan's Magnesium bar. I modified it slightly by adding the striker from a Light My Fire Firesteel and joining them with some paracord.

I've since upgraded again by switching the Light My Fire striker with a fine toothed jigsaw blade...WAY more sparks and I can scrape (saw?) off a pile of shavings in way less time and with way less effort.