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Emergency Cooking – How to Cook Without Electricity

ByLaurie Neverman

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here.

With our aging power grid and more blackouts and brownouts, it’s important to know how to cook without electricity. Emergency cooking options are also important during natural disasters. We’ll share how to have a hot meal – safely – when the grid is down.

emergency cooking methods
Emergency cooking options – (left to right) portable propane burner, solar oven, portable butane stove

Table of Contents

Remember: Be careful with open flames, and only cook indoors with products rated for indoor cooking . Don’t end up asphyxiated from cooking fuel fumes or burn your house down while trying to make a hot meal.

Indoor Safe Emergency Cooking/ Food Heating Options

These methods are safe to use indoors because they produce low or no emissions, or the emissions vent outdoors.

portable butane stove
Portable butane stove

#1 – Portable Butane Stove – Personal Favorite

Packed in a convenient carry case, these portable butane stoves can go just about anywhere. They generate enough heat to cook meals from start to finish, not just reheat food. We used ours during power outages, and when we were waiting for a replacement stove.

The butane canisters are fairly expensive, but you can do a fair amount of cooking with each cylinder. For a small stove it puts out a surprising amount of heat, enough to boil water. I demonstrate how to use it in the video below or on Youtube.

CRV Safety Cap for Butane Canisters

For extra safety, we recommend butane canisters with CRV safety cap.

Rikki’s Scouting Resources notes:

The CRV (Countersink Release Vent) is a Butane can safety feature. It allows gas to vent through the perforations in the can rim when extreme heat or pressure is too much. Non CRV cans will exploded with damaging results.

Identify CRV approved cans by their certification marked on the can, either EN417 or UL147B. They also have a light blue color rim.

mini folding camp stove
Mini folding camp stove

#2 – Mini Folding Camp Stove with Canned Fuel

These tiny folding stoves fold flat for storage. They give you a flat surface to cook on that fits over the top of a small, round fuel container. Use these with Sterno or other brands of chafing dish fuel cans.

These stoves produce a modest amount of heat. They work best for warming or reheating food.

These are safe to use inside or out, as long as there is some ventilation. Buffets in hotels and restaurants use Sterno cans for hours. These tiny stoves fold up very small, so they would be good for camping, an emergency pack, or a bug out bag.

Buy a Coghlan folding stove here

folded mini camp stove
The mini camp stove is extremely compact when folded.

#3 – Wood Burning Stove

My grandmothers both used wood cook stoves and some of my homesteading friends still do. Even if you don’t have a cook stove, you can heat up food on top of a flat top wood burning stove. We have a masonry stove with built in bake oven.

Emergency Cooking - 10 Ways to Have a Hot Meal When the Power Goes Out
Masonry stove with bake oven (top glass)

Look for wood cook stoves where off-the-grid folks such as Amish and Mennonites shop. Some also come equipped with water reservoirs for heating water.

pot cooking on top of wood stove
Pot of elderberry syrup cooking on top of a wood stove

#4 – Self Heating Meals/Portable Cooking Bags

One of the simplest methods of heating food without power is food packaging with built in heating elements. A chemical reaction produces enough heat to warm the contents of the container. For example, adding water to an MRE Flameless Heater causes the packet to heat up to over 210°F.

Outdoor Use Only Emergency Cooking Options

These options do double duty, providing hot meals for outdoor activities and when you need to cook without electricity.

#5 – Propane Grill

Your standard propane grill works well as an emergency backup stove. Many people already have these stoves and know how to use them. The down side is that they are difficult, if not impossible, to use during really nasty weather. Keep a spare propane container on hand.

There are also small propane cookers specifically designed for camping. These compact units have room for a single pot on top.

portable propane burner
Use portable propane burners on a non-flammable, level surface.

Note:  Store your propane cylinder outside and upright in a protected location. Do not store it inside a house or garage or near combustible materials. Avoid conditions where it will rust, potentially causing cylinder failure.

See Storing Propane Cylinders for more information. Propane will store indefinitely, as long as the seals and the storage take remain intact.

#6 – Charcoal Grill

Charcoal grills are less common than they used to be, but some people still use them, including yours truly. They have the same limitations as propane grills, and is less practical for small amounts of cooking or long, slow cooking.

Stock up on charcoal when it is on sale and store it anywhere dry. It has a very long shelf life. I highly recommend a cylindrical chimney starter to get your briquettes lit without starter fluid.

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Newspaper is less expensive than lighter fluid, plus you skip the extra dose of chemicals. Plan for extra time (20-30 minutes) for the grill to get up to temp for cooking.

#7 – Solar Cooker

Solar oven do everything from baking bread to cooking main dishes. They can also be used to dry foods and sterilize water. These work best in climates with plenty of sun, but we do use ours here in Wisconsin in the summer.

Check out “Getting Started with Solar Cooking” for more information.

young man cooking with a solar oven
Cooking in a solar oven is an option when sun is abundant.

#8 – Combination Stove like the Volcano Portable Stove

Some products use several different fuels, such as the Volcano Portable Stove, which works with charcoal, propane or wood. This would be a nice option to have on hand to take advantage of whatever fuel you have available. It weighs 4lbs, and the footprint when open is a17″ diameter circle.

#9 – Large Propane Burner/Deep Fryer

These big, high powered burners can crank out a lot of heat. The more common uses are: deep frying turkeys, fish boils and making enormous pots of soup (known as booyah in our area).

Use them to heat water for laundry or bathing, or to heat water for scalding chickens for processing. Make sure you use these with a large, sturdy pot, and keep them away from buildings.

open flame cooking over a campfire
Cooking over an open flame takes some skill to master.

#10 – Open Fire

There is skill involved with open fire cooking. There is no knob to turn or button to push to adjust the temperature. It’s quite easy to burn food on the outside and/or leave it cold in the center.

If you plan to cook over an open fire during emergencies, it’s a good idea to practice. Try it out in a low stress situation, like camping in your backyard. You need fireproof cookware or aluminum foil or large leaves, depending on your technique.

General Emergency Cooking Tips

Emergency cooking without electricity is easier when you’re prepared. Keep these tips in mind for planning.

Think “Heat” Instead of “Cook”

Reheating fully cooked foods is easier than preparing whole, non-cooked foods. For instance, canned beans are much easier to use than dried beans. They don’t require additional water, soaking time or extended cooking time.

Include “heat and eat” options in your long term food storage, such as canned foods or freeze dried foods. Many canned foods are pre-cooked and safe to eat directly from the can without heating.

If you have heat and water, freeze dried foods provide good quick meals. See our Best Freeze Dried Foods article for more information.

Stock Manual Kitchen Tools

Make sure you have people powered tools instead of electric cooking equipment.  Electric tools do not work when the power is out. Get a manual can opener.

Use the Right Pots and Pans

Make sure you have the proper tools for your cooking method of choice.  Fires and grills can be much hotter than your average stove burner. (No plastic spatulas, please.)

Long handles and hot pads, oven mittens, fire gloves or at least a folded rag to grab hot handles are a must. Cast iron cookware is a workhorse. A Dutch oven will allow you to bake bread in the stove, on the grill or campfire.

For more information, see Cooking With Cast Iron.

Know How to Use Your Emergency Cooking Option

Practice, practice, practice with your cooking option of choice.  At the very least, practice making the quick to fix foods that would be emergency fare. If you are truly inexperienced in the kitchen, just practice cooking – any cooking.

“Camp out” once a month to make sure you have all the tools, fuel and other supplies you need. Practice building a fire and cooking over an open flame. Learn traditional cooking recipes. Like any skill, food preparation gets easier the more you do it.

Know How to Cook Without Frills

Practice cooking with only minimal equipment.  Go on a camping trip, have backyard cookouts, cook a meal on the beach. Cooking without your stove and all your regular “stuff” will make things so much easier if you end up without power.

Repetition builds muscle memory so your body remembers when your brain is distracted. It also reduces stress because you at least know how you will eat.

What about using a generator to power a stove?

Using an emergency generator to power an electric stove or microwave is not a good idea. Electric stoves and microwaves use a lot of power in a short amount of time. It’s more efficient to use other fuel sources, such as natural gas, wood or charcoal.

When the grid is down, a gas stove may not light, because most gas stoves use an electric ignition. If you still have gas to the burner, you can light them with a lighter for emergency cooking. Be sure to turn off the gas when you finish cooking.

Laurie Neverman

This article is by Laurie Neverman. She has a BS in Math/Physics and MS in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis in renewable energy. Laurie and her family live in a “concrete bunker” (ICF home) with a permaculture food forest, greenhouses, and three types of solar. They “walk the talk” of preparedness by living a more self-reliant lifestyle.

Originally posted in 2013, updated 2024.

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64 Comments

  1. Enjoyed your post— especially the comment about explaining the food ingredients to the car mechanic if the bag leaked 😆

    Reply

  3. Some miscellaneous thoughts

    Conserving stored cooking fuels during an emergency (that might turn into something long term) can be really important. Some ways to do that could include learning how to use thermal cooking. There are books on Amazon and links online to help.It involves heating up a well insulated cooking vessel — such as a high quality thermos bottle (such as the “Thermos” brand) or larger thermal cookpot (see Amazon or eBay for sources), then adding the food to be cooked and bringing it up to temperature, then putting on the lid, removing the heat source, and letting the food slow-cook for however many hours it takes.

    Some kinds of solar systems are well suited for thermal cooking. Either parabolic reflectors or large Fresnel lenses are well suited for the quick heat-up described above — especially if good sunlight is only available intermittently.

    There are a couple of brands of solar cookers that have both solar and built-in electric capabilities. They are called hybrids. The electric option works really well for learning (while there is still power available) but can use solar when power goes out. They can even be set (while using solar) to automatically switch over to electric power when either the sun gets clouded over or when nightfall sneaks up on you. The US-made brand in Sun Focus while the brand made in India (the same brand in camo paint that’s issued to some units of the Indian military) is the Tulsi.

    There are many varieties of burners that can use kerosene for cooking fuel — in addition to the Lehman’s example in this article. Part of that is knowing that the K-1 grade of kerosene is sufficiently cleaned so as not to leave a greasy film on the walls and ceilings of your kitchen — as happened back in the day when my mother was SO glad to switch from kerosene to electric cooking in her kitchen because of the poorer grade of kerosene she had available. I was too young to recall her discussion about that at the time. Kerosene also has the virtue of being able to store indefinitely — and without any explosion hazard (unlike propane).

    Propane systems for cooking have been designed for indoor use. Back in my long-ago military years I lived for over a year in a 1958 manufactured mobile home with two propane tanks outside that were mounted on the towing tongue. The inside propane-fired cookstove was reliable and never gave me any problems.

    There are examples of people on YouTube using a wood-fired rocket stove in their house open fireplace. With that kind of ventilation there are probably other kinds of cookers with otherwise risky fuels (like propane) that could be used in such indoor fireplaces.

    Finally … the comment about dried beans taking a long time to cook … can be improved on considerably. If first cleaned of any loose particles and then ground into bean flour, the cooking time can be reduced enormously. Page 116 of Rita Bingham’s Country Beans book (my edition is from 1996 — there may be later editions with different page numbers) states that “When added to boiling water, bean flours thicken in only 1 minute, and in 3 minutes are ready to eat. Bean flours added to baked goods increase vitamins and minerals and provide a source of complete protein.” The book discusses some brands of home kitchen grain mills available back then. It could be worth while to run a current day online search to learn what brands are available today.

    Reply

  5. I made and gave away about a dozen “hobo” stoves or jet stoves at a talk I gave at my church about preparedness. They cost nearly nothing to make and cook using a small amount of twigs and easy to store. I threw a cheap lighter and a bag of tinder in each one I gave away with the plastic lid snapped on it for storage. That way in an emergency they wouldn’t need to panic.

    Reply

  6. Interesting article on an important topic, thank you. We have a regular pot belly stove, a Lopi, that takes the larger pieces of wood, and that has a flat top that we used to cook scrambled eggs and make coffee on when the power went out. You can’t bake with it ( that I know of) but heating or basic stove top type cooking/warming is easy. By itself, it can’t keep a drafty old house warm, but very close to it is nice and hot, and I am a huge fan of hot water bottles as low tech bed warmers when the power is out. Also, we have not tried this yet, but we now have several easy to put up tents for the living room next time the power goes out in the middle of winter; the idea is that tent plus good sleeping bag should be much warmer than sleeping in a cold bedroom. Of course, the mostly below ground basement is another option which can be warmer than other places in the house, due to the insulating factor of the earth around it.

    Reply

  7. When considering a portable camp stove – which is more efficient in terms of heating or heating and cost? The small butane canisters or small propane tanks…thanks

    Reply

    1. Hi Vivian.

      Most propane stoves are not recommended for indoor use – even some that advertise online as being “safe for indoor use” say “outdoor use only” on the box. The problem is ventilation, and fumes building up indoors, especially with how tight houses are nowadays.

      Odds are that you you can find a propane stove that would be safe to use indoors, it would be a little cheaper to operate than the butane stove, as those little butane canisters are expensive. Mini propane canisters are more expensive than bulk propane, but still cheaper than butane. That said, I’ve used our mini stove a number of times when we had power outages, and for several days while we waited for our new stove to get hooked up, and still haven’t used a full canister yet.

      The little butane stoves are commonly used in restaurants for tableside or buffet cooking, so they are by default fairly low emissions.

      If you have an outdoor cooking area you can use in all weather conditions, standard outdoor propane cooking devices that hook up to the bigger propane tanks will be the most economical to use.

      Reply

      1. Ah, yes, I was thinking more in terms of general fuel costs. We have an outdoor, double burner, Coleman cook stove – that uses those small canisters of propane. I was wondering if you knew if there was a cost comparison between those and the canisters of butane or those small circular containers of butane – that are okay to burn indoors. I don’t know how they both are in terms of output and how long they last kind of thing.

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        1. With costs increasing dramatically from week to week now, any comparison would be out of date quickly. I haven’t seen anything like that specifically, but I haven’t gone looking.

          Reply

  8. My sister-in-law grew up in a farmhouse with a charcoal stove, and she loves flame-grilled food. She learned to use a little one burner gas cooker and kept it on the electric stove in the kitchen.
    When my brother came home bed-bound and on oxygen, I stayed with them for a couple of weeks to help out.
    The respiratory therapist explained to me that there could be no open flames near his bed, since the oxygen would accumulate and might become a significant, explosive fire hazard. His bed had to be placed in the living room, and it occurred to me that the kitchen was close enough!
    English was almost her second language, and explaining why she couldn’t cook his favorite meal in her kitchen took some diplomacy.
    Respiratory compromise has become a pretty common issue in our culture, and during an emergency, that high risk may get by-passed in the hustle of getting everyone comfortable. That might be another point to add to your precautions.
    In addition, I don’t think I saw any discussion of alcohol stoves, which an ethanol expert has told me would have a 400F flame and would burn off completely, so it may be a candidate for indoor use. It is also possible to switch jets for other gasses with ones that will work successfully with alcohol. We have a propane stove that we have intended to convert for use with alcohol, but haven’t found the proper jets. I would love a suggestion for a vendor.
    Another option is a rocket stove, which is easy to make for welders, or can be purchased on line. It uses a variety of burnable fuels successfully, and makes a very quick, hot flame suitable for an outdoor cooking location.
    I love to sip hot water in cold weather. Your point about practicing is going into effect TODAY!

    Reply

  9. You can use your gas stove in a power outage. I keep a lighter by mine for that purpose; just turn on the gas, point your lighter near the burner and click.

    Reply

  10. Our community is currently working on emergency preparedness/disaster protocols. I have been tasked with coming up with ways to keep a pot of soup ready for about 30 people; in a medical-type camp-serving workers and some patients. This would be done outdoors (tarp covered), in any type of weather (we are in the Western Washington state area).
    I’ll have access to propane; and perhaps fire for the cooking fuels.
    What would be my best bets for keeping a pot of soup within consistent and safe temperature levels (I have been a food-service worker, and have had some experience-mostly indoors, and in controlled conditions).
    Some ideas on how far the proximity for an outdoor fire would be.
    I have access to large aluminum pots, thermometers, and large burners.
    We are already organized to have individual services ready for the general community.
    Any websites or official agencies for this would be helpful, as well. I have all ready signed up for FEMA updates.
    Thanks!
    Thanks!
    Any tips would be invaluable! Thanks!

    Reply

    1. Do you folks make booyah or something similar?

      Around here, community groups regularly cook big pots of chicken soup (booyah) on propane cook stoves. Helping out for a community event with an experienced soup cooker would be excellent training.

      Like any fire, you don’t want anything or anyone to get close enough to get burned or catch on fire, so several feet of clearance is needed around your cooker.

      No emergency cooking specific agencies come to mind. Like most skills, I think experience is the best teacher. Try cooking outside or assist someone cooking outside to find out what works and what doesn’t.

      Reply

  11. Hi Laurie!
    When we moved to the mountains in Colorado in 1978, we had no utilities at all (electric or water) except propane to run the kitchen stove and a Servel refrigerator and its tiny freezer. Since it was summertime, I found some cinder blocks and took one shelf-rack out of the gas-stove oven to build a fire pit in the front yard, setting cast iron frying pans on the rack. I used aspen and pine sticks from our woods to fuel it and quickly learned how to cook over an open fire. My family had never done any camping in the woods, or open-fire cooking, when I was growing up, so I had to learn a LOT of new skills! When we hooked up an OLD upright parlor stove and burned wood and coal in it, I learned to heat water on it (we were hauling water in an old metal 10-gallon milk can, so I had to make it last as long as possible!), and eventually learned to cook on a wood stove – we later got a bigger, more modern King heater that had a top lid that opened so I could cook an entire meal on it. I loved that stove, and wish I still had it!

    We’re now in upstate New York and have a non-electric propane kitchen stove (everything on it works without electricity), a small Jotul wood-burning stove to warm the house (too small to do a really good job in bitter cold), and this spring I purchased a Sun Oven. It sat in its unopened box for several months before I finally got up the courage to try it – all I’ve done so far is dehydrate wildcrafted herbs, but at least I’m getting my feet wet! Now, if the weather would just cooperate – it requires enough sun to cast a good shadow, and we’re getting rain at frequent intervals, so there’s very little sunshine to work with. I also ordered their little “cloudy-day” stove and a dozen fuel cakes for it, but that will be for emergencies only. I love the fact that the Sun Oven people have been sharing their stoves in needy countries, and even make a community-sized model for schools and/or villages to bake bread in, to sell for their own use as well as income. (www.sunoven.com) It will also boil water, and can be used with the included reusable Water Pasteurization Indicator to pasteurize water for safe consumption. The Sun Oven may seem a bit pricey ($300 on sale, to $500 not on sale, including all the extras that come with it), but a good chunk of the price goes to this humanitarian work, which I gladly support! It also seems to work really well. The first time I took it out of the box and set it up, aimed at the sun, the closed box went to 200 F. in about 10 minutes, and to 300 F. in another 5 or 10 minutes – and the glass lid was still cool to the touch, but the black box was HOT! It’s very impressive to sit and watch the thermometer rise that fast, just by using the sun. Because the heat is uniform inside the box/oven, there are no hot-spots to burn food, so I’m going to try warming cold leftovers in it whenever we get some sunshine this week.

    Thanks for your informative posts – I’m learning some new things, and refreshing memories of stuff I taught myself to do through the years. Keep up the good work, and may God always bless you and yours.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for sharing your story, Becky. We’ve had a lot of cloudy weather lately, too. The Sun Ovens are also built to last a lifetime, so they’re not something that’s going to need replacing in a few years. It’s a long term investment.

      Reply

  12. Here in Modesto California we have a lot of triple digits days, sometimes a week or more in a row. Heating up the kitchen only adds to the misery and makes the air conditioning work harder. I “cook” a lot on the dash of my van. I have used a pint canning jar and a freezer bag laid in a dark baking pan. One recipe was a Italian rice dish including a small can of mushrooms including the juice, a small can of tomato sauce, one fourth teaspoon of Italian seasoning, one third cup of instant rice. The jar took thirty minutes to heat up and solidly filled the jar. A quart jar may work better. The freezer bag took only twenty minutes to cook. It was not as dense as the stuff in the jar. I put the bag in a dark pan to reflect the heat back into it. I also did it in case the bag leaked. I didn’t want to have to explain to my mechanic why trice, mushrooms and tomato sauce was in my vans air conditioning. A vehicle makes a great solar oven.

    Reply

  13. So glad I found this helpful site ! so much in a little time. I want to build a solar oven! I have a tiny woodstove, but need more options! I dont want to buy a bunch of sterno to store. I have some but dont want to go boom! suggestions please! Thanks!!

    Reply

  14. Laurie, this is great information; thanks for providing it. My husband was surprised it could be used indoors. I didn’t misunderstand did I? Also, would the Chef Master portable butane stove be substantial enough to handle a fully loaded All American 915 Canner which holds 7 qt or 10 pt jars? Do you think the heat can be regulated enough to keep it at the right pressure? Our stove is non-functioning, and we’re using hot plates, but they do not work well with a canner. It takes forever to get it up to pressure, greatly increasing the time necessary for each run. Thanks for your help.

    Reply

    1. You’re welcome, Karen. The little butane stove is indeed rated for indoor use. Off-gassing during the burn time would likely be similar to what you’d find from a gas stove burner – not much. As I mentioned, we used it for several days while we were without a regular stove. There was no detectable odor.

      I don’t think the little butane stove would be up to handling a fully laden canner. Boiling a few quarts of water and other light duty cooking, yes, but canning takes a lot of energy over a long period of time. I know people have canned on the big outdoor propane stoves, but that’s a bigger investment.

      Reply

      1. Thanks for an informative page on emergency cooking. We have a generator but it’s dedicated to the three “F”s: freezer, fridge, and flush. We’re looking for an indoor cooking option when it’s too nasty to use the propane grill. Just a note, though. Your readers should understand that carbon monoxide is odorless. The odor you smell with natural or bottled gasses has been added so you can detect it, but when it’s used to cook there is no odor. Hence all those warning labels, which should be carefully followed.

        As you noted, butane is pretty safe for indoor use, as it create very little CO. But propane cookers should absolutely be used outdoors unless the specifically rated for indoor use (and I don’t know any that are).

        Thanks and happy power outaging, everyone!

        Reply

        1. Hi Ed.

          I added an extra note about carbon monoxide in the safety section. I have not come across any propane cookers rated for use indoors, so hopefully folks will pay attention to the warning labels.

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      2. Laurie:

        I have read that many Amazon reviewers are using butane portable stoves indoors, but I am consistently reading that manufacturers are still issuing instructions that recommend NOT using butane stoves indoors. I have yet to come across a manufacturer that has rated their butane stove for indoor use. Can you tell me what model of the Chef Master is rated for indoor use (I assume by the manufacturer or an industry association) or any other butane stoves that are so rated?

        Reply

        1. The Iwatani model linked in the post is “CSA listed. ANSI Z21.72-CSA11.2-2011 Camp Stove and ANSI Z83.11-CSA 1.8-2016 Foodservice Equip.” by the manufacturer. Section 1.8 of that code notes:

          “A tableside cooking appliance may employ a low pressure gas delivery system or may incorporate a delivery system operating directly from the self-contained tank supply.”

          This would indicate to me that it is intended to be viable as an indoor cooking device.

          The Chef-Master 90011 1-Burner Butane Countertop Range – 9,925 BTU is listed as ETL certified for indoor use in commercial restaurants, but is not as well rated as the Iwatani models.

          Both stoves note that they are resistant to drafts from air conditioning.

          Reply

          1. This commentary about safety issues reminded me of an experience I had when visiting my brother while he was convalescing on a medical bed in his living room, which included the use of a pressurized oxygen supply. No one was smoking in the house, but my sister–in-law liked to grill indoors with a butane hot plate in her all electric kitchen. She pulled it out to make a special meal for my brother, and I had to explain to her that this could cause an explosion. So grid down, with all the other complications, we are going to have to factor in medical equipment.

  17. I have an old metal bucket I picked up at a yard sale that kept me fed warm meals for about 3 weeks during the 2009 ice storm. I drilled a few holes in the bottom to aid ventilation and use an old cookie cooling tray on the top. In that 3 week [without power] period I used Canned Heat, Charcoal, Wood and even, at one point, a bunch of old bills that would normally have gone through the shredder!

    Reply

  18. HI Laurie,
    I spent a summer working in Alaska a few years ago, installing satellite internet at remote schools. We “camped out” at the school after the work was done each day, then climbed aboard a bush plane that met us the next morning with a new load of equipment, and flew us to the next village to install another internet system.

    We had to carry everything with us, including food and implements, and I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty the freeze dried food from Mountain House was. All you need is a way to boil some water, pour it in, stir it up, and wait about five minutes. Yum! It’s a little pricey, depending on where you get it, and can be a bit high in sodium, but for emergency fare, it’s hard to beat. I only found one entree that I didn’t care for (the beef stew), but the rest were amazingly good, and they even have a few breakfast choices that are very good. The packages are usually labeled as “2 or 2.5 servings”, and I guess two people could share, but a full-sized feller with a good appetite will probably be inclined to eat the whole package himself. Amazon sells it in “12 pouches – 29 serving” collections, but that equates to really only 12 meals for a hungry man or growing teenage boy. The bonus is that you can store it for a good long time.

    Reply

    1. I agree that Mountain House are some of the better freeze dried meals that we’ve tried – good enough that we stocked up on some “just in case”. I think your portion comments are spot on, too. The boys could easily polish off a pouch by themselves if allowed to do so.

      Reply

  19. Small to medium sized fondue pots – the kind that use a tealight – are also good for heating up a jar of soup or water to drink. They are also pretty cheap at second hand stores. They do involve open flame, but as long as they are attended to, and put on a stable heat proof surface they do work well.

    Reply

  20. I have a solo stove. It work great using a bunch of small twigs and small chunks of wood. They have an alcohol can yet I have never used it. Here is a link to their site. I have the stove and pots not to rub it in. http://www.solostove.com/#oid=1073_1_text_2.
    I had one of the folding stove like you have shown but it got lost long ago. I carried it during a trek on the Appellation trail when I got out of the USMC back in 1977.

    Reply

  21. One of my favorites is the Wonder Oven. After you have brought your food up to boiling or to a certain temperature, then it can go into the Wonder Oven which insulates and finishes the baking / cooking process. Think of it as a slow cooker without electricity. They used to call these Hay Box ovens… some people use a pillow cushion others use an insulated cooler for the same effect.

    For boiling water – hands down, I prefer the Kelly Kettle! Love mine!!!!

    Reply

    1. Cindy, I read about the Wonder Oven, and saw some concerns about it not maintaining a high enough temperature to avoid breeding bacteria. Did you have any thoughts on that? I haven’t tried the Kelly Kettle, but should check it out.

      Reply

  22. Pop can stove. Easily made from a soda can. You Tube. Heats up great and is extremely small. Backpack item. Different fuels used for different models made.

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  23. I enjoy the webpage and have been following all tips and ideas which is very helpful. I do canning from my garden and enjoy in my winter season. It save money,time and energy.
    Keep sending important information
    thanks
    almas

    Reply

  25. I have several propane options (for outdoor use) that we use in our tailgating. One is a propane crockpot, and the other is just a single burner that sits on a small propane bottle.

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  26. We have plenty of exterior methods of heating food (a couple of campstoves, a firepit and a grill) and have done a lot of cooking on them as we love the outdoors but we don’t have anything for indoors yet and I would like to get something since if we lose our power in a blizzard it might not be very fun to go cook outdoors or even in the garage with the windows open.

    This summer when camping the stove we were using acted up and my inlaws bought what you have as option 2 for us to use. We were not at all impressed. Maybe we didn’t use it right but it always wanted to burn right in the middle of the pan and then do practically nothing at all anywhere else.

    I really like the look of your woodstove and oven. We will be building a new home, Lord willing, next year and were thinking of putting a fireplace in (as we like that look) but what you have is also very pretty but I am sure quite a bit more practical.

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    1. To be completely honest, I have mixed feelings on the masonry stove. It gives a wonderful slow heat, which we love, but it was expensive. Also, since we don’t have wood on our property, we have to buy wood. Thankfully, my brother-in-law has a saw mill, and we can usually purchase their scrap lumber, but he is thinking about retiring. The stove requires small diameter wood (no larger than 4″ diameter, smaller is better) so that it burns with a hot, quick fire. This is hard to find in quantity, unless you buy and split. (He makes wooden stakes, so his scraps are great for us.) I wish we had been able to afford geothermal, which can do heating and cooling.

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      1. Try a Coleman Tri-fuel stove or one of their LP units. Great for camping and wonderful for blizzards! Been there!

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      2. You didn’t mention the actual fireplace to cook food. I use a cast iron dutch oven and can make all sorts of food in it. Just set it to the side in the fireplace, rake coals around it and on the top. There is also a great number of fireplace gadgets for cooking as well.

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        1. Very few people have open fireplaces anymore because of building codes and such, but that’s certainly a good option if you have one available.

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      3. We live in the Chequamegon National Forest, where the Forestry Service takes bids for logging off select parcels. The trimmings from the logs are left to rot, which can impede fire crews during a fire. In our community we are permitted to park along the fire lanes to glean those trimmed off branches for personal use. There is plenty of wood larger and smaller than 4″ in diameter. It might be a good idea for non-residents of a rural community to check with the local Town Council to be sure this practice is permitted. We have also seen sections of our local roads where crews have gone through to increase the width of setbacks, and those trimmings are typically left along the setback. Collecting that is rather more of a risk, since the roadside margin is pretty close to traffic. It would be a good idea to get the landowners permission to pull a little farther off the road if possible.

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    1. I have no idea offhand. It’s something I picked up at an estate sale. I’ll have to check and see if I can find identifying markings.

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      1. a few…3,4,5,6,8,10! LOL! I got cooking covered! I am experimenting with a Coleman folding camp oven set on top of my woodstove now. Trying to get it over 300 deg….

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