Cooking during a prolonged emergency

 

When the power goes out, or the natural gas or propane runs out or stops flowing, we still have to cook our food.  Many will be able to do so over open fires, but not everybody has the space to do so - and in more "difficult" neighborhoods, an open fire can attract unwanted attention, due to it having to be away from buildings and exposed to view.  Others may use BBQ grills as long as their fuel holds out, but these don't work well with pots and pans.

In a prolonged emergency, there are three considerations to be taken into account.

1. Fuel:  You'll need an ongoing supply of fuel to cook your food.  In the absence of electricity, gas or liquid fuels, your choices are limited.  An open fire will require a certain amount of wood, probably more than a little if you're using more than one pot or pan.  Unfortunately, wood will probably be in short supply soon after the emergency occurs, because everyone and his brother will be gathering all they can.  (Hint:  it's worth gathering a supply of firewood before you need it, plus the tools to chop it up and use it.)
2. Security:  When you cook food over a fire, you generate smoke and (hopefully appetizing) smells.  This may advertise to the neighborhood that "Here's someone with food!"  If you're cooking in the open, that'll provide visual confirmation to back up the smells.  In a time of shortages, that may not be a good idea.  It would be helpful to have a method of cooking that can minimize the smoke and scent signature you generate.  It'll also be helpful to apartment dwellers if your cooking source can be used on a small balcony, rather than needing a back yard to provide more space.  (If the balcony doesn't have solid walls, stretch a tarp or something like it [even a bedsheet or blanket] over the railing to hide what you're doing.  Yes, there'll still be smoke from burning fuel, but if you cook after dark, that'll be much less noticeable.)
3. Shelter:  An open fire will seldom be under any sort of cover, so as to allow the smoke to dissipate without choking those nearby.  If it's very hot, or very cold, or raining, or hailing, or snowing, you don't want to be exposed to the elements.  You'll be able to cook in greater comfort and protection if you can move your cooking source under the roof of an open structure like a carport or patio, or place it just inside the partly open door of a garage or garden shed.

A fourth consideration applies when you're on the move, rather than cooking at home;  namely, portability.  You need your heat source to be small and light enough to take with you, and use when hiking or traveling, while still meeting all three considerations described above.  The same applies to its fuel.

I suggest there's one cooking "appliance" that will meet all those needs:  the rocket stove.  There's a vast number of models out there, some of which are good, and some of which are ghastly.  I'll cover a few that I've tested, and which I can therefore recommend from personal experience.

To begin, let's look at what a rocket stove is.  The link above takes you to a basic description, and I've selected this short video from YouTube to illustrate how the concept works.  (There are others available if you'd like to browse through a selection.)

If you check Amazon, you'll find dozens of rocket stoves available.  Some make almost miraculous claims about their efficiency.  Many are rip-offs of popular designs, trying to get your business through cheaper prices (but they usually come with lower quality as well).  It's hard to know what to choose.

I want a rocket stove to be stable when I place a pot or pan on top of it.  It mustn't wobble or fall over.  That means it must have a cooking surface wide and strong enough to take the weight of a quart or two of water, or a pot of stew, or a loaded frying pan.  It also needs a wide base, or stabilizing legs, to support it under such a burden.  Next, except for the smallest models, it has to be tough and strong enough to stand up to weeks, possibly months of use.  Some rocket stoves are very light, to make it easier to carry them in a backpack, but that may mean the material of which they're made is thin and not very strong.  It won't stand up to a hot fire two or three times a day for an extended period, all while getting bashed around in a rucksack or box.  Therefore, a flimsy rocket stove is disqualified right from the start.

If you don't need to carry a rocket stove around with you, there are several models that are excellent for home use.  They're heavier than others, but that means they can be made of thicker, stronger materials.  I've owned and/or tested the following models.

Ecozoom Dura and Ecozoom Versa:  These are almost identical stoves.  The difference is that the Dura is designed to use only sticks and twigs as fuel, whereas the Versa can also handle charcoal briquettes.  (For that reason - fuel flexibility - I prefer the Versa.)  They weigh 12 and 16 pounds respectively, and are fairly wide, both factors that keep them stable on level ground.  Their bodies are insulated to keep the heat of the fire inside, where it belongs, making them easier to handle when hot.  I like both very much.

Starblue Circular and Collapsible models:  The circular model is a fixed assembly of round steel tubes, while the collapsible model is made from wider square tubing that can be disassembled and stored in a more compact, portable form.  Both ship with carry bags that make it easier to move them around between uses.  Both are heavy, at 15½ and 17½ pounds respectively, and have stabilizing legs to keep them upright on level surfaces.  These would probably be my preferred models for extended use in an emergency, because they're simple, heavy and strongly built.  I'd set them up on my covered patio next to a stack of wood.  They'd also do well on an apartment balcony.

If you need a rocket stove that's lighter and more portable, but still strong enough to stand up to extended use at a base camp or home cooking situation, the Solo Stove family of products offers that flexibility, but at a fairly steep price.  There's the Lite model for camping use;  the Titan for slightly larger groups, but still small enough to be easily portable;  and the Campfire model, suitable for families and for extended use in a base camp or home.  (I prefer the Campfire because it can handle larger pots and pans and is more stable, but I'm not planning to lug it around in a backpack.)  The company offers a large range of accessories for its stoves (including an alcohol burner for the larger models if you don't want to use wood as a fuel), as well as sets of pots and pans matched to its stoves.  Solo stoves are popular enough that other companies have produced third party accessories for them, including a plate to fit inside the fire chamber that allows the use of wood pellets rather than twigs or sticks.  That can be very useful if you have a stash of fuel pellets for a domestic heating stove.  The plate is available in different sizes to fit the various models of Solo stoves.

Finally, if you want something very small and light for camping and mobile use, there's the Ohuhu mini wood stove.  It's by far the cheapest option listed here, and my example is well made.  It can use a small alcohol stove as fuel instead of wood, if you prefer, and wind screens are available to protect it from the elements.  The Solo Stove Lite model mentioned above is comparable, and also very good, but at the time of writing it's more than four times the price of the Ohuhu stove.  Either model is small enough to use fuel tablets for an Esbit-type stove, either as the sole fuel source or as fire-lighters for twigs and wood.  I have a friend who uses three or four Ohuhu stoves at the same time, with a pot or pan on each of them.  He says, at that price, it's an affordable option.  I wouldn't, but it works for him.

There are many alternatives available, a lot of them variations or cheaper knock-offs of the designs I've mentioned above.  You can save money by buying them, but several lower-cost models I've tested have simply not been of high enough quality for me to trust them.  I've personally used the ones I've named above, so I'm willing to rely on them to take care of my family's cooking needs in an emergency.

All of the above is not to say that other camping or portable stoves aren't perfectly useful.  I used old-style Primus kerosene stoves for years, and will happily use more modern propane stoves, and gas or charcoal BBQ grills are very useful when other means of cooking are not available.  (Charcoal briquettes will also work in some - but not all - rocket stoves, provided it can stand up to the extra heat generated by charcoal.  If the briquettes won't fit through the side opening to the fire, drop them down the top to fall into the burn chamber.)  Decide what options you prefer, and equip yourself accordingly.  I simply think that rocket stoves give you as much fuel flexibility and independence as you're likely to get, and that for me is an overriding consideration.  If my stove can't be used for lack of fuel, it's about as much use as an anchor on dry land.  Also, because a rocket stove usually needs less fuel per pot or pan of food than an open fire, it means less effort to gather wood for it.  Finally, it's smaller and less obvious than an open fire during times when you don't want others to know that you have food while they're hungry.  That's a definite win in my book.

If you want to save money, you can easily build your own rocket stove.  I particularly like this very simple design, made with cinder blocks.  It's not very portable, of course, but for home or base camp use, that's not important.

The only limits to making your own rocket stove are your skills, your tools and materials, and your imagination.  Just remember to test the finished product, to make sure it's safe and it works.

Peter

EDITED TO ADD:  I've written a follow-up post to this one, incorporating comments from readers and a couple of other points.