10 Emergency indoor cooking methods

RustBeltCowgirl

Given what has happened on the East Coast just now and Texas last winter, here's a good article to read over.

https://www.survivalsullivan.com/indoor-emergency-cooking/

VermontCathy

It's worth thinking about this, but in most cases I'd recommend that emergency cooking be done outdoors. This might not work in the middle of a major storm, but once the storm passes and the power goes down, you should be able to go outside and use some type of camp stove or grill. Even in an apartment, you likely have access to some kind of outside space. Plan to eat cold food until the storm is gone.

Intense cold can be a problem outdoors, but serious winter campers cook over a fire at temperatures as low as -35F (-37C), so it can be done even if being out in that weather is not much fun.

I should really try cooking on my woodstove at some point. So far it hasn't been a priority. Since we do a lot of camping, we have various small stove options that burn a variety of fuels, and I'm used to them since they get used for normal camping. These stoves and my propane grill would be my backpack in the event of an extended power outage.

torey

I've moved this post into the Emergency Preparedness - Shelter in Place category.

Good suggestions in here.

With regards to campstoves, the only one I would use inside is a butane burner. These are used in restaurants for buffets or table side cooking. Propane is not safe inside.

Gel fuel burners and alcohol burners are also safe inside and work really well.

Definitely follow all instructions with regards to having CO detectors any time you have any sort of fuel indoors. And make sure you have a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit on hand.

@VermontCathy I encourage you to cook on your wood stove. Takes a bit of getting used to where the best spots are but it gives you are range of cooking temps. The video on woodstoves in this article has some good suggestions. You can even get an oven attachment for your chimney pipe.