# Cooking Indoors



## Fish (Jun 27, 2016)

When the power is out and you don't have propane or natural gas for your kitchen stove, what do you his recommend for cooking indoors that wont kill you?


----------



## Operator6 (Oct 29, 2015)

I've cooked in my fireplace.


----------



## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

You don't cook indoors in those situations. Get a canopy for your grill.


----------



## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

Maybe if you have a generator, you can fire up the hot plate. jmho.


----------



## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

If it is winter use your wood burning stove or fireplace. If it is summer use your grill or fire ring.


----------



## Targetshooter (Dec 4, 2015)

I have cooked on a grill in 3 feet of snow before and I have used a grill out in the rain with a umbrella before , you just have to suck it up and do the best you can at the time . when SHTF what are you going to do ask for power so you can cook inside ? just be smart about what you are doing .


----------



## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Woodstove inside. A grill coleman stove or MSR stove outside or in the garage. The firepit, steaks on a stick, baked potatoes/yams, venison hindquarters, chicken/turkey on a spit


----------



## Robie (Jun 2, 2016)

One burner butane stove...
Restaurants use these all the time indoors. I sent one to my sister to have when her power goes out.
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Butane-Stove-Camping-Burner/dp/B000RA8V1S


----------



## Oddcaliber (Feb 17, 2014)

Coleman stove,have 2 different models one uses propane and the other Coleman fuel. I have like 16 stoves so cooking is no problem for me.


----------



## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

In short term power failures, your options for cooking are are many. If the blackout continues to SHTF length, well, as I've said before:

Ingredients:
Can of Spam
Fork

Recipe:
Open can. Eat. Enjoy.

If you want it cooked, sleep with it in your bag.

I'm serious about this. Until the herd is thinned, odor control is going to be very important to survival in the early post-SHTF environment. Cooking will attract packs of hungry dogs and other two-legged creatures. Odor can travel for miles, and is a neon sign to desperate stomachs. Very dangerous.


----------



## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

^^^^^ ba ha ........ beanie weenies.


----------



## warrior4 (Oct 16, 2013)

sideKahr said:


> In short term power failures, your options for cooking are are many. If the blackout continues to SHTF length, well, as I've said before:
> 
> Ingredients:
> Can of Spam
> ...


This right here. The early-SHTF urban to suburban environment is a great time to bust out those MRE's you've been holding onto. No flame, just at water to the pouch, place it on a rock or something and you'll have a warm meal. Once things calm down or you get to a secure location all the other options are also viable. Solar ovens are also an option I've seen as well.


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Power out cooking here is no problem.

The kitchen stove is propane, Just need to use a hand igniter, have enough 100# cylinders to run for five years.

Backup, Wood stove for winter, built with fire ring to take Griswold Dutch oven. Five cord of wood for it.

Coleman gasoline stoves, six of them, all with spares of every needed part, and now at 88 gallons of Coleman fuel.

Coleman propane stoves, one with 20# tank adaptor.

Three Alpaca kerosene cookers, NIB.

Stainless Steel BBQ grill, three burner, 10, 20# tanks.

In Cherokee, Coleman Peak 1 butane burner with two large cylinders and a Nesbit Triox stove with plenty of tabs.

Last but not least, a complete US Army company level field kitchen.


----------



## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

SOCOM42 said:


> Power out cooking here is no problem.
> 
> The kitchen stove is propane, Just need to use a hand igniter, have enough 100# cylinders to run for five years.
> 
> ...


you should investigate running your Coleman gas gear on regular gas - adding a bit of auto carb cleaner supposedly keeps the generator from gumming out - seems to be standard ops overseas where the Coleman fuel isn't available ...


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Illini Warrior said:


> you should investigate running your Coleman gas gear on regular gas - adding a bit of auto carb cleaner supposedly keeps the generator from gumming out - seems to be standard ops overseas where the Coleman fuel isn't available ...


I can run them on gasoline, I store the Coleman fuel because of the shelf life of it, Seafoam helps a bit.

I have used 20 year old Coleman fuel without a hitch, posted about it a month ago, and used the remainder of this last Thursday to heat a gallon of tar.

I run the field kitchen on gasoline when having a lot of people over.

As far as generators go, I have dozens of spares, picked up when only around two bucks apiece.

I have been able to restore most old generators with a little effort, part of lantern and stove restoration process.

I have even made a running commentary on the prep today about buying the fuel at $7.46 a gallon at Wally world.

Gasoline stores are primarily for logging engines then generators, primary genset is Diesel though, and with 1,050 gallons of dual purpose fuel.
.


----------



## Operator6 (Oct 29, 2015)

@SOCOM42 has inspired me to increase my propane stores. I never really worried too much about any extra because of our predominately warm climate. In plain terms you'll burn your swampy ass up down here With the heat+humidity. Now I have children so the game as changed. About once a decade we get a little snow but usually it's ice. It rarely stays below freezing over a day or so. Usually freezing temps are just for a couple hours around dawn.


----------



## Robie (Jun 2, 2016)

Anyone ever used one of these to refill the 1lb propane cylinders?

I'm going to buy one and see how it works.

I have a new digital scale and will weigh a brand new one and then one refilled.

I'll report back.

https://www.amazon.com/Shnozzle-SAFEST-Propane-Adapter-Cylinders/dp/B00EV59S1W


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Robie said:


> Anyone ever used one of these to refill the 1lb propane cylinders?
> 
> I'm going to buy one and see how it works.
> 
> ...


I have them and they are a pain in the ass to use.

The tank has to be upside down to fill the 1# cylinder.

to fill right, the safety vent on the 1# needs to be opened which requires a hemostat and a lots of cussing.

Position the one pounder so the valve is at three O'clock, fill to liquid appears en mass.

The biggest disappointment was in the safety valve fail after filling, lost all content.

Only had 2 of 10 work properly.

They were older cylinders, I don't know if that contributed to the failure or not.

If you open that valve, only let in a small amount, then bubble test with Windex before completing.

When done retest, so you won't end up with an empty tank when needed..

WEAR GLOVES WHEN FILLING, YOU CAN GET A SERIOUS FREEZE BURN IF HIT WITH LIQUID FUEL.


----------



## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

SOCOM42 said:


> I have them and they are a pain in the ass to use.
> 
> The tank has to be upside down to fill the 1# cylinder.
> 
> ...


Sounds like it's not worth the hassle. I did buy the adapter hose so I can use a 20# on a Coleman stove.


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

inceptor said:


> Sounds like it's not worth the hassle. I did buy the adapter hose so I can use a 20# on a Coleman stove.


If you notice in post #13, that is exactly what I did!

Actually, I use the 1# tanks on Bernzomatic torches a lot, that was my primary reason to refill them.


----------



## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

Robie said:


> Anyone ever used one of these to refill the 1lb propane cylinders?
> 
> I'm going to buy one and see how it works.
> 
> ...


I have used them and they are a little awkward. They only refill about 80% back to original.


----------



## Operator6 (Oct 29, 2015)

Here's the complete set up including bottle that you refill. 
https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai...ahUKEwiE5uW2zM7PAhUBXSYKHZ3JBkMQ0QwIOw&adurl=

These look like quality refillable bottles. 
http://www.mantank.com/pdf/1lbflyer.pdf


----------



## 7515 (Aug 31, 2014)

Good thread


----------



## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Be careful, LP gas tanks should not be filled more than 80% full due to expansion. Most modern delivery hoses have an overfill protection device.


----------



## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

My cook stove is propane so works without electricity and my heat is woodstove which we can cook on.


----------



## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Anybody have an old wood *cookstove*? I've got one of grandma's Glenwoods that is wood with two gas burners. Plan is to update the burners to pizeo propane and have that in the kitchen, will need another chimney flue.

I cooked on Grandma's Glenwood, as a child of 5-6 my job was to stoke the fire before anyone else was up, put some water on for tea/coffee, make some toast right on the hot stovetop, and then get more knidling and fill up the firewood rack. Breakfast was coffee/tea, toast, eggs, bacon/sausage, potatoes, blueberry buckwheats w/maple syurp and homegrown butter. This was back before poptarts, instant oatmeal, and microwaves. You could also bake/roast, had some great Thanksgiving meals, and it had a great bread oven too. Downside is fire wood needed to be a bit smaller than the heating stoves, you nee to plan your fire ahead, and too much heat in summer.

One more thought I've considered, although for outside/porch while canning; they make 2-4 burner portable counter top propane burners equivalent to gas stove burners. All you need besides is a hose is a propane tank(s). Put out lots of heat/BTUs.

My consideration was summer canning season is often in the heat of summer and that makes a warm house hotter.....


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Cast iron propane counter top burners.

https://propaneking.com/product-category/propane_stoves/economy_stove/

MT, my grandmother had one upstairs from us.

It had four gas burners, was lined with 6 firebricks and we burned coal in it.

it went when she was put in a nursing home in 1960.


----------



## Boss Dog (Feb 8, 2013)

Edit: I have a 300 gallon propane tank. 

I can cook inside until the propane tank goes dry. Done it in the winter when an ice storm knocked the electric out. When there's no gas left for the stove or gas grill outside, I'll use the two large trash cans full of charcoal and then wood in the smoker grill.


----------



## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

20 lb tanks or whatever, they don't get filled to the brink anymore. More like 17 lb tanks. 
LP gas tanks should not be filled more than 80% full due to expansion.


----------



## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

Slippy said:


> Be careful, LP gas tanks should not be filled more than 80% full due to expansion. Most modern delivery hoses have an overfill protection device.


Some places won't accept tanks without an OPD I've snuck a few past them to be able get tanks with them, thanks to rookie grocery store clerks.


----------



## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Concerning the stoves, we never used coal in either as we had a farm with free wood. If I can, I will install one again. Yes, a bit "backwards", until it's way forwards to nothing at all. It heated all the kitchen too all winter, we had a big stove for the rest of the house. With a pezeo burners it would be the balls.

Many today have lost the "art" of cooking. A squirrel or rabbit on a spit over a campfire works for me. Foraging some greens in the woods, I can find and prepare both. So does taking fresh vegetables and using them so, or the stored versions, when you can store them, properly. That is something you need to think about home/woods cooking. Can you start with JUST flour beans rice in home and THEN cook it? If not , what can you. That is a good question. Can you eat? Will idiots , McDs fans eat?

Maybe consider your location/ability, then what you can cook? Is in order?

My current GF would starve with my stores, as "I don't want to eat that!" ( P.S. I cook better wild, or home, I do cook). Well more for me, and I'm a great cook and have spices for all , frozen, canned, dried, pickled, at HOME. I do good in the woods too. Steak on a stick


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

We lived in the middle of Worcester, no wood there.

We did have two tons f coal in the cellar, brought up into the yard in a canvas basket, carried over the guys shoulder and dumped through the cellar window.

The heat from that stove was all there was, a hot air register allowed heat up to the bedrooms in the attic.

I always had ice on the inside of my bedroom windows during the winters.

We had a later model downstairs that was a beige porcelain, it was converted to oil with a five gallon gravity fed can in the back of the stove, had four gas burners.

Again, the sole source of heat on our floor, the stove matched the "monitor" refrigerator across the room.


----------



## Operator6 (Oct 29, 2015)

You know you guys can salvage a propane burner out of an old appliance and make you a nice little stove out of it and it would basically be free except for your time, or you can buy them for about 30.00-40.00 that come with an aluminum pot. We call'm cajun cookers. We boil shrimp, peanuts, crawfish in them. Fry chicken, fish ,etc. in peanut oil.


----------



## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

very surprised that no one even mentions covert cooking - after the first week or two - cooking absolutely anything openly will be hazardous to your long term living ....

people's senses will be quikly become attuned to anything food acquainted .... going to be difficult enough maintaining OPSEC - thinking that you plop a chunk of meat on the patio barbie is crazy .... even cooking in your regular kitchen won't be eazy - boiling rice even has a cooking odor that's hard to miss for a starving man ....

I'll be setting up a kitchen in the basement - with a cooking hood exhausting out either the chimney or soil pipe 25 feet in the air - even if someone smells coffee cooking down the street - it'll be damn tough pinpointing the source ....


----------



## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

SOCOM42 said:


> We lived in the middle of Worcester, no wood there.
> 
> We did have two tons f coal in the cellar, brought up into the yard in a canvas basket, carried over the guys shoulder and dumped through the cellar window.
> 
> ...


Feel for you SOCOM. My Grandparents emigrated from Poland, moved 3 times, eventually to a nice farm, raised 13 kids. They were never rich, except in family, but were never hungry nor cold, or needing useful work. BTW, Elias Island, proper papers, immunized/checked, learned Enlish and became citizens, *the legal way!*

Worseter is a bad an armpit as Springfield MA, glad you have a good place now.


----------



## bigdogmom (Aug 28, 2015)

We are putting in a Propane range during our kitchen remodel. My backup to that is my indoor woodstove in the winter and I have a woodstove in the yard for outdoor fires that I can use during the summer.

Droid did it!


----------



## AnotherSOFSurvivor (Sep 7, 2016)

Covert cooking is definitely an idea worth looking at - nothing says "someone's here!" like giants plumes of smoke, the smell of a big slab of beef on the grill or a few gallons of coffee.

Goes along making yourself a hard target, Illini made a great point - venting out the smoke somewhere...or eating Spam or canned beans and franks until the initial "Oh damn we should've prepared for this, let's kick in that door and take their stuff" crowd-inspired fun is over

...a MKT would be sweet though...

ETA: before someone gets offended over acronyms: MKT = Mobile Kitchen Trailer

http://www.govplanet.com/for-sale/K...73785?h=5000,c|3586&rr=0.5&hitprm=&pnLink=yes

Good price, solid shelters.


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Essentially I have most of what is in the pictures minus that trailer.


----------



## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

SOCOM42 said:


> Essentially I have most of what is in the pictures minus that trailer.


Got a Glenwood?

I'/ve 3


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Mad Trapper said:


> Got a Glenwood?
> 
> I'/ve 3


No, I looked around awhile back, the prices were insane.

I am ok the way I am setup now though.

There is one here in town, it is about 8 -10 feet long with six or eight gas burners two ovens, and what I guess a warmer about 8x12..

It is in a mansion from around 1900, a commercial type for feeding a lot of guests.

The ice box is about 10x20 feet converted early on to ammonia refrigeration.

That one I would like to have, but the place is now a museum.


----------



## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

First off I probably will not have to worry about the electricity going out for many years but we do have 2 wood stoves with flat tops for cooking. We have the ability to raise a pot up a bit with an iron skillet, Dutch oven, and iron pots for cooking on the wood stoves. We also have a solar oven and a propane cooker with a fair amount of propane. I've always taken covert cooking into account with our preps. 

Bottom line is we've got covert indoor cooking covered but the smoke from a wood stove can carry for quite a distance.


----------



## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

I will cover the smell of cooking food with the stench of the severed heads on slippy pike poles.
Just kidding, I am looking into putting the stove "on propane", but do have two or three camp stoves and bottles.


----------



## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Deebo said:


> I will cover the smell of cooking food with the stench of the severed heads on slippy pike poles.
> ....


Another Wonderful Testimonial from a Satisfied Gen-U-Wine SlippyMade Pike Customer!^^^^


----------



## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

@Slippy, yes very satisfied, but need more "hands on training" with Slippy supervision at Slippy lodge.


----------



## warrior4 (Oct 16, 2013)

Another idea would be to use a bit of deception. Covertly set a large fire somewhere well away from your area. The zombies (also known as un-preppared scavengers) go check that out. You get back to your hidey hole and now that the distraction is set use the time to try and get a lot of cooking done. It probably would only work once or twice if that and would have to be very situational dependent.


----------

