Cooking stoves

We often talk about the top priority that is having a good amount of food stored for emergencies. The food stored will preferably be palatable, will store well for long periods of time, and something else of great importance, it will require little or no cooking. Canned food fills the requirements well, but it soon gets expensive when storing large amounts.

Grains and cereals stored in mylar bags inside buckets are a great way of storing food for long term storage. Rice and wheat, they are favorite staples for survivalists because they allow a broad spectrum of recipes and combine well with other stored foods. Yet here we come up with the problem of cooking. We have the food stored, but unlike canned goods here we need a heat source to actually process it properly.

During one of the videos I recently made for youtube, I mentioned the “Sarajevo Survival Guide”. In that book it explains how the citizens of Sarajevo, being sieged and not having outside resupplies ended up burning the city’s trees, furniture, wooden floors, they even chopped down the trees of its cementery for heat and cooking.
Think about it. What would you do if you have no electricity and no propane? How would you cook your food?

In Argentina its still common to use smaller propane tanks for cooking. Most homes have one, and even in those homes where they don’t use it much you’ll probably find done in the shed, still ½ full of propane.
For short term problems where power may go down for a few days or the service of natural gas interrupted, this is a nice quick alternative both for heating and cooking.

Manchester Tank 10054 5# ACME/OPD Vertical LP Tank



Bayou Classic SP10 High-Pressure Outdoor Gas Cooker, Propane

For longer term situations where you may end up scrounging fuel, a camping type stove will be handy to keep cooking with whatever fuel you find.
These two are my favorites. The Coleman Multifuel is a classic, using coleman fuel, unleaded gasoline or kersone alike. Of course this is basic camping gear so you can use it as well during camping trips, having a good time.
 
Coleman Exponent Multi-Fuel Stove

The little Trangia stove uses alcohol which of course is cheap and plentiful. This stove uses the same concept used in “penny” can stoves. What I like about this type of stove is that its fail proof, there’s nothing to break, no o-ring to dry up, no delicate or moving parts. Its pretty cheap too at $14. The only way to destroy this stove is crushing it beyond its useful shape. For an emergency/disaster kit, this is a very compact stove as well and while not the most efficient, still uses little amounts of alcohol.

Trangia Spirit Alcohol Stove

If you have thousands of dollars to put into huge propane tank installations then more power to you. If not these are some cheap alternatives to ensure you have means of cooking if services are disrupted, and you don’t end up needing to burn your furniture or floor to survive.
Take care guys and have a nice weekend!

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FerFAL