(pt.3) Family Food Security


For emergency camp stove cooking inside a house, the preferred choice is 
the propane camp stove -- with proper ventilation. Place it right in 
front of a window open at least one inch. Coleman fuel stoves are not 
recommended for indoor use, although they would be fine outside, on a 
porch, in a garage, or other well-ventilated place. Most propane camp 
stoves run on one pound disposable cylinders; if you are cooking three 
meals a day, you can probably get 3 or 4 days cooking out of each 
cylinder, depending on what's on the menu. While it's possible to bake 
biscuits on top of a camp stove (you usually will have to flip them to 
get them to brown on top), it is better to buy a camp oven that sits on 
top of the propane burners. These are sold in camping supply stores or 
departments. 

Buy an attachment for the propane camp stove that will allow you to cook 
on it while using a bulk propane tank (such as a 20 lb, 5 gallon tank) 
for fuel. These stoves are cheap enough that you could buy three or four 
and thus be able to do a lot of cooking, while also having one or two 
that you could loan to a neighbor in distress. 

Remember that a blue flame is the cleanest burning flame, so adjust the 
flame so it burns blue. 

(1) Place a heat diffuser on top of the burner(s). This could be a large 
cast iron skillet or grill, or a cookie sheet. 

(2) Put something on top of this to raise the cooking pan up off the 
heat diffuser and allow air to circulate underneath the pan. This could 
be a low cake pan, or a couple of empty tuna cans. 

(3) Put the food to be baked in a covered pan on top of the "risers". 

(4) Make a tent from several layers of aluminum foil over the cake pan, 
so that air can circulate underneath it, and put a small vent hole in 
the top of the aluminum foil cover. Keep an eye on the food as it is 
baking. 

RV's, campers, and mobile homes are often equipped with kitchen stoves 
that burn propane. A natural gas stove can be converted to propane by 
adjusting the natural gas jet orifices to burn propane (in some cases 
they will need to be replaced). Propane companies will often do this 
conversion for free. I found a company here in Oklahoma City that 
charges $40 for the conversion. Other sources for propane stoves are RV 
and mobile home distributorships and suppliers. Never try to run a 
natural gas appliance with propane gas without such a conversion; the 
natural gas jets are much larger than the propane jets. 

A chafing dish consists of: (1) a stand that supports a pot, (2) a heat 
source, which is usually cannister of a jelled cooking fuel that is sold 
specifically for chafing dishes; typically, this sits on a little 
platform in the middle of the stand, (3) a pan for water, (4) a cooking 
or warming pan that can sit either directly over the flame or over the 
pan of water. A fondue pot is a type of chafing dish with the heat 
applied directly to the pot. 

For chafing dish fuel, there are multiple options. Sam's Club sells 
"Safe-Heat" brand canned fuel for chafing dishes, a dozen to the case, 
each can burns six hours, 72 hours of cooking for about twelve dollars. 
Candles and denatured alcohol burners are other alternatives, although 
alcohol burns very fast, and candles cook slowly. Chafing dishes come in 
many sizes. The small stand that supports the chafing dish can be used 
with a skillet or omelet pan, or a pot for soup or stew. You can often 
find small chafing dish stands that are made for use with a candle at 
thrift stores; they will support a small pot. These can be used for 
warming canned foods (chili, pasta and sauce, ravioli, soup, etc.) It 
takes a half hour to an hour to heat a can of food using a small candle, 
depending on how hot you want it. Oatmeal could also be made this way, 
especially the instant oatmeals (or instant grits, depending on what 
part of the country you hail from). 

Woks work well with the chafing dish fuel canisters such as Safe-Heat. 

You can make a wide variety of recipes in a chafing dish: griddle cakes, 
eggs benedict, salmon cakes, creamed dried beef, crab meat bisque, 
chicken a la king, stew, soup, macaroni and cheese, Swedish meatballs, 
etc. Very useful in the event of either setting up for a party buffet or 
getting through utility problems in January 2000. Even if the 
electricity and natural gas are disrupted, you can still enjoy a gourmet 
meal, prepared at the table, served by candle light. 

Solar cookers can be made with cardboard boxes, aluminum foil, duct 
tape, and glass. Such ovens can easily get to 350 degrees, hot enough to 
bake meats and casseroles. You can easily make one. There are several 
books on the subject, one that comes well recommended is Cooking with 
the Sun, by Beth and Dan Halacy, with complete plans for different 
designs. 

A solar cooker works by (1) absorbing solar heat in a dark pot through a 
clear transparent cover such as glass or an oven baking bag, (2) 
insulating the pot so that the heat does not radiate out but rather 
cooks the food, and (3) they usually have some way to reflect additional 
sunlite onto the pot via a panel of reflective material. Any recipe 
suitable for a crockpot will generally work in a solar cooker. 

One of the easiest solar cookers to make is the "two box model". Glue 
aluminum foil to the inside of two boxes, one a bit larger than the 
other. The smaller box is placed inside the larger. It's not necessary 
to use insulation between the two boxes, as long as there is at least a 
half inch air space between the two. 

The smaller box should be just larger than the pot that will be used in 
the cooker. Slit it at the four corners (down to the height of the pot) 
so that its sides will fold out, and duck tape them to the sides of the 
larger box. Make a tight fitting lid for the outer box, and cut a large 
hole in the center of the lid so that sunlight covers the smaller box. 
Glue an oven baking bag to the inside of that lid, completely covering 
the sun opening. A second piece of cardboard (the size of the lid) is 
covered with aluminum foil and attached to the side of the box so it 
reflects sun down onto the box. 

To cook food, place a covered pot inside the smaller box and put the lid 
on the larger box; face the box toward the sun. Position the reflector 
to direct more sunlight down onto the box. It will get 300 to 350 
degrees inside. Start your dinner in the morning; eat it at night. Use 
an oven thermometer to monitor the temperature. 

You can make an improvised non-electric crock pot with an ordinary box, 
or a five or six gallon plastic bucket. Line the inside with aluminum 
foil, and put several inches of insulating material on the bottom. Bring 
the food you are cooking (generally, crockpot recipes) to a boil, cover 
the pot and put it in the container. Pack the spaces between the pot and 
the sides of the box or bucket with insulating material (whatever is 
handy, crushed newspapers, cloth, straw, sawdust, etc.) Pack the top of 
the box or bucket with insulating material, and put the lid on. Let this 
sit for several hours or overnight (depending on the crock pot cooking 
time). 

A wood stove not only can keep your family warm, you can cook on top of 
it, using a pot or a frying pan. With some bricks, you can make a stand 
for a pot in an open fireplace, and Dutch ovens can be cooked in fires 
built outside in the yard or in the fireplace. Dutch oven cooking is an 
art in and of itself, and there are many good sources for recipes and 
instructions. A good place to start is with materials prepared for use 
in Scouting, or the cookbook and camping sections of your local library. 
Charcoal briquets can be used with your cast iron skillets, Dutch oven, 
and other pots and pans, but such cooking must be done outside. 

The outdoor barbecue grill is an obvious outdoor stove, but if you don't 
have one, it can be built. Many families are building outdoor bread 
ovens in the traditional European style. This is a backyard project 
accessible by most people, and plans can be found in most major 
libraries. 

Coffee can cooking. Layer food in a coffee can (such as onions, 
potatoes, carrots, meat, repeated ). Cover with heavy duty aluminum 
foil, place on medium-hot coals, put some coals on top of the foil, cook 
for about a half hour or 45 minutes. 

Pie-pan oven. Grease a metal pie pan and put biscuits or bread into it. 
Grease a second metal pie pan and place it over the first. Use 4 metal 
clamps (the kind you use with paper) to hold them together. Put some 
coals on top of the pan. If doing this on a camp stove, instead of a 
campfire, use the procedure described above in "baking on a camp stove". 

Muffin pan oven. Take a metal muffin pan, and either grease the cups or 
line them with cupcake liners. Put different foods into the cups -- 
meats, vegetables, biscuits of muffin batter. Oil the second pan, fit it 
over the first and clamp them together using four big clamps (the kind 
you use for paper). Cook for 25 to 35 minutes. This can be used over a 
campfire; put some coals on top of the muffin pan as well as underneath. 
If you are doing this over a camp stove, use the procedure described 
above in "baking on a camp stove". 
