Use a fireless cooker? Use soapstone?

[Judi Dial]

I'm considering getting (or making) both. I'd be interested in your expereince(s) with these.

I am thinking about having these in house as a part of our winter emergency kit. I need nonconventional ways to cook.

When we have no power we have a woodstove and the propane stove to cook on, but no oven. I'm looking at the fireless cooker as a way to free up a precious burner (for heating hot water) and using a small soapstone griddle atop of the woodstove, for the same sort of reason.

Comments would be most appreciated!

Judi

[mombottoo]

I've not had any experience with a fireless cooker, but when my oven went out I did use my gas grill to bake lasange...worked really well...better than the oven actually.

[Grainlady]

You have to be careful you maintain a safe food temperature using a "fireless" cooking method, whether it's a solar oven, a hay box, or other methods - especially if they are used in extremely cold conditions. ALWAYS check food temperatures with an Instant Read Thermometer for safe food temperatures. Large quantities of food may grow bacteria towards the middle of the food (a thick stew or soup) if not kept 140°F or hotter. Avoid large quantities, dense or thick cuts, or large chunks of food for best results.

The potential for pathogens to grow into a toxin is greater the longer you leave the food after the initial heating for placement in a hay box.

Solar ovens need to be pre-heated so food doesn't sit there at unsafe low temperatures for a prolonged period of time. You also need to move the solar oven to track the movement of the sun in order to keep food at a safe temperature. Temperatures drop quickly if it gets cloudy or hazy. I can't cook very well in my Solar ovens when the farmers are burning wheat stubble fields, even if it's a sunny day. Cooking certain foods in a Solar Oven should be avoided during the winter because of how much time you have optimum use of the sun, and how low the sun is in the hemisphere. Solar ovens cook according to the sun, so if you can safely maintain a cooking temperature from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. in the winter, your food will need to be cooked during that period of time. It won't maintain a safe temperature in order to serve a pot roast at 6 p.m. for supper, so you have to plan ahead using a Solar Oven. They take a lot of adjustment - about every 15-30 minutes you need to move them to track the sun. Outside temperature doesn't have as much effect, it's about how much sun you have. You can achieve higher temperatures in the summer (for baking a loaf of bread), but it's possible to use them year-round (depending on your location).

You can also optimize cooking time by the type of containers you cook food in when using a solar oven. Soup works well in a quart jar that has been painted black on the outside. Choose small potatoes placed in a plastic oven bag, and then place it in a black sock - the dark sock absorbs heat to shorten the cooking time of the potatoes. The oven bag makes a small environment where the potato will steam. There are lots of hints and tricks to using a Solar Oven effectively.

I "cook" several kinds of things in a Thermos (whole grains, steel-cut oats or oatmeal, black beans, pasta, etc.) to save energy. But once again, you need to maintain a food-safe temperature or it's possible for bacteria to grow. I often need to add boiling water twice to get beans "cooked" (old beans take longer to soften than new beans). So all you need is hot water to initially warm the thermos, which is dumped out when you add the food and the BOILING water.

Bean flour (milled from dried beans/peas) cooks into refried beans, or an "instant" soup mixture in a few minutes and doesn't require soaking or long cooking time like dried beans do. I can make instant split pea soup with split pea flour. Bean flour is a great emergency food.

Even bbq grills can be a cause for concern when used in extremely cold weather because it can be difficult to get food temperatures hot enough to be safe - especially large cuts of meat or large quantities of food. Internal temperatures may not be hot enough because the extreme cold/wind chill will causes a drop in the actual cooking temperature.

Consider emergency foods that don't require "baking". For an emergency bread consider tortillas. You can easily make them with almost any type of heat and a pan and they can be used 3-meals a day and as a snack food. Biscuits and yeast/sourdough bread can be fried, instead of baked. There are steamed breads, flat breads, etc, that can be made on the stovetop. English Muffins are made on a griddle, but then have to be toasted. Crumpets are also baked on a griddle and then toasted. Pancakes aren't just for breakfast and can be used used like a wrap for a sandwich.

As the first layer of my food storage I have a 72-hour emergency kit that includes food that requires NO heating or refrigeration (mostly single servings that cover all the food groups). It's well worth it to have foods that fit in this category for emergency use. I also have several alternative cooking sources - sources that can be used both indoors and outdoors, depending on the time of year it's needed or will work best.

If you have a stove, you can also "bake" in a Dutch Oven on the stove top. Baking can be done in a cast iron fry pan with a lid, or a Dutch Oven using charcoal. A Cobb Grill is also a great emergency oven/stove/grill (used outdoors). I have two Solar Ovens and I use them for all kinds of cooking and baking, and use them nearly all year long. Everything from soup to nuts - literally. I can even heat enough water in them using quart jars that are painted black to pasteurize water, or heat it for washing dishes, washing "us"... We even used the hot water heated in the Solar Ovens, after an ice storm and we were without utilities for a prolonged period of time, to fill every thermos-type container in the house (you can then use the hot water for hot drinks - cocoa, instant soup mixes, tea, coffee, instant oatmeal...).

We also have a relatively inexpensive portable Coleman Camp Oven that works really well - as long as you have propane.

[Thevail]

I have a "hay box" that I made as an experiment a while back.

I used a sturdy wooden wine crate for the exterior, and layers of cargo blankets for the insulation. I lined the interior with those floppy silicon cooking mats because I didn't feel too safe placing a raving hot pan against a blanket.

I only use it for soups and casseroles, anything else just sort of cools down too fast. But it does work just fine for those.

You do have to really watch the temps to be safe as Grainlady said.