HOBO ROCKET STOVE [Simple DIY!]

Oven Broken? Using a Crock-Pot to Bake Bread

Original Article

One of the more interesting ideas I encountered this summer was the concept of using a crock-pot instead of an oven for baking. Most of the time we use a crock-pot to start a meal in the morning before work so that dinner is ready when we get home, or just because the day is busy and time for meal prep later is minimal. Of course, a lot of time in the summer we don’t want to heat up the kitchen, so that’s the primary driver behind choosing to use a crock-pot.

However, with rising energy costs, some might be interested in saving money by slow cooking their baked goods instead of firing up the oven, while others just want to be good citizens and reduce the load on the overtaxed power grid (which probably wouldn’t be quite so overtaxed under better management and the use of fossil fuels, but I digress). And then, in an era where replacing a broken oven could take weeks or months, having a safe alternative for indoor baking is always a good idea.

How to Build a Modular Concrete Block Fire Pit

 Original Article

written by Derrick James

My concrete block fire pit is a serious pit. I designed it for performance. I can do everything with this pit from enjoying a simple evening fire to using it as a big outdoor cook station. I wanted a fire pit that could do whatever I needed it to do. Those needs vary.

Concrete blocks are great. They’re cheap and versatile. I’ve made a concrete block raised bed garden before, and plenty of people have also used them for fire pits.

There are plenty of fire pit options available. You can buy the Solo Stove fire pit that many people like or you can just assemble some rocks in a circle. That has worked for centuries. I wanted something more.

I have cooked over a Solo Stove and over a fire in a ring of rocks. Both can be done, but I wanted a better blend between a fire pit and an outdoor cook station. I wanted options.

Not finding any fire pit close to what I wanted on the commercial market, I decided to design my own fire pit. One big, modular concrete block fire pit.

Concrete blocks are like Legos for men. They come in different shapes and sizes and can be stacked in various ways for many different projects beyond basic building construction. Given that they are rugged and fire proof, they are an obvious choice to build a custom fire pit.

The Best Way To Clean and Season a Cast Iron Skillet | Epicurious

How to Clean Cast Iron: Light, Moderate, and Deep

Original Article

by Derrick James

Cast iron is a tough-as-nails cookware material that retains heat well, produces a superior sear, and will last lifetimes – IF you know how to properly clean cast iron. Inexperienced users are usually cast iron cookware’s biggest enemy.

Cooks love cast iron for the qualities it brings to food that other cookware cannot. Preppers, fans of outdoor cooking, and bushcrafters love it for its easy use over open fires. It has a long history of use in the hearth and in the wild.

It’s not difficult to properly care for and clean cast iron, but the process is quite different than other cooking materials. Still, it has its own guidelines to follow to retain its natural nonstick patina in the best possible condition for as long as possible. There are a few simple principles to follow to maintain your cast iron clean and in excellent condition without destroying the seasoning you’ve worked to preserve over time.

Dutch Oven for Prepping, Survival, and SHTF

36 Delicious Dutch Oven Skillet Recipes

 Original Article

by Jeanie Beales

A Dutch Oven is a must-have for a prepper because providing it’s a plain cast iron one versus the enameled version, you can cook over campfires, on gas stoves, and even in electric ovens.

The range of meals you can make, ranging from sweet to savory, is endless. This is what preppers, hunters, and campers place over the campfire to have soup or stew steaming hot, ready when people get back from their hunting/fishing/foraging trips.

Dutch ovens are often handed down through the generations if taken care of. Even if they have been abused, it is possible to ‘revive’ them to see many more years of service.

If you are not already familiar with a Dutch oven then read this article for a bit of background and on how to obtain the right temperature for cooking in your Dutch oven.

We have chosen recipes to use everyday meat like chicken and beef but also recipes to enable you to use what you have hunted – ranging from squirrel to moose. We haven’t forgotten the fishermen and have some real treats.

Then we have a variety of bread recipes to accompany soups and stews or simply to enjoy on their own with homemade jams.

Items like apple tart, Dutch oven cinnamon rolls, and peach cobbler provide a sweet ending to a meal.

Cooking OPSEC During a Disaster

 Original Article

by Charles

Most preppers already know that OPSEC, or operational security, is an important concept when surviving in the aftermath of any major disaster or other long-term crisis.

A loan word taken from the military, applying the concept to prepping and general survival means taking pains to keep your business your business, and not giving away to the outside world any information that might help them determine what you have, what you are up to and what you are doing.

One chronically neglected sector of good OPSEC in a societal survival concept is that of cooking.

Most of us have plenty of food on hand by now, and even several ways to cook it, but doing the cooking might be just the thing that attracts the wrong kind of attention.

That can definitely lead to a bad outcome for you and yours, so in an effort to prevent that I have prepared a guide that will help familiarize you with good OPSEC concepts while cooking during a disaster.

Why Should You Worry About This?

A Simple Guide to Dutch Oven Cooking for Everyone

 Original Article

Guest post by Archie and Linda Dixon, authors of Just Dutch It!

Have you ever wondered how you would cook when there is no gas or electricity for an extended period?

Ice storms and tornadoes take out power lines for weeks. Earthquakes break natural gas and electrical lines. Hackers breach power grids and knock out power.

All of these scenarios have happened. And any of these emergencies could happen to us today.

So, how would you cook food?

Enter Dutch Oven cooking.

How to Bake Bread Off-Grid

 Original Article

By Aden Tate

By the author of  An Arm and a Leg and The Prepper’s Guide to Post-Disaster Communications

In The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence of Arabia notes that by switching to carrying flour rather than rice in their packs, his men were able to carry much more calories with them. Preppers have a special affinity for rice, but are there better options out there for long-term bug-out situations? We’ve talked about this briefly in the past before, discussing non-traditional BOB foods, but what does that look like in practice?

If you incorporate flour into your BOB, how do you use it out in the woods?

Here are two means of using your flour while out in the wild I thought you might be able to glean something from.

I’ll start by saying that neither of these recipes is my own. I totally stole them from Creek Stewart of “Fat Guys in the Woods” (one of my favorite shows when it aired). He highlights these recipes in his field manual that we’d discussed in the top non-military field manuals post.

Is it Safe to Heat Food in a Can?

 Original Article

by Tim Makay

Canned food is a reliable, convenient option, and aside from being an everyday staple in the kitchen it also serves as a fundamental part of a long-term food storage plan.

You might have seen various depictions in media of people heating up canned food right in the can prior to eating it, but is this safe? Is it safe to heat canned food in the can?

10 Ways to Cook Without Cooking Gear

Original Article

By Rich Murphy

The ability to cook our food is a crucial part of survival. While we tend to think of cooking food as a way to tenderize it and make it more edible, there’s an even more important reason for cooking it: The act of cooking kills any bacteria contained in that food, making it safe to eat. 

Yet the average bug out bag doesn’t have room for an entire kitchen, let alone a smaller survival kit. Most of the time, we’ve got to be more creative than carrying a heavy cast-iron pan just so we’ll have a way to cook in a survival situation. Fortunately, there are alternatives we can use, if we know how. 

Of course, any cooking method is going to require fire to produce heat. But we need a way to get the food close to the heat and a way to remove the food once it’s cooked. Both parts are equally important.

So, what can we do? 

What is the Best Survival Cooking Stove?

More Cooking From Scratch: 12 Mistakes People Make

 Original Article

By Linda Loosli

Even if you’ve been cooking for many years now and are pretty good at it, there may be a few bad habits that you’ve been using without even realizing it, particularly when trying to cook from scratch. Maybe you’re one that’s always in a rush to get dinner on the table for your family and take a few shortcuts along the way? Those wrong decisions could make all the difference regarding your meals turning out the way you had hoped. Keep reading to discover 12 common mistakes that many cooks seem to make when cooking from scratch and to see if you’ve been guilty of any of them. What is cooking from scratch?

Weird Foods People Ate to Get Through the Great Depression

Here's What People Ate To Survive During WWII

A Regular Folks Supper 200 years Ago - March 1820

10 Kitchen Items You Need In Order to Cook Emergency Food

 Original Article

By Jennifer Monroe

To make your kitchen life more accessible and organized, you need to buy and arrange every important kitchen item in your cupboard. Kitchen items come with trendy, sleek, and exciting styles to make your cooking journey easy. Still, you are not supposed to buy every tool for your kitchen because a few basic tools are enough to cook delicious meals—just like a pro.

If you want to save the cost of home-cooked meals, you need to figure out advanced tiers of kitchen tools.

We have created a list of kitchen essentials to start with for your favor. This list explains the essential cooking utensils perfect for chefs and novice cooks.

Let’s the go-ahead and explore them!

List Of Ten Tools That Every Chef Needs To Buy

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How to Build an Earthen Oven