Tips For Cooking When The Power Goes Out

Can you use some tips for cooking when the power goes out? If you are lucky enough to have a gas stove in your kitchen, you will probably be okay. Do you sometimes get overwhelmed thinking about cooking devices to use after a disaster hits your neighborhood? You are not alone, I promise.

Let’s break this down by discussing each device I have personally used. These are all in my emergency preparedness preps stash located in my home and garage. I wanted to update this post so you are reminded of your options Before a disaster or unexpected event affects your location. Plan ahead and sleep better at night knowing you’re prepared.

During the winter months when we get heavy snow and ice storms, in the summer and fall when we experience those heavy winds, rains, and hurricanes, and just about any time during the year when earthquakes and tornados hit, different parts of the country go through periods when communities and your neighborhood are likely to lose power. We all need to plan ahead and have options available for cooking both indoors and outside. In case you missed this post, My Favorite Emergency Fuel To Store For Survival

Tips For Cooking

1. Butane Stove w/Butane Canisters

What Can I Cook On A Butane Stove?

I actually used a butane stove indoors for several weeks, along with a Sun Oven outdoors, while Mark and I waited for our gas line to be run for the gas stove in our kitchen to be installed. It worked great and I used very little fuel.

When I taught classes at specialty outlets, some of the stores had a butane stove for me to use. The instructions say to use them outside, I use mine inside with a window cracked nearby. Please use your own judgment when using yours if you decide to go in this direction.

You may remember me telling you I gave these stoves to each of our daughters for Christmas one year. Here’s the deal, they can cook any meal if they have fuel stored, which they do. Here’s one like mine: BUTANE STOVE

• Boil water.
• Scramble eggs.
• Chipped beef on bread.
• Grilled cheese sandwiches.
• Cook soup in a saucepan.
• Make coffee or tea.
• Cook anything you cook in a small to medium saucepan on your stovetop.
• Cook rice.
• Boil macaroni.
• You can cook just about anything out of a can if the pan fits on the burner.

What Fuel Do I Need?

• Butane BUTANE FUEL

Pros

• Inexpensive

Cons

• You can’t cook large pots.
• Cooking quick meals only.
• Once you run out of fuel you are done cooking with this unit.
• May have to use outside.

2. Kelly Kettle

What Can I Cook On A Kelly Kettle?

If you missed my post on how to use a Kelly Kettle, you may want to see it. It shows pictures of how to use it step by step. KELLY KETTLE TIPS You can boil water, and cook just about everything you can cook in a small saucepan. KELLY KETTLE

• Boil water.
• Cook soup.
• Heat anything you can fit in a small saucepan.
• Make coffee or tea.
• Fix a small meal.

What Fuel Do I Need?

• Wood chips
• Dried leaves
• Pinecones
• Dried twigs
• Newspaper or magazines, mainly to get the fire started.

Pros

• It comes in a compact bag and takes up very little space.
• You can cook a meal quickly.
• Uses fuel that you can find just about anywhere for free.
• Heats up liquids easily and quickly.

Cons

• I hesitate to say it’s expensive because the one I bought came with a rocket stove, saucepan, plates, and cups.
• The only con would be you can only fix small meals.

3. Camp Chef Stove/Oven Combo

What Can I Cook In A Camp Chef Unit?

This is a great unit, I have seen it at Costco a few times for about $300.00, or so. I have taught several classes using one of these. Camp Chef Stove/Oven

• Bake bread, yes I have done that, it works great.
• Casseroles.
• Grilled cheese, if you get the griddle that goes on top.
• Pancakes, here again, if you buy the griddle.
• Cook on top of the stove with a small to a medium-size saucepan.
• I do not recommend canning on this unit (you need constant heat).

What Fuel Do I Need?

• Propane: please check the unit you purchase, it may only come with the smaller connect attachment for the small canisters. I highly recommend getting the larger tank connectors that go with it.

Pros

• Inexpensive to purchase.
• Cooks many types of meals.

Cons

• Once you run out of fuel, you are done cooking with this unit.

4. Lodge Dutch Oven

What Can I Cook In A Dutch Oven?

If you have one or more Dutch ovens you already know how versatile these gems are. These are probably the cheapest cooking device you can buy. Plus, it can be used to cook so many things. Be sure and check out thrift stores and garage sales for a used one. They are really easy to clean up. Lodge 6-Quart Dutch Oven

• Boil water
• Make biscuits
• Bake bread
• Make casseroles
• Great for breakfast casseroles
• Pineapple upside-down cake
• Cheesy potatoes
• Meat

What Fuel Do I Need?

• Charcoal
• Lump charcoal
• Wood

Pros

• Inexpensive
• You can stack several Dutch ovens to cook several meals at once, if you have the ones with the lid as shown above.
• Can be used in your oven indoors, if desired.
• Can be used over an open fire when outdoors.

Cons

• If you have fire restrictions where you live, you may not be able to start a fire even in your fire pit (this happens where I live in Southern Utah). If you run out of fuel you are done cooking any meals.

5. Sun Oven

What Can I Cook In Sun Ovens?

This is a great cooking device, if you have sunshine at least 200 days a year. If you don’t have a great deal of sunshine I wouldn’t buy one. In Southern Utah, we average about 255 days of sunny skies each year. All American Sun Oven

• Brownies
• Bread
• Cakes
• Boil pasta
• Any casserole
• Fish
• Turkey
• Chicken
• Cheesy potatoes
• Cookies

What Fuel Do I Need?

• Sunshine

Pros

• You can bake anything in a Sun Oven that you can bake in your conventional oven. If the pan fits, you can bake it in the Sun Oven.

Cons

• If there is zero sunshine outside, you will not be baking.

6. Camp Chef Two-Burner Stove

What Can I Cook On The Stove?

This is a great stove, even if you are cooking for a crowd. It’s like having your kitchen stove with two burners outside and ready to cook for the neighborhood. This is the stove that a lot of church groups use to cook for large crowds. You will see 4-6 of these going non-stop at breakfast parties. You may even see people flipping hamburgers at family reunions on one of these gems. CampChef Two-Burner Stove

• Pancakes (if you have a griddle)
• Grilled cheese (if you have the griddle)
• You can cook anything you cook on a griddle inside your home.
• You can use larger pots on one of these stoves.

What Fuel Do I Need

• Propane

Pros

• It’s pretty inexpensive, even with a bag to keep it stored.

Cons

• Once you run out of propane it becomes useless.

What can I do if I have a natural gas oven in my kithen?

If you lose power, you can’t use your forced air natural gas furnace since the unit uses a fan to push the heated air around your home. But, you can use the natural gas stove in your kitchen since it just requires the gas to heat the oven, and unless you want to use the “convection” feature on your stove, no fan is used.

Note, you will need a match, lighter, or other flame sources to start the burners on top and oven since the igniter needs electricity to work.

Be careful when lighting the natural gas stove. Don’t turn on the gas without knowing where to light the unit, whether the stovetop or oven, and don’t let the gas run for more than a few seconds without a flame or you could experience a large flame or explosion.

Final Word

I hope today’s post on tips for cooking when the power goes out helps you understand a few ways you can cook when your power goes out for days, weeks, or months. We can do this if we prepare before an event hits our city or neighborhood. It’s all about having the cooking device and the proper fuel for each unit before the power goes out. We can do this, I promise. May God bless this world, Linda