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A while back I wrote an article about cooking without power, but when I wrote it, I was assuming that going outside to cook wouldn’t be a problem. I live on the gulf coast so even in the middle of winter, going outside to check on the grill is no big deal. All you need is a jacket.
But what if you live up north and it’s so cold outside that opening the door for a few seconds sends a terrible chill through the house? After Hurricane Sandy, I got this message:
“We just had a 20-hour power outage – it couldn’t have taken longer to restore power, and it couldn’t have been colder weather. What heaters and cookers can one use safely indoors? Staying warm in winter and having warm food and drinks is what I would like to know about, thank you for your help with this.”
Here are a few of your main options if you want to cook indoors.
1. Fireplace
Anyone can roast marshmallows or cook hot dogs over a fire, but to cook a real meal you have to be more creative. Wait until your fire has plenty of glowing embers at the bottom, then try one of these methods.
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- Aluminum foil: Season some meat and veggies with salt and pepper and add a little vegetable oil. Then wrap the food in aluminum foil, use tongs place it onto the fire, and rotate it often. In a short while you’ll have a delicious meal. Just make sure you have a meat thermometer and make sure the meat is at least 165° before you eat it.
- Skewers: Put your seasoned meat and veggies on a long skewer and slowly rotate it above the flames (not in the flames) until they’re ready. This requires a bit more patience.
- Fireplace grate: Set one up above the fire and use cast iron skillets to fry up just about anything. I also recommend a good dutch oven. These are great for soup, stew or chili.
Of course, using the fireplace to cook indoors without power is obvious. So now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to the options for people who don’t have fireplaces.
2. Canned Heat
These are flaming canisters that are often used by caterers to keep food warm. They use a gel-like fuel that won’t spill, they’re easy to start, and a 7-ounce can will burn for a couple of hours.
I, myself, have a Sterno stove and plenty of cooking fuel. It doesn’t get quite as hot as fireplace, but it definitely gets hot enough for you to scramble some eggs, make tea or cocoa, heat up canned soup, or cook your dehydrated or freeze-dried foods.
This is by far the easiest and safest way to cook indoors, so if you haven’t already, I strongly encourage you to get some canned heat.
3. Camp Stoves
I have a Coleman two-burner propane stove, but unfortunately it’s not safe to use indoors. You could put it next to an open window in a well ventilated room, but that would defeat the purpose of keeping the cold out. Some people say using propane stoves indoors isn’t that dangerous, so long as you don’t leave it on for too long.
Personally, I prefer to stay on the safe side. If you do use a propane stove indoors, at least make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector.
A better option is a butane stove. The good thing about butane is it burns cleaner so it’s a little safer to use indoors. However, I’d still be careful.
4. Your Car
If you have enough gasoline, it might be worth it to open your garage door (for ventilation) and use your vehicle to generate heat. Wrap some food in aluminum foil several times and place it on the engine (away from any moving parts) and close the hood.
Again, check the internal temperature of your food with a thermometer before you eat it. Cooking this way certainly isn’t ideal, but it’s something you can do if you’re out of options. Better yet, get a portable stove that you can plug into your car’s cigarette lighter.
Natural gas/Propane is safe to use if you have the proper heating elements which you can get at any Propane supply company.
Cooking over tea lights is possible, it just takes patience and enough tea lights to equal the bottom of your pot. I used 6 beeswax tea lights to cook a pot of homemade corn chowder soup from scratch. From start to finish it took one hour. There was 4 bowls of soup (approximately 5 cups) in the pot.
I have seen these electric lunchbox things that not only keep food warm but cant outright cook food too and you can plug them into your car although with some you may need an inverter
We in the sunny southwest desert area have one extra advantage, SOLAR. Desperate times call for, oh you know what’s called for ! A modified cardboard box and aluminum foil becomes a solar oven. A cast iron skillet place on blacktop at 3 PM can be your stove. Fill a cup with water ,set it on your dashboard with the doors closed for 20 min. and your ready to make tea.
Our problem isn’t where to find heat , it’s trying to cool down during a power outage.
All joking aside, PLEASE DO NOT used carbon based fuel inside without proper ventilation.
We need all us preppers around to rebuild after the deficattion impacts the ventilator .
I once had an Amish kerosene range. With an oven. It was great. Many moves and personal disasters and 30 years later I no longer have it. But I want one again. Some place in St. Paul sells them.
Check it out
I presume that requires an externally vented chimney. Do you know if that could be incorporated into the vent hood over our stoves?
The best and only “safe” fuel and stove to use indoors is a Denatured Alcohol stove. They’re un-pressurized and Denatured Alcohol can be extinguished with a bucket of water! Just like using a giant Sterno stove except much more efficient and safe. Smaller versions of the type of Denatured Alcohol stove that are used ( and certified ) for use on water vessels are used by backpackers while hiking in the back country. Using a Denatured Alcohol in your house or garage will attract no attention of neighbors unless the aroma from the food gets away.
Alcohol fire is virtually invisible and spilled alcohol could catch things on fire that a bucket of water might not handle. Using alcohol burners in kitchen sinks might be a good way to go.
Put them in a heavy rectangular cake pan or roasting pan
You said what I was going to say. A small alcohol stove should boil 2 cups of water in under 10 minutes. I do ultralight camping and always carry one. My favorite, not just because of its name (ahem) but also because of its light weight and simplicity, is the Mangold Mamba. It’s manufactured and sold by Zelph at woodgaz-stove
Some common mistakes that occur when learning to cook include some very simple errors. Cooking is an art but some people claim they cannot even boil water. This excuse is probably just a matter of that person never being taught the basics of cooking.
Dollar store candles under a metal coffee can that you have put holes in at the top and a few around the side of the can. One tuna can to hold three candles underneath. Another item that we all need is to build a zeer pot if you don’t live out in the country and have a root cellar to keep food cold.
I laughed at this! I live in Alaska and it’s never to cold to cook outside! We have a charcoal grill and a propane grill on our side porch and use both year round. Steaks taste even better when you’ve cooked during a snow storm!
Same here,,just think about what you want to cook,,,I cook often on our wood stove and don’t have trouble,,thanks for sharing pennylou
That’s great if your nearest neighbors are miles away, but if you’re cooking in a rural setting, you surely will attract possible “undesirables” onto your property looking for a meal…or worse!
I have propane for cook stove in my home, but the electronic igniters would not work. When we lived in the desert with no power, we did use a camp stove or camp fire
which worked just fine.
I have a electrical ignition propane stove in my house that I cook on every day and when the electric goes out you still cook on it because I have common sense and know that it an electrical ignition is just an electrical version of a lighter… Unlike the person with no common sense who wrote the comment. You still had the light your camping stove didn’t you…
One point for the first writer. On the newer stoves, without power the gas solenoid won’t open so no gas flow. Even if you have a lighter or a match, that’s the only heat you will get from the stove. I am tinkering with a manual bypass so I can still use the stove with no power. Good luck.
You should never use any pressurized fuel stove of any kind indoors! A pressurized fuel leak could happen at any time and the stove becomes a “blow torch.”
Propane is perfectly safe indoors if you know what you’re doing. There’s a reason you see many homes in mountain communities with that huge propane tank that gets filled once a month.
Note that the huge propane tanks you reference are positioned outside. Using propane tanks inside invites disaster. Propane appliances that are correctly hooked up, including any applicable ventilation, are safe to use.
I remember during hurricane Gloria my father cooked over the fire place, we had canned spaghetti for supper. It was better then nothing that night. So having a fireplace for cooking is a great idea during a power outage. (Make sure you have extra wood ahead of time)
Problem solved. . .if you have a fireplace or wood stove but remember that every cubic foot of heated air that goes up the flue pipe is replaced by a cubic foot of cold air from outside unless you feed the firebox with outside air. You will also benefit if you can circulate indoor air around the flue pipe thus transferring as much heat from the flue to house air as possible and that will be more effective if thermal fins are attached. Systems like that are available so check them out.
Not so sure if the propane inside is that big of a deal if your only cooking and not trying to use it to heat. Millions in this country use propane and natural gas stoves everyday to cook and bake with. As you said, if your worried crack a window nearby or move the stove closer to the window.
Also don’t forget if you have a wood fireplace you could burn charcoal in it and might be easier to cook with, especially on your dutch oven. But do not ever try to burn wood charcoal or anything in a gas fireplace insert. that should be common sense but I read about it happening every year during power outages.