Alternatives to what is commonly used

[katarinak]

Cs said at the last session on June 28, 2025, that 'Now is not a good time in Earth's history and trajectory to become so dependent on either electrical or solar energy.' and that 'The systems are likely to be "fried".' I was thinking about our dependence on electrical energy and how our everyday life is reliant on electricity. Since we have a lot of dry branches from trees and shrubs in the garden, their use in the garden is limited, and we are in the season of home-grown vegetables, these were additional reasons, and we bought a cauldron with a fire pit.

Yesterday, we went to the forest and gathered mushrooms, from which I cooked goulash today (a very thick soup). Cooking took about 30 minutes longer than preparing food in the kitchen. The reason is likely mainly the volume of the cauldron, which is 6 liters, more than the pot we use in the kitchen. The wood consumption was very low; I thought it would be more. So far, it's been a short time, but I see some advantages:

1. It doesn't require electricity
2. Tastier food, probably because it was cooked over an open fire
3. Low wood consumption
4. Our shared and pleasant activity
5. The aroma of the food attracted a neighbor who wanted to taste it, and in the end, it inspired her to cook it herself.

And disadvantages:

1. Longer time to prepare food
2. The need for an open space to place the fire pit with the cauldron.

Thank you, Cs, Laura, and other members for publishing the session transcripts; they are often inspiring for me and help spark new ideas. However, I'm not sure whether to share such ordinary things. I'm sharing this because the latest transcript was the synchronicity that led me to buy the cauldron.

 

[gottathink]

Good idea for a thread-can the title be changed to something more searchable like ‘Cooking with Fire’?

 

[Lyndi]

I did search for similar threads and found this one, dealing with cooking with wood right at the beginning of the thread, back in 2015. Looks like a really interesting thread.

Survival Experiments

Here's a short corollary survival thread from 2015 focussed on cold weather survival not so much on cooking.

How to Prepare For Extreme Cold Weather Survival

But maybe a specific 'Cooking with Fire' discussion would be convenient, with ingredients, nutrition, recipes, techniques, types of foods and how to preserve and store them.

Anyway, cooking with fire - during 4 day power outage here late spring, I cooked outdoors on a small rocket stove with a cast iron fry pan. It was a really good meal. We could have driven some distance to a restaurant as local towns were out of power also, but we didn't want to do that. We ate what was in the fridge until it went bad and used some of the preserved foods.

The rocket stove that we bought interested me a few decades ago because we had to serve tea outdoors at big gatherings in the woods and the rocket stove uses very little wood, small twigs actually. One has to feed the wood into the stove more frequently but at least you can cook reasonably quickly with the heat that's channelled up through the ceramic insulated body of the easily portable stove. I also used it regularly when we served tea at farmers' markets. It seemed to take 10 minutes to heat a big pot of water for tea. We would also heat the water over an open fire when not in the city. It's not always possible to just light a fire. The rocket stove is ok outdoors on a small deck or even, with care, likely on a balcony.

We got our stove 25 years ago from this company that researches the stoves. Lots of information at this site on various types, the usage in different countries and so on:

Rocket Stoves Archives | Aprovecho

The stove can be made out of bricks or cinder blocks.

There's always propane stoves as a shorter term alternative if one doesn't have a generator. Out in the country, a lot of people used their generators and had it easier. But long term, fuels run out and no fuel would be available at gas stations.

Not just fire, we need a plan for water, too.

 

[JGeropoulas]

I've read that only 2 charcoal briquets can provide enough heat to get the temperature and pressure up in a pressure cooker, which can then be wrapped in a blanket to preserve the heat for extended cooking time. I've never tried this, but I can't see why it wouldn't work. The best part is that this technique would require only a bare minimum of fuel and equipment.

 

[PerfectCircle]

Cs said at the last session on June 28, 2025, that 'Now is not a good time in Earth's history and trajectory to become so dependent on either electrical or solar energy.' and that 'The systems are likely to be "fried".' I was thinking about our dependence on electrical energy and how our everyday life is reliant on electricity. Since we have a lot of dry branches from trees and shrubs in the garden, their use in the garden is limited, and we are in the season of home-grown vegetables, these were additional reasons, and we bought a cauldron with a fire pit.

Yesterday, we went to the forest and gathered mushrooms, from which I cooked goulash today (a very thick soup). Cooking took about 30 minutes longer than preparing food in the kitchen. The reason is likely mainly the volume of the cauldron, which is 6 liters, more than the pot we use in the kitchen. The wood consumption was very low; I thought it would be more. So far, it's been a short time, but I see some advantages:

1. It doesn't require electricity
2. Tastier food, probably because it was cooked over an open fire
3. Low wood consumption
4. Our shared and pleasant activity
5. The aroma of the food attracted a neighbor who wanted to taste it, and in the end, it inspired her to cook it herself.

And disadvantages:

1. Longer time to prepare food
2. The need for an open space to place the fire pit with the cauldron.

Thank you, Cs, Laura, and other members for publishing the session transcripts; they are often inspiring for me and help spark new ideas. However, I'm not sure whether to share such ordinary things. I'm sharing this because the latest transcript was the synchronicity that led me to buy the cauldron.

View attachment 110814

View attachment 110815

That is a nice looking goulash to me! :)