A heat source
A heat source is necessary to cook food, but it may be as simple as you choose. I like to cook with real fire. My favorite stove was the gas stove I really learned to cook on in Athens, GA. A gas stove has extremely little warm up and cool down time. The heat is exact, even and accurately controlled. However, it is not essential. I can cook just as easily on a grill, which is really just a big charcoal burner, the live coals from a campfire, a wood stove or even in a fireplace. The power goes out frequently and often for long periods where I live in the Appalachian mountains. I have often cooked on a kerosene heater, which is fine except for the fumes.
An old fashioned, coil burner electric stove, like my mother and my grandmother had would be my second choice. Each one has its own quirks, but they are reliable and very accurate once you get used to them. They warm up and cool down fairly quickly. They also last for decades. I would never buy a glass top, induction type stove. I know people think they are pretty and in style, but they are not for cooking. I spent 3 of the last 5 years having to cook on one. They are simply horrible. They heat slowly, provide uneven heat during cooking. They take forever to cool down. They wear out and break quickly. They are expensive and seem to be designed to do only two things: burn your food and be replaced often enough to make a lot of money for the manufacturers, stores and installers. Frankly, I would rather have a $10 hot plate from a dollar store than a $1,000 glass, electric cooktop. Such stoves may not be worthless, but they come mighty close!
I am far less picky when it comes to ovens. All I need from an oven is that it heat accurately to the desired temperature and hold heat at that temp while cooking. Gas ovens are a little better for bread, but most any electric oven will do. Check the seals and replace them if worn. Also, don’t trust the temperature dial. Use an oven thermometer to check your oven’s accuracy and adjust accordingly.
Wood fired, pizza and bread type ovens are extremely nice, but a very expensive luxury unless you build them yourself… which you can totally do!
Even toaster ovens work fine for smaller dishes. I have one with a convection setting, a feature that circulates hot air to reduce cooking time. It is a nice alternative to a microwave, that can crisps up food rather than make it chewy or soggy. I never cook in microwaves, but will use one to reheat food or heat some water for a quick cup of tea - they are useless for my style of cooking.
One of the more interesting alternative energy ovens is the Sun Oven. The company is owned by a friend of mine, so I have gotten to check them out even though I don’t own one. The sun oven uses reflective surfaces to concentrate the heat of the sun. It is a very cool device, but I live on a north/west facing slope and wouldn’t use one enough to justify buying one.
By far, the oldest and easiest means of cooking is a campfire. But, even better is a barbecue pit. My family has been cooking barbecue in eastern NC for around 400 years, having learned the technique from the natives in Bermuda. My grandfather was a brick mason (among a thousand other things) and he built an incredible eastern NC (whole hog) brick barbecue pit in the back yard. The original barbecue pit though, and the ones still used at many informal “pig pickin’s” still today, is simply a hole in the ground. For a whole hog, we dig a long, shallow, narrow trench. For pork shoulders or smaller cuts, you can dig a smaller hole or even use a metal trashcan, cut and adapted. Simply lay re-bar or other metal bars over the pit to make a grill type grate. Burn some hardwood in the pit. Lay your meat (etc) on the grate and cover with some barn roofing tin. If you don’t have tin, you can use even damp burlap sacks. Up north, this is a clambake set up. In Hawaii, this is a luau, in South America they use green wood for the grate and banana leaves. In Jamaica they used Allspice wood. Here, we use oak, hickory, pecan and fruit woods. The key is to cook low and slow. You have to burn wood to add more live coals as you cook. It takes over 20 hours to cook a whole hog, and 10-12 hours for a pork shoulder. I will get into more detail later in the book. But, cooking can be this simple and essentially free. There are few things more enjoyable than cooking barbecue all night with some friends, drinking a few too many beers and picking a guitar by a barbecue pit!
This article is an excerpt from
Available on in paperback on Amazon:
The Omnivore’s Guide to Home Cooking for Preppers, Homesteaders, Permaculture People and Everyone Else: Carroll, Judson: 9798354856374: Amazon.com: Books
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