Thermal Cooking

Thermal cooking is not a new idea. In fact, “Gone With the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell wrote an entire book about the topic about a 100 years ago called “The Fireless Cook Book.” This is because the South was very poor after the Civil War and needed cheap and economical ways to survive.

In essence, thermal cooking involves heating up something that will stay hot a very long time, like a big soap stone or cement disk. These objects could be heated in a stove or a fire and then used for cooking other things. This could be a way of saving energy if you are using a generator or if power is scarce or if you are in a position where you do not want anyone to see that you have a fire burning furlong. The disk is heated up and topped with an insulated box. The box is then placed on the disk so that baking can be done.

One type of thermal cooker is called a haybox. This method of retained-heat cooking refers to a kind of insulated container that fits snugly around a pot. Hayboxes are made of anything that insulates the cooking process and that includes hay, straw, wool, cotton, feathers, rice hulls, aluminum foil, fur, fiberglass, rigid foam and rice hulls. You can actually buy commercial hayboxes but some people have created them by wrapping the pot on a heated stone with pillows, blankets or a sleeping bag. These slow down the movement of air that can cool down food.

Mylar hayboxes are a good idea because they are safer and actually reflect the heat radiating out of the pot back towards the pot.

It is also important to note that water is not lost from cooking foods the same way it is with normal cooking. Often the water normally added to the pot is reduced by a cup or a half cup.

This way of cooking is also handing because it is less dependent on timing. The food will stay hot for hours. Food does not tend to burn because food does not tend to boil and burn on the bottom of the pot.

Hayboxes can help you conserve a lot of water and energy in general and they are easy to build and easy to use. They are ideal for serving large groups of people because they keep food warm for a long time.

Older Methods of Preservation and Refrigeration

If you live in a seasonal climate that has a winter, then you have a natural refrigerator in the event of a disaster. You simply preserve food by keeping it outside on ice and snow. However if you are in a warmer climate then you might be looking at other options to survive. The tips in this article can also help those in seasonal climates preserve food during a hot summer.

If you have animals and are looking to store butter then you can a hint from ancient peoples and wrap the butter in animal intestines and store it in a cool place in a bog. Survivalists who have tried this say it works but that the butter does not taste that great.

Stuffing animal intestines with meat that need refrigeration is an ancient Paleolithic habit. Our ancestors would take the intestines of animals, clean them and pack them with meat. A few rocks would be added to the packing to add weight to the package. The ends would be tied off and attached to a long cord. They would then be dropped into a deep lake or pond.

Before refrigeration salting was the main way to preserve anything. After animals were slaughtered meat would be salted to draw out all the blood. A brine would be brewed out of saltpeter and water and the meat would be sunk into a vessel full of the brine. Before it was cooked the meat would be completely rinsed so it could be edible.

Smoking was another method used to preserve food in the old days. This is how hams were preserved and some of these hams were still good to eat after twenty years. The meat was brined first and then smoked inside a container. There are both cool smokers and hot smokers. Cool smokers are containers or smokehouses into which smoke is piped from a fire. Many ancient cultures used this method to preserve fish.

Yet another method of preservation was to pack meat in lard. The lard would prevent oxygen from permeating the meat and rotting it. This method works particularly well if you are trying to preserve bacon.

If you are storing perishable foods in a shelter , lake or bog it is probably a good idea to get a thermometer so you can periodically measure the temperature of the food. This can help you avoid a case of food poisoning.

Survival