One of the primary reasons we rely on today’s energy grids, such as gas and electric, are to preserve, prepare, and store our foods. When you go off-grid, one of your top concerns will be on how to cook your food.
Here are a few of the best ways to cook food entirely off-grid, whether that be for camping, homesteading, or when disaster strikes. What works best for you and what you plan to use for off-grid cooking might not work for someone else; only you can make the best choice for your purposes.
Open fire
This is literally the oldest and probably most used form of cooking food. There are a few different ways to cook over an open fire, such as with a dutch oven, griddle, a tripod and pot, or just by sticking food on a skewer and putting it right over the open flame. If you plan on cooking this way, you’ll want to think about which method of cooking you’ll want to use, and you’ll definitely want to put some work into learning different fire builds. Here are a few of the articles we’ve done on popular survival fire builds:
- Log Cabin Fire Build
- Self-Feeding Fire
- Tee-Pee Fire
- Upside-Down Fire
- Lean-To Fire
- Cross-Ditch Fire
- Sweedish Fire Torch
- Dakota Fire Hole
Propane Stove
This is a great option for an off-grid kitchen or emergency stove, as it functions almost just like the gas stove in your kitchen but is portable and easy to bring on a camping trip or put in an outdoor kitchen on a homestead. The biggest downside is that you need propane, so it will eventually run out and you’ll need to purchase more, but it is still a great option for short-term emergencies or country-style living.
Solar Oven
Solar ovens are great even if you live a completely modern life, because you can cook food without heating up your kitchen and by relying entirely on the sun’s energy! You can find many to purchase online, and also make your own quite easily.
Haybox
Hayboxes are really cool, and we included a post on how to make your own a few months ago. They are a really great way to preserve energy, and work almost like an archaic slow cooker to keep heat in and slowly cook food that has already been heating up on the fire. Like a solar oven, you can even use these in your house as a low-energy way to keep food warm throughout the day.
These are some ideas for off-grid cooking methods, if you have any more you’d like us to cover, just let us know!
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