PULSE Magazine | September 2018 Issue

Camping Stove There are all sorts of camping stoves which can be used safely. If you live in an apartment and are serious about prepping for emergency situations, I’d recommend getting a good camp stove suitable for the indoors and stocking up on fuel. Tuna Can + Toilet Paper Stove This one was learned while hiking with a former Israeli Special Forces guy. Apparently, the Israeli army gets fed a lot of canned tuna. Here is how it works. 1. Open a can of tuna in oil. It would work with something else oily too. 2. Take 3 pieces of toilet paper and place them over the tuna. They will absorb the oil. The toilet paper should create an air-tight seal around the lid of the can. 3. Set the toilet paper on fire. Best to do this out- doors or in a safe indoor area away from anything that could ignite. 4. It will burn for a LONG time (up to 25 minutes)! Not only does it cook the tuna, but you can put something over the flame to cook it too. 5. Remove the toilet paper and enjoy your tuna. This also works as a great emergency light source and emergency heat source!!!

Cooking without Power

BBQ Grill This is the most obvious solution. If you want this to be your emergency cooking method, then choose a BBQ which is coal powered and not gas powered! Open Fire This is the simplest solution. You can just set a BBQ grill plate over the open fire and cook. If you don’t have a grill, then things get a bit more com- plicated. You will have to put two or three branches (about 2in thick) over the fire and set your pan/pot on top of these. As the branches start to burn away, you will have to slip a new branch in their place. Good luck not spilling the food while you do this! Or you can create an A-frame out of branches and suspend a soup pot from it. Another option for cooking over an open fire is to use a big rock. Just prop a wide, flat rock over the fire. It will get hot and you can put your pot or pan right on it. Ember Roasting Make a fire and get some serious embers going on. Then let the fire burn out (or keep the fire to one side of your pit only). Put some food on the em- bers. Go ahead and bury it in the embers. The em- bers will cook the food. Since the outside of the food is going to get covered with ash, this method is best for foods like corn on the cob and potatoes. But you can cook almost anything like this if you put it in tinfoil first. Dutch Oven Dutch ovens are big, heavy cooking pots made from cast iron. You set them right on top of the fire and/or cover them up with coals. These are espe- cially great for making stews. Earth Oven In simple terms, an earth oven is just a pit with a fire built inside of it. But there are a lot of different ways to make an earth oven. Native Americans used a cool method where they’d dig a pit, put hot stones at the bottom and then cover it with branches. On top of this would go the meat and veggies. It would be covered by something moist, which would create steam. Then would come a layer of soil to retain the heat. Reflector Oven A reflector oven is a box with metal inside of it. There is a shelf in the middle for supporting the food. It works by using radiant energy from a camp fire to bake food inside of it. You will need to make a big fire to bake in a reflector oven, and the heat source will need to be consistent.

Example of an Earth Oven

Brick Rocket Stove An outdoor stove can also be created by stacking bricks to create a chimney. Stack one layer of bricks into a “U” shape. Next, put a steel mesh grate on top of the bricks and stack another layer of bricks around the U shape to secure the grate leaving the middle of the grate open. Continue stacking the bricks around the grate to create a chimney about 3-4 ft. high. Build your fire on top of the grate inside your chimney. Place a metal cooking rack on top of the chimney opening so you have a surface to set your cookware on and viola! Outdoor stove!

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