Sneaky Cooking, can it be done?

If the worst happens, due to age and other factors, we will have to Bug in. So, when food is scarce for the unprepared, power is out or intermittent, how does one do stealthy cooking to avoid unneeded guests/ neighborhood problems? Everyone knows all the reasons. We do have one neighbor across the street that we trust, but the rest are not our kind of people.

We have a working fireplace, but the builder made it decorative and reduced the capacity size to about 1/3. I am awaiting a bid to see what the cost of “fixing” this problem is. If it can be done, I plan to do a rocket stove in there, and or a different set up to allow heating and cooking.

Any suggestions?

Jim

 

What about a wood stove insert for the fireplace? That would give you a better heat source than a fireplace and might be cheaper also than renovating the fireplace.

Do you really live that close to neighbors that you have to worry about cooking smells?
I think the first objective would be to ensure you have a means to cook and boil water if power goes out. I assume your cook stove is electric?

I suppose if you really were trying to be completely clandestine you could simply boil water and use freeze-dried food.
Anyway, interesting topic... I live in country so don't have to worry but I could see this could be a problem in an apartment complex or housing area if there was a huge food shortage. In that case, I would go freeze-dried as a temporary solution. Long-term? There isn't one that I can see because sooner or later it will be obvious, you are eating and your neighbors are not.

 

The smell of cooking food can carry a mile or more, and never underestimate the sense of smell of hungry people! Ever notice when someone in the neighborhood is cooking out, you can usually identify what they are cooking from way down the street or blocks away! Smoke from a fire is visible by day and at night it can be smelled. The promise of warmth and food will have every cold hungry sob for miles coming to your house, and you don't want that! Also, in the absence of all the background noise the sounds of your generator, tractor and livestock will carry a long way!
My plan is to heat a few rooms with propane heaters, use solar to run freezers or refrigerators, eating cold food, and being damned unfriendly! Being a successful prepper means not showing off how prepared you are! You can brag later! I'm NOT gonna try and police the world or even my own neighborhood! I'm NOT gonna run a soup kitchen for the hungry! I'm gonna survive!

 

Boil water and cook any food in a plastic bag that you can close up and seal in the smells, or just boil the food in water and eat as is!
If you absolutely MUST cook, use tin foil as much as you can!

 

First few months don't expect to use long term survival food. The food we eat daily as a couple 80 year olds is simple to cook, has no cooking odor, and would be ignored by most people anyhow.

We stock about 50 jars of spaghetti sauce and rotate it. We use it over spaghetti of course, but with chicken added it is used over ziti noodles and with a little cheese, used over rice with or without chicken, with TVP instead of chicken, it can be used over pasta, over rice, on sandwiches, or with beans added it can be used in lots of Spanish type foods, tacos, etc either as a semi liquid or a paste texture. We stock spaghetti sauce, TVP, a hot sauce, home canned chicken breasts, a wide assortment of pasta's, various dried beans, rice, lentils, dried onions, dried celery - home made out of that part of the bunch that always seems to get a little limp in the fridge, dried peppers,etc for the spaghetti sauce,

We eat a lot of canned tuna, keep about 50 cans in stock. Makes excellent sandwiches with a little mayo, can be used with a little spices in either hot or cold pasta dishes, use oil or vinegar to spice it up, as well as onions and peppers from our stock. At least a half dozen ways to spice it up and add fillers. Now with fresh eggs and spices, it can be fried into a patty . Again the basics are changed to avoid appetite fatigue. Dried onions, green peppers, spices, a little hot sauce make all the difference. Again there is a lot of over lap with the spaghetti sauce.

We keep about 10 cans of Dinty Moore Beef Stew on stock. Eat it straight, put it over mashed potato for a shepherd's pie, over rice, over pasta, etc, We stock instant mashed potatoes, dried milk, etc to make the potato base without needing fresh milk etc. Of course the potato can be eaten alone, fried into patties, used as a filler in soups and gravies, etc. Adding oils will increase the calories and of course it often tastes better as well.

There two ways of packaging the dry type soups, one uses regular paper packaging and has a storage life of about a year at least, but a lot are packaged in a mylar pouch, Knorrs are packed that way, and often you can buy a package that will make a good sized meal for several people. We like the pea soups and potato soups that are based on foods from Italy. A fraction the cost of the freeze dried and with a lot less salt. There are also various rice and pasta dishes that are in a separate section in our super market, Spanish rice, jumbolia, rice with any number of veggies, exotic grains like wild rice, etc. That section also has the Hamburger etc helpers to extend the amount of food supplied by 1 lb of hamburger or tuna. Store brand is about a buck a box and I know it will keep a year at least. In the same isle they have their macaroni and cheese, just add water and cook on stove top. I know they will keep a year or better on the shelf and with a plastic bag over the package and in the freezer, I have had good luck with 4 year old packages.

I keep about 20 cans of chili without beans in my cupboard. Use it with beans and veggies to make chili, over rice, with beans to make a burger or taco filler, at this time with canned beans, a lot easier, but also over canned when I make a large bunch from stock.

Several brands supply bean soups that only need to add water to cook, takes a long time to cook, as well as lentils, split peas, various beans, various dry break fast foods, etc.

While none of these food will make Hanzo's list and are not gourmet food, they will, with good vitamins supplements and some oils. cheeses, or butter for both the calories and the oils keep you alive. In the present time of food inflation I also find that they help with the budget. While several require a long cooking time, they can be brought to a boil and be placed in a insulated container or you could possibly use a solar cooker. I use a microwave, a counter top electric oven, or a crock pot as well as the stove top, and an electric pressure cooker.

There is a whole world out there as to what you can do with Spam, canned hams, canned fish, canned beef or chicken, etc. I will not even get into that topic,

The above has only scratched the surface of what can be done with a pot and boiling water.

Dried milk for example can be used to make puddings, yogurts, in many of the other foods to replace fresh milk, to add protein, to other dishes, etc.

While I may like the freeze dried instant foods, I can neither afford them or with my heart, tolerate the salt levels.

I have an old style freezer, does not auto defrost. Foods will keep in, it at 15 below, nuts, dried soups, pasta and rice mixes, mac and cheese, dried tomato in olive oil, etc for a couple years. My new modern freezer has auto defrost,and most food won't make 6 months as they have at least the surface warmed to above freezing at least once a day and the texture goes bad,

 

first best thing to do for covert cooking is to abandon your current kitchen - should have a portable camp stove to set up totally out of sight of any casual looking - disguise the old kitchen as a con - old food packaging - some empty cans - dirty dishes & silverware with caked on food - let something go rotten in the dead frig ....

there's rooftop exits for your utilities & appliances besides a chimney - they have a natural venting draw - if you fabricate an overhead stove hood and hook it into one of the venters - any cooking odors will outside vent high above ground level noses ....

don't under estimate what your prepping will look like to others - just having a cooking source and potable water will be desirable to many - less seen - less heard - less smelled - all the better ....

 

I especially like the part about the decoy kitchen. I might even go to the pond for a bucket of drinking water and even dig a fake grave or two behind the house. Have a front man that, with a little make-up and the right clothing, will appear just as dirty and under fed as everyone else!

 

Offer to "share" your bounty. Wheat cooked whole, hide the grinder well, with no salt or spices, and under cooked to the very chewy stage early in the game while others still have food. Oat meal at its worst chunky chewy stage, no salt, no sugar or milk, just water. Appear to be worse off than they are and suggest that they ask the town for help;

Most of the foods I suggested can be cooked without a kitchen, boiling water to purify it if asked, and of course the rest is not kept in the kitchen cupboards when things go south. It is handy to have a "private root cellar" with the entrance in the lawnmower shed instead of the house. Keep fire wood there also, so have an excuse for going to the shed. Keep tank of mower empty as well as a couple of empty decoy gas cans.

It is probably as important to hide the water filter as the food. People will either want to come to your place to get water or "borrow" the filter. A pot hanging over a smokey out door fire to boil your water to purify it, little ash floating in the water and maybe a dead fly or two, and offering to help them set up a similar system, might also discourage the average leach. Water and pot are just cover for dutch oven or bean pot buried in the coals and ashes. Plan to cook on single burner coleman gas stove with a half dozen grill tanks and the hose to connect it to grill tanks. Get the empties free at the dump when people throw out grill and fill at gas place if in code date or trade at a gas exchange place if out of date, Keep them in a storage area that is weather tight, but roof "fell" in last winter during snow storm. Door in front is blocked, but remove a couple screws and a panel comes off in back to allow entrance. Store propane there. Diesel and gas are treated and underground. Have some untreated gas that I can burn in coleman stove as well. Have both propane and gasoline small stoves and lamps. Usually picked up at dump with bad air pumps or broken glass. Usually easy fix, if not keep spare parts and take rest back to dump. Have a rocket stove in greenhouse, used it for supplemental heat and practice cooking. Works well and have hatchet to split wood for it.

It really helps to be known in the area as the old man that collects junk and has little money and has to scrounge to get by in the "good" times. In the last 50 years, I have watched one of the "nice" houses in my neighborhood, an early 1800's money pit, change hands 6 times as the wealthy people who ignored the "poor" neighbor with his greenhouse and garden, and of course I was not invited to their wine and cheese parties, lost the house to the bank. Everyone of them blamed the loss on everything but their lifestyle choices. Several had car payments greater than my income, not even to mention their house payments and credit card payments.

The thing I still haven't figured out is my dog. Old story, trade dogs early in the game, so you will not be eating your pet, but that nasty mutt that your neighbor had. Hard to explain how you have enough food to keep a pet alive, Cats can and do hunt for a lot of their foods, but as much as I love him, my sheltie needs and gets better quality food than I do now.

 

Eat it cold, fresh out the can ,,

 

What? You smell meat cooking?
Hell that's just your dog/cat that got to close about an hour ago, Wanna leg?

 

The All American Sun Oven has an inner glass plate that keeps the odor inside the cooking chamber. Note I am in no way associated with them except as a very happy user.

All American Sun Oven- The Ultimate Solar Appliance

 

@Wildbilly "...use solar to run freezers or refrigerators..."
Yeah, I got to get this done. The freezers are my Achilles heel. I believe this is a necessity to have at least enough solar to ensure operation of one's freezers and perhaps a small refrigerator at a minimum. I meant to do it last Spring but got sidetracked...got to get it done before Presidential election for sure.

 

When I had a house, I made secret rooms for my food bank and had water reserves of all sorts out side.
I cooked on a wood stove and it heated the home as well.
I cut my fire wood primarily into 4' logs then as required cut them in 1' sections to fit my little stove. The 4' logs are harder to run off with and they dry slower and preserve more gas. Wood that dry's out too much loose a lot of it's heating value.
When I packed my food away, I first made portions then put those in larger bags and those in larger bags then in the 5-gallon bucket, all with oxygen absorbers. That way I could hand out portions with out showing my reserves.
Smelling the food cooking is important for some folks to develop an appetite, older folk need this stimulus.
In the event there are folk wandering looking for food, the smell of dead bodies out side might be enough of a deterrent, although there may be some that collect those dead for fertilizer. Disease and rats may become a problem as well.

 

Me too! My current system is too small for big jobs like running freezers and such. I only have a couple of solar panels, and some deep-cycle marine batteries that are on their last legs. I need to add more panels and a newer bigger battery set-up. I'm looking at the LiFePo batteries, and I especially like the Battle Born batteries. Very expensive, but they last for decades, can be deep discharged 5000+ times, and you don't have to baby them. I had originally planned to conceal my solar panel array, but that might not be necessary now that solar panels are becoming more common, still it might be something to consider. Also, have extra charge controllers cause without those the whole system fails.

 

TOO DAMN BAD!! I'm not getting everyone killed just to stimulate someone's appetite, if they don't want to eat that's just more for everyone else and they will be hungry tomorrow...or they could be force fed! Some people live to eat, I eat to live!

 

@arleigh "...Smelling the food cooking is important for some folks to develop an appetite, older folk need this stimulus..."
I wish I needed that! LOL! Seems my stomach demands servicing no matter the time, place or predicament.

 

Thanks all for the info!!! The family used to have access to a ranch, but the owners got greedy and sold the place to some rich Kalifornians. That screwed everyone. So, I live in an upper medium income neighborhood that was built so folks could drive a bit more and not live near riffaff. Not that many people know each other around here. We also have an above average number of LEOS, and firemen living around here also.

I have discovered Thermal Pots that will work on just boiling water. Found a small wood stove insert that will fit my fireplace (got lotsa wood), buying smaller steel rocket stove,and will be using bannock bread fresh n hot. All the food suggestions are a big help!

I will make use of the advice/info rendered here to get done what I need to. Will have to disguise my water storage quickly.

Thanks again!
Jim

 

Yall come up with something to describe Nasel Hallucination's

 

Food in freezers isn't going to last forever. Unless you have solar powered freezers, you will need to eat the frozen foods first because, #1- You will be using valuable fuel to run generators and #2- The sound of running generators will attract unwanted attention after about a week!