Hi Everyone,
NOTES:
* Beans – Even though this is not the month for beans, I wanted to pass on this site about cooking beans. He did several experiments with storing beans and then cooking them. He also talks about sprouting and growing beans. IF you have beans in your storage, this article is full of good information. Beans: An Important Survival Food for Hard Times | Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
* Food Storage Recipes. I sent this out a while ago and there were several people who were not able to open the file because of formatting. I have re-typed all the recipes and have included them below in a pdf format.
LONG TERM FOCUS: Brown Sugar
I tried storing brown sugar in a #10 can. It turned black everywhere it had touched metal. Don’t do that. Besides, we can’t do our own canning in those #10 cans anymore anyway. My next effort was vacuum sealing. I was worried that the sugar would clump, but I’ve had a lot of success doing this. I snip a small cut in the bag and then vacuum seal so that the air is removed from inside the bag as well. It stores like a brick clump, but when it is opened, it is soft and fluffs right up. If your sugar DOES get hard, I use a piece of bread to soften it again. The bread draws the moisture out of the sugar. Works like a charm.
But you CAN make your own brown sugar. 1 c. white sugar + 1 TB molasses. Mix a little and voila!!
DIY BROWN SUGAR | Make Your Own Pantry Staples = better than storebought! – YouTube
Not sure which is more convenient: to store the brown sugar or store the molasses.
Other than making cookies, I use brown sugar on my oatmeal, for marinades for chicken, for BBQ sauce, and stuff like that. I find it’s easy to store 6 or 7 2-lb. bags stacked up on the shelf, and then rotate them.
This is a good time to buy them. Most stores have them on sale for about $.75/pound.
SHORT TERM FOCUS: Chocolate Chips
I have friends who never eat chocolate. It’s hard to believe there ARE people like that! My own son wanted chocolate chip cookies without the chips, so I had to set aside cookie dough just for his
chocolate-less cookies.
So, can you store chocolate chips? The short answer is yes, but not long-term. Do Chocolate Chips Go Bad? – Storing Chocolate Chips – Foods Guy
I have mine in the refrigerator. If you store chocolate in the freezer, it will sometimes change color. According to the link above, it is still good and will not lose flavor, and will dissolve back when you melt it. BUT, what if you don’t WANT to melt it and you want to use it in cookies? Yeah, that’s why I don’t do that. I think of chocolate chips as a decadent treat for when I’m tired of eating beans and rice.
I also store peanut butter chips.
All this yummy baking stuff is on sale for the holidays, so pick up some extra bags. You can get chocolate chips in the bulk section at Winco, and I think they are a LITTLE cheaper, but not much.
MISCELLANEOUS FOCUS: Sanitation
What if you lose the ability to flush your toilets?
As explained in an email a few weeks ago, I’m all for the “trench” method of latrine building. BUT, this might not be practical – depending on the situation. Here are some alternatives to outdoor latrines: DIY Portable Toilet (Emergency Use Bucket Toilet).
In her case, they actually had to do this when the plumbing in their house went out. She explains how to build a portable toilet, and tips to handle the smell. Here is another article: 3 Ways to Make a Camping Toilet – wikiHow. Both sites use empty buckets and plastic bags. They also use sawdust,
pine chips, peat moss, dried used coffee grounds or kitty litter to absorb the waste. Comments below the article also suggest sand, dirt, newspapers. Also garbage bags – lots of them!!!
Five-gallon buckets are suggested.
You CAN use pool noodles, sliced lengthwise for a comfortable seat, OR you can just buy one. Emergency Zone Brand Honey Bucket Emergency Toilet Seat.
I think they even have them at Walmart.
Just like everything else, this is easy to set aside because you don’t need it right now. But when you do need it, suddenly it will be THE most important thing you WILL need. (Remember the toilet paper hoarding in 2020???) Just pick up a bucket at Lowes, get some bags at the store, and put it together later.
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES
Chili
I made chili for dinner last night. It was nothing special, believe me. BUT, I used dried beans (I don’t do that often). I had to be gone all day, so I boiled them for about 3-4 minutes in the morning, turned off the heat, and let them sit until I got home in the afternoon. I drained the water, and started with freshwater, and boiled them for about an hour, to really soften the beans. You are NOT supposed to add salt until they are ready. When they were done, I drained MOST of the water, added tomato soup, rehydrated chopped onions, a jar of canned hamburger, some chili powder, salt, and diced tomatoes. Everything was from my food storage. Coupled with Marie Callender’s cornbread (no time to make it from scratch!) and it was pretty good!
Beef Ragu With Garbanzo Beans
I shared this about 1 1/2 years ago, but I just made it for dinner the other night and really like it. I have everything on my shelf (including the hamburger), so it’s an opportunity to use my storage and rotate my food.
2 large carrots – chopped finely (I used carrots that I dehydrated last summer)
2 large celery stalk – chopped finely (yes, dehydrated celery that I did when it was on sale)
1 onion (yes, dehydrated onion, about 1 heaping TB)
From this point on, I halved the recipe because there are only two of us.
2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained (I used 1 jar, which is only 1 pound)
2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 14-oz cans beef broth (I use Knorr’s powdered beef bouillon and mix 1 tsp per cup of water)
1 15-oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
3 TB tomato paste (I usually save the rest of the can of tomato paste, then throw it away when it grows mold. LOL)
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1 tsp crushed red pepper (We are not spicy people over here, so IF I use this, I just add a small pinch or so)
Put it all in the crock pot.
Cook for 4-6 hours on high.
Add 2 lbs (1 pound for me) of Rigatoni, already cooked and drained. The last time I made this, I added more water and let the pasta cook IN the crockpot. I didn’t have time to monitor the pasta separately.
Serve with Parm cheese (I ALWAYS forget to do this, and it works anyway)
Chantel’s Peanut Butter Bars
Another cookie-sheet bar cookie. SO GOOD!
1 c. butter
1 c. peanut butter
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 c. flour
2 c. oats
1 package of chocolate chips or peanut butter chips
(Her kids prefer the pb chips. I have not tried the chocolate, because I like the pb chips too)
Press onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake 350˚ for 15 minutes.
When I made this last time, I added 1/4 c. flour because it felt “too” sticky.
Julie’s Cornbread
(Just so you know I “could” have made it by scratch if I’d really wanted. LOL)
2 sticks butter melted
1 1/3 c. sugar
4 eggs – Add and blend with a wooden spoon
2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Mix. Then add
2 c. cornmeal and
2 c. flour
Barely blend, and pour into a greased 13 X 9. Bake 375˚ for 30-40 minutes until the toothpick comes out clean.
Try cooking at least one thing this week from your food storage. If you can’t, then you know what you have to do!!!
Marti
U.S. railroads handle more than 300,000 containers and trailers per week right now. That’s a level much higher than anyone expected when the pandemic began and currently a higher volume than pre-pandemic weeks. It’s almost 16 million containers per year lumbering across the landscape in unceasing caravans. Trains are running continuously. While they only have a current average speed of just over 20 miles-per-hour, they aren’t stuck in traffic and are unceasingly moving to their inland destinations. They don’t have to stop for mandatory rest periods. Rail cars can be disconnected at larger warehouses or loaded for their final trucking of 100 feet, 100 miles, or 1,000 miles away. Meanwhile, the rest of the train continues, possibly picking up a few empty cars at each stop.
There is a shortage of chassis. The trucking trailers, known as chassis, and used to ferry containers from dockside terminals, have become difficult to find at the ports and rail yards. Typically, there are enough chassis in the finely-tuned supply chain to handle the thousands of containers moving through the system. Surging demand, heavy flows of containers through ports that began in the middle of 2020, and the labor shortages being experienced by warehouses, distribution centers, and other cargo handlers have resulted in chassis being at their endpoint destinations and unavailable at the needed ports and intermodal rail terminals. There are dedicated, company-owned chassis, and 1/4 to 1/3 are available for lease by independent truckers, and it is a fine-tuned and delicate system when working correctly. A lack of chassis means containers don’t either move to the intermodal railway system or off the system to their next destination.
This is where the second problem comes into play– drayage. There is a shortage of drayage. Drayage is the transport of goods over a short distance in the shipping and logistics industries. It is an essential service that involves shipping goods over a short distance between the long intermodal transport hauls. You can check out my other videos on the labor shortage and the trucking problem to better understand how this piece of it all isn’t fitting neatly into the supply-chain puzzle right now. I will link to that video at the end of this one. Normally, a trucker picks up a chassis at a site near the ports, drives to a terminal to have a container loaded, takes it to a warehouse within a 100-mile radius, and then returns to repeat the operation. The problem with this system right now is two-fold. First, the pay for this short mile drayage is low compared to the hassle and responsibility at an average of just $26 an hour; and many of these truckers don’t get paid for the time they are waiting on a load which can stretch out over several hours. Imagine having a chassis, waiting in line for 4-6 hours and not getting paid, finally getting a load for delivery to a warehouse or railyard just 50 miles away, then offloading or parking your chassis indefinitely. It’s a full day’s work, with traffic, and other hassles, for what might only amount to a few hours’ pay. Second, many warehouses are overwhelmed today, resulting in delays in unloading the container. The trucker often leaves the box atop the chassis for days longer than usual at a receiving facility. This locks up the chassis, and the trucker is not making any more money off the delivery of that load.
This is also the third major problem right now, intermodal congestion. At ports around the world, containers aren’t moving fast enough. These are the high-profile stories you see of container shifts stacked up and adrift off the coast. These are the long lines of trucks awaiting access to a port and a load to haul away. These are the warehouses reporting too few workers to meet demand. It is a system bogged down by congestion, low velocity, operational constraints, regulations, soaring prices and costs, and a shortage of equipment. The containers are slowed getting to the railways, or they are slowed after leaving the railways. Many port and shipping owners are realizing higher profits from demurrage and detention charges. This is, basically, renting space for parking containers or chassis.
It is also the fourth major problem– slow container returns. In the shipping process, once a delivery order has been issued for a container, and the customer has unpacked it, they are required to return the empty container to a depot nominated by the shipping line. Failure to return the empty container within the free time allowed for the customer and shipment may result in the client incurring demurrage or detention charges. That charge can eat into profits when it is an average of $75 per day. Still, that chassis is needed, and in short supply, so the container may be dumped somewhere. Some companies specialize in trying to street turn a chassis or container by rerouting it to another closer destination and shipper. However, to accurately meet rising consumer demand, that chassis needs to get back to the intermodal port or railway yard. That empty container needs to get from Kansas City or where its final destination was to Shanghai or some other sizable exporting city in the Pacific Area. It’s not very profitable to ship empty containers, and imports still far outweigh exports. So the container sometimes doesn’t make it back to the railway or the shipper’s point of origin. Some large exporting countries have recently spun up operations to build their own containers, solidifying the one-way trip for good. 
Some solutions can and are being implemented to confront diminished capacity in the face of rising demand. Still, the solutions require each segment along the way to do its critical piece of tightening up and appropriately expanding operations in the correct direction. Picture the railways from a physiological perspective. They are the arteries that carry vital blood and oxygen to the body that is the consumer. Consumer demand is exceedingly high right now. That’s like the body physically working out. But those arteries, the railways, aren’t very flexible right now and can’t expand to accommodate the higher blood volume. The capillaries– the drayage– that get the oxygen-rich blood cells to the end cells that require it need to increase capacity to accommodate the arteries. At the other end of the physiological network where the blood is produced, it’s being backed up and can’t get into the narrow arteries of the railways. So it pools. It pools up off the coasts and in the shipyards and parking lots, wherever it can accumulate. At the heart of it all are the workers. The heart is running at decreased capacity, so it can’t pump harder and faster to flood the arteries. The result of all this is that the body gets tired. Starved for oxygen, it yawns, but it can’t get up to speed to accommodate the exertion, and it’s bloated with undelivered blood.
Each piece needs to do a little. Railroads specifically need to increase storage capacity to offload intermodal containers. Many railroads operate via a system that simply passes containers through, but there now is a need to temporarily and intentionally hold a container until it can get a proper slot on a train. Recently, Union Pacific held thousands of containers on rail cars in Chicago. At the same time, ocean carriers dealt with equipment and workforce shortages and warehousing constraints that slowed their ability to outgate containers from the ramp. Railroads need to increase coordination and efficiencies across all rail systems and rail hubs. They need to direct traffic better and more efficiently. They need to press back into service decommissioned or previously deemed inefficient and idled locomotives. 
In some cases, they need to reopen previously closed intermodal terminals. Railroads need to partner better with ports and trucking to move containers more efficiently. They need to staff up and recall workers from furlough while enticing new workers.
There are several ways to “waterproof” matches. One way is to dip them in wax. I did this once. I wrapped about 10 matches with dental floss. After tying a knot, I held one end of the floss and dipped the matches in melted wax. I let them dry on some wax paper and dipped them several times. BUT, what I found was that if I put more than one into a baggie, and into my kit, when it got hot in the car, the wax tended to melt together and I got this BIG match waxy thing. LOL
Sometimes you only need some ration bars to get you through a short disaster. A high-calorie, nutrient-dense bar can provide you with sugars, proteins, and carbohydrates to keep you moving and keep you alive. The problem with many bars is that you don’t know what they are putting in them. The other problem is that they can focus on nutrition so much that they taste as good as wet cardboard. While having some granola bars in your inventory is great, when you make a batch of bars yourself, you will find that they taste better, and you know exactly what kind of nutrients and calories you are taking into your body. These are calorically-dense bars that will fuel you up through any disaster.
With that in mind, this is my latest calorically and nutrient-dense bar. It might not be the best, but it tastes good and has the calories you would need after a disaster to sustain you. Here we will make a calorically dense, nutritious emergency ration bar with a decent shelf-life. I will take it a step further in this video and take moisture readings from one I left out overnight, one that I dehydrated, and one that I freeze-dried. From this, we can try and determine shelf-life. There are many recipes online for emergency ration bars, and I have tried many. Let’s do this…
I like to dry toast the almonds slightly to coax out a nice flavor from them. To do this, put them in a non-stick pan, crank the heat and keep them moving in the pan with a spatula. When they start to brown, turn off the heat and put them on a plate or in a bowl to cool. If you leave them in the pan, they will burn and be bitter.
Essentially, all things have bacteria and yeast on them. These single-cell organisms are mostly cooked off your food and reduced in numbers by heating. Even transferring them after cooking, though, exposes them to yeast and bacteria. When it comes to food preservation, we reduce the numbers of these single-cell food consumers and create an environment where they can’t multiply. Still, that can of beans that has been pasteurized is suitable for a max of 5 years. After that, it could be poisonous or even swell up and explode. This is where moisture comes into play. For these single-cell food consumers to multiply, they need water to move around. 38% moisture is enough for them to move around. Zero to 7 percent moisture really isn’t. 
The bars I just baked had a moisture reading of around 45. That’s too much moisture, and it provides too much water for microbial growth, so the bars will eventually mold if they aren’t dried further. This mold can occur to the inside and may not be visible on the outside. That’s why these would have at best two weeks in a sealed container on the shelf. The dehydrator, after 8 hours, brought the moisture down to 38.5%, which is similar to commercial bread. So, like commercial bread, it will last that long on the shelf. For reference, jerky is 23% moisture, so I could probably leave these in the dehydrator for several days and get these down to below 10%, which would be suitable for a couple of months storage in a sealed, oxygen-deprived container. 
In this video, I’ll make and freeze-dry classic Chili Mac. To rehydrate, just add hot water, and you’re eating a home-cooked meal while the disaster rages outside. Throughout this series on the Harvest Right Freeze-Dryer, I’ll give you a few pro-tips based on lessons I have learned and one technical fact per video. So, you’ll want to watch the video all the way through to pick up all those tips and facts and avoid trial and error with your precious food resources. I will be freeze-drying a bunch to get my food supplies up to where I feel comfortable, and I am not afraid to share with you both my successes and my edible but not preservable failures. I hope to teach you a few things, learn a few things, and save you some money. 
batch, I’m going to cook in two onions. I’m going to add in one can of kidney beans and one can of pinto beans. Take note of all the labels as you add anything into your mix. You will be able to combine all the nutritional information with the nutritional values of non-labeled foods like the hamburger and derive your food’s total calories and nutritional value. When you package it, you can then also add a sticker with your nutritional value estimates. These two cans of beans are going to add 13 grams of protein and 16 grams of fiber.
some vitamins and minerals, particularly potassium and calcium. For flavor, I add some taco seasoning, cumin, and garlic. I will rehydrate this with the bean juice before adding it all into my cooking meat. I think this helps to pull the flavors out. Finally, I added a few freeze-dried jalapenos. I could powder these easily with my fingers because they are freeze-dried. I keep freeze-dried jalapenos in a jar in my pantry, so I always have fresh jalapenos when cooking.
carbs, protein, and nutrients, though, will keep a person going for quite a long time after a disaster. At the very least, when I am not in the mood to cook dinner for everyone, I have a meal I can have ready in 6 minutes. That’s awesome.
You can no longer purchase flour at Home Family Center. In fact, you cannot purchase online either because they are out. I don’t like to buy flour in the #10 cans anyway. I think it develops a “smell”. I just purchase flour when it goes on sale about this time of year and then vacuum seal it. Just last week, I bought it at Winco for $1.88. 
smells in the fridge to brushing your teeth!) 
Cooking at home without electricity offers many more options — and you should have SEVERAL options in your back pocket. But it wouldn’t hurt to have this small stove in your 72-hour kit, in the trunk of your car just in case.
Though many would turn their finger of blame on Biden, Merkel, Johnson, Macron, Putin, Jinping, Morrison, or insert the name of your leader here, the inflation crisis we are facing is much broader than one leader’s mismanagement. It’s much more significant than one country’s failings. It is far less contained and can’t be confined, this time, to one country’s or one region’s borders. Global inflation is so bad right now that many leading economists are revising their long-term projections and bracing for an extended, worldwide economic decline. It’s worse than expected and hasn’t yet been fully realized. Some economies around the world will likely fail as a result. In any massive economic shift, as we see here, there will be winners, and there will be losers.
Typically, to ease inflation, the Federal Reserve would simply raise rates to stave it off. Because the government has borrowed so much, increased debt, printed so much money, and kept rates forced low for so long, there isn’t anywhere they can turn. The toolbox of tools to control inflation is empty. If the Fed were to raise rates now in an already staggering economy struggling to get to its feet, bond prices, housing prices, stock markets would all falter, possibly even collapse. 
The shelter index indicates that we are about to see increases in rents and houses skyrocketing in price, especially in suburban and urban settings. But don’t think you can sell high and buy up cheap farmland because the cost of farmland is going up as the wealthy and corporations snatch it up as part of their portfolios. The current consumer faces poor job opportunities that require extensive experience or education while wages have been stagnant for over two decades. The everyday consumer faces ever-increasing healthcare costs and these higher rates of inflation. The cost of building a home has gone up considerably. For every six homes constructed right now, ten families are looking to buy a home. The shelter inflation rate in the US is up, and it’s up 26% in Canada. Housing in some major cities around the world will become out of reach for the average person. Corporations seeking to secure stable investments are in direct competition with consumers. At the current rate, investors will one day own most homes because land ownership remains the tool for the rich to stabilize their portfolios in turbulent markets. For more on that, see my video on why Bezos, Gates, and Turner are now farmers. I will link to that at the end of this video. 
Expect the number of people growing their own food, making their own alcohol, soap, cheese, and other items to increase. The demand for raw materials and equipment needed for these endeavors will also increase. We had a little glimpse of that when under lockdown, so many people explored canning for the first time. In the coming months and probably through next year, you will see the contents of your shopping cart getting less and less while the totals at checkout will stay the same or increase. Expect that the average consumer may not afford some staple items or processed foods that require labor, packaging, and distribution. Any shortages or price increases that lead to any panic buying of any kind will only fuel the fire further. It’s also worth noting that when food insecurity becomes an issue in a nation, that nation is setting itself up for failure as the common person will only endure a lack of food for only so long.
The cost of producing and delivering energy to you will continue to rise. Heating and cooling your home will cost more. Trying to go solar will cost more. Even buying gasoline will cost more. The only solution is to try and consume less. While corporations struggle to maintain profits, they will often declare their energy consumption emergencies to justify it. All those alleged peak hours do, however, is allow them to make up profits by quadrupling rates. The prices for energy-intensive metals like nickel, steel, silicone are all skyrocketing. Synthetic fertilizer, mostly made from natural gas, has blasted up 300%, and that only further feeds the food price increases. Only some form of government intervention that mandates large-scale power cuts and rationing to specific sectors can curb current consumer demand and temper gas prices. Still, in a climate where distrust of government is at an all-time high, that’s not likely to happen.
There isn’t much you can do not to feel the impact of rising costs on everything, everywhere. Unless you are completely off-grid and self-sufficient, you will feel the effects. If you are prepping, you will be able to lessen the impact of global inflation. When you build a shelf-stable supply of food for a disaster, you are also providing yourself a means to make it through a period of high inflation. Prepping lessens the impact of global inflation in all aspects of your life. Turn to the basics of food, water, shelter, and energy. Make the changes now, out of choice, rather than when the herd makes the same choices out of necessity and drives up costs further as a result.
The sunflower should be the symbol of preppers and survivors, and it’s the unsung hero that every prepper should grow, know how to recognize in the wild, and use. Helianthus comprises about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae. Except for three South American species, the species of Helianthus are native to North America and Central America, but they now grow around the world.
fiber, carbohydrates, 2%, and protein in an emergency situation. 99% of people might stop to pick the flower, but they would never think to eat the tuber below. They would be missing out on some critical vitamins too. One cup has 10% Vitamin C, 28% Iron, 5% Vitamin B6, 6% Magnesium, 2% of your recommended daily allowance of Calcium, and a whopping 644 milligrams of potassium. It’s a survival superfood if you know how to prepare it.
For this batch, I use a simple vegetable peeler. This isn’t necessary, but it will give the final meal a better appearance. It peels easily and, again, looks similar to a potato. Once I have a bowl full, I simply slice them into quarter-inch pieces that resemble sliced water chestnuts. To this, I will add some tomatoes from my garden. I also add in a small sweet pepper and a few cloves of garlic. A healthy handful of basil, flowers, and all will impart a good flavor. Finally, I added a can of diced tomatoes.
similar to artichoke hearts.
To dry them, I could use a simple dehydrator, but I have a freeze dryer, and I think that will give me a more refined flour that will require less post-drying processing to get a workable flour. I have a medium Harvest Right freeze dryer. These are not cheap, but if you plan on stocking in your prepper pantry shelf-stable foods for up to 25 years or more, a Harvest Right freeze dryer will pay for itself many times over.
sublimates. That’s a fancy word for the ice passing directly from a solid to a gas. It skips the liquid phase and forms as ice on the walls of the freeze-dryer. The result is a food that is reduced to 1-5% residual moisture. Bacteria and yeast can’t live in that environment. Normally, a slow freezing process causes sharp ice crystals to pierce cell walls. This is why you can end up with mushy food. Flash freezing the food and then freeze-drying maintains the cell walls, thereby preserving the texture and mouthfeel of your food.
Work it together into a ball, wrap the ball in a baggie, and refrigerate for at least an hour. Then roll it out to about 1/8 of an inch, slice into your pan shape and start layering. To make this into lasagna, I will put a layer down in an oiled olive pan, then alternate layers with meat and sauce, mozzarella and herbs, until I run out of noodles. The order doesn’t matter, and there are a thousand different ways to make lasagna. I am only making this to see if there is a taste difference in the fortified noodle layer I am creating. The meat I am using is just hamburger seasoned with some Italian herbs, onion, and garlic, and the sauce is just some jarred sauce.
nutritional value of the food.
Hi Everyone,
needed calories in an emergency. 
You can get individual packets of hand wipes and keep several in each 72-hour kit. OR you can pick up an extra box of “wipes” and keep them in the car. You’ll be amazed how often this will come in handy. I got something like this: 
Eighty million Americans have grilled out in the past year, and 75% of Americans own a grill or smoker. 
We recently demonstrated how to build a Dakota Firepit, and after a disaster, an open fire might be an option. Do realize, though, that cooking on a fire pit can be a challenge if you lack a grill for the top of it or don’t know how to create a spit for it. You can use cast iron cookware like a Dutch Oven on a bed of coals to reduce your smoke and fire profile, but open fires present some operational security challenges. In addition to those challenges, open fires require large quantities of combustible resources, even when contained in a Dakota Firepit. Dry wood may be in short supply, and the weather might not permit you to be outside with a fire. An open fire is the least efficient. A hobo grill fashioned from a 55-gallon drum is more efficient, will smoke less, and radiate heat more efficiently. 
These options are portable, self-contained stove systems that can burn biomass. Some provide a cooking surface, and some would benefit from a tripod hanger. Make the supported weight and the cookware you plan to use a deciding factor in purchasing any Solo Stove, Tripod, or self-contained, portable cooking system. With these methods, you gain a lot in portability. This will allow you to maintain a small footprint wherever you are. They will require less biomass to keep the heat you need, and they can easily be repacked and taken with you if you need to move to another location.
This is another contained flame system that can be used after a disaster with multiple varied fuel sources. It can be moved to safer locations and used on a deck or in the wild at a makeshift and temporary campsite, unlike grills and fire pits. You can feed the fire any type of biomass from paper to sticks to pieces of mulch, and you will obtain a fire hot enough to boil water or cook food. Having some kind of cast iron pan or pot will be of great value to you with this method, as much cookware is not made to sustain the high temperatures of an open flame. Because the light and smoke of the fire are better contained than in an open fire, your operational security with something like a Minuteman K Rocket Stove is better. The more efficient fire results in less smoke. 
When it comes to lightweight, the Kelly Kettle is a leading rocket stove. We have an extensive review of this one because it is so lightweight and versatile that it can solve several post-disaster problems for you. 
Portable folding camp stoves and butane camp stoves are effective, assuming you have a supply of fuel sources in your inventory, and you should if this is a route you’re planning on taking. The advantage to these cooking sources is that the fuel source burns clean. Because of this, you can cook in your garage or on your kitchen countertop. You won’t be able to throw just any biomass material in there like you can with the previously mentioned methods, but you’ll have a more contained and controllable fire with this method. Sometimes, you will just want a fuel source you can light even in the worst of conditions–one that you can rely upon to boil water or cook small meals. If that’s the case, these camp stoves are ideal. Be warned that these clean burning fuels often have a flame you cannot see. They are burning hot– really hot– but the denatured fuel sometimes results in the lack of a visual flame.
Though I have kind of already addressed these with the liquid fuel stoves w ejust mentioned, we have to put something like the Portable Mini Alcohol Stove Single Burner Camping Stove with Aluminium Stand in its own category. It is the other fuel stoves refined and distilled into a lightweight, miniature unit that can burn multiple liquid fuel sources. Just remember that because the fuel source burns so clean and hot, it may be burning though you don’t see it. That can be as dangerous, as it is efficient and better for your OPSEC. Here I have it burning with isopropyl alcohol, but you could easily use any 60 proof or higher alcohol. 
More in the cookware category because it doesn’t come with its own initial heat source is the Can Cooker. 
The Dutch Oven also fits into this cookware category because it doesn’t have its own heat source. Typically made out of cast iron, it will require more initial heat to get going, but it will stay hotter on its own longer than the Can Cooker will. This is one you can put over the fire, in the fire, or simply stack coals on it or around it. You can bake, stew, fry, or roast an entire hunk of meat with potatoes and vegetables. 
A thermal cooker works similarly to the Can Cooker we already mentioned. We say “similarly” because they are made not to require continual heat sources to do their job. They work on the principle of not letting the initial cooking heat out. There are two types we have used for this purpose. The first one is the Wonderbag. It is a heavily insulated cloth bag. All you need to do to cook your food is to bring your pot to a boil allowing the food to be heated all the way through. Then, you place a trivet or flat rock in the bag, put your pot on that, cover it with the insulative top cushion, draw the strings of the bag up around it, and then wait. The Wonderbag keeps the heat from escaping and keeps it concentrated in your food. The low, slow heat will keep the foods cooking, whether a stew, roast, hard beans, or pasta.
Because gas and solar generators have become an affordable emergency option for many, we have to include hot plates and beverage heaters in a post-disaster emergency cooking scenario. Sometimes all you need to survive is heated water. For that purpose, we have a heater coil. These get super-hot but draw only 12 Volt/10 amps/120 Watts. Because of this, you can run them off your car battery or generator with a minimal draw. 
No power, no problem, so long as the sun is shining. Solar cookers are an efficient way to cook after a disaster. If you have ever led a Cub Scout activity building a solar cooker, you will know that you can’t just easily throw one together after a disaster. The parabolic focusing of lightwaves is a science, and cooking with one of these is challenging. If the sun isn’t shining or you can’t remain stationary for an extended period of time, you might not be able to get enough heat for long enough to cook effectively.