Cooking A Survival Skill
Is Cooking a Survival Skill?
Yes… No … Maybe… Hmm, I should probably clarify. Yes… You should know how to degut and clean fish, dress game, forage and cook food to make it safe for consumption. No… You do not need to be a chef preparing mouth-watering meals in the wild outdoors. So yes, cooking is a survival skill, in fact, it is a life skill everyone should have.
Maybe… A nice hot meal at the end of a stressful day of surviving, would improve your morale and make you feel better. But it is not essential to your survival that it tastes like a 5-star restaurant meal.
cooking Is a survival skill, That everyone should Know
I might be taking some things for granted, but I have a feeling most people would be able to cook a basic meal, be it on a gas burner, charcoal stove, or campfire. If not… Well read on and at the very least, you will get an idea of what kind of cooking systems are out there and what your options are.
Of course, there is always the option of cooking over an open campfire. But things like hobo stoves, bushcraft stoves, and the like, make cooking a meal outdoors easier.
What is the Best Survival Cooking Method?
In a survival scenario, we assume that the power and gas will most probably be unavailable. With that in mind, the most likely cooking method would be using biomass as a source of fuel, wood, coal, biomass briquettes, etc.
Whatever combustible material you may be burning, most likely you will be using a fire to cook… Not that it is your only option… But it is the most likely method you will be using.
That said, cooking over a fire isn’t that difficult. Although I would recommend that you practice at least a few times so that you get the hang of it. For those of you who are avid campers, hikers, and bushcrafters. I am confident that you know the basics.
For those of you who have never cooked over an open fire, here are a couple of tips.
1. Wind is not your friend. Try to start your fire out of the wind, or build a makeshift windshield. Basics of Outdoor fires.
2. It’s easier to cook over coals than it is to cook over a roaring fire (unless you are making a stew or soup and even then coals make for a better meal).
3. never leave your food or fire unattended (basic open fire safety rule).
4. Always have a way to put the fire out quickly, have water, sand, or soil beside the fire before you light it.
5. Make sure you have correctly prepared your fire, and are in a good location (look up how to start a fire and where).
6. Practice your outdoor cooking skills in a safe location before relying on them in a survival situation. You can practice in your backyard, using a BBQ stove, in a campground with a prebuild firepit, etc.
7. Have some cooking gear with you, cooking gear can be fabricated in the outdoors, but that isn’t optimal, and modern camping cookware is light, durable, and will make your life a lot easier.
8. Most foods that have been foraged, trapped, hunted, fished, or scavenged during a survival situation are best prepared in a soup or stew. After the rations in your bugout bag are gone, chances are your diet will get… Interesting (for a Westerner). Expect to feast on a diet of roots, fruits, insects, birds, lizards, grubs and frogs. In many countries these aren’t exotic foods, they are just lunch.
Movies and survival shows have dramatized the consumption of what is a normal diet in many parts of the world. I have eaten fried Cricket, Ant porridge, Frogs, Lizard, Bats, etc… For the locals who prepared these meals for me, it wasn’t exotic or unusual. It was a common everyday meal.
8 Best Survival Cooking Gear
1. Bushcraft stove folds flat, and works great with twigs and wood, you can also use fuel tablets or candles.
Assembly is required, depending on the brand, some of them are more fiddly to assemble than others. The best model I have tested so far is the “Bushcraft Essential“.
2. Hobo stove (homemade), cheap, fun to DIY, proven efficient by hobos for years, bulky to carry.
3. Butane/propane mini stoves, are great for places where there is no dry wood to scavenge, where fires are illegal, or in environments where a wood fire is impractical. The disadvantage is that you need propane tanks, and while the tanks are not heavy, they are bulky and space is always an issue.
4. Esbit/ Coghlan’s folding stove, works with fuel tablets, is lightweight, reasonably priced, and convenient, but too small for serious cooking, they are primarily designed to make a hot drink or reheat food (not cook it).
5. Solo Stove bonfire, great stove if the supply of combustibles is low, this stove uses minimal biomass to cook with. As you can see its biggest disadvantage is that it doesn’t pack flat and is expensive.
6. Unigear Wood Burning stove, accepts multiple fuel sources, wood, fuel tablets, spirit burners, candles, charcoal, etc. But be aware, it is relatively heavy. So not an option for people looking for ultra-light gear.
7. MSR WhisperLite, is great for camping, in places where wood or biomass is scarce, or where camp fires are illegal, propane needs to be carried, short term use only.
8. Etekcity Ultralight Camp Stove, danged cheap, lightweight, unreliable in windy weather, propane needs to be carried.
If you can afford it and have the space in your Bugout Bag, carry a couple of these with you, I would recommend, numbers 1, 4, and 7.
The Best Survival Stove, Wood Burning VS Propane Stoves
Biomass-burning stoves are at the top of the list for a survival stove, for the simple reason that finding something to burn be it in an urban environment or the wilds, finding something to burn is usually not that hard. So Bushcraft stoves, Rocket stoves, Hobo stoves, etc.
Fuel tablet stoves make a good backup for those days or times when gathering combustibles is not viable.
Compact Propane stoves, the stoves might be compact, but the propane is always going to be a problem, it is bulky and often the stove users don’t realize the risk that the propane tank can overheat under certain conditions. Stoves like the Etekcity that connect directly to the tank should not be used with a windshield or in unventilated areas.
Stoves like the MSR are safer but the tanks can also overheat. If using the windshield, place the tank on the outside of the windshield.
Delicious Survival Meals That Will Make Your Mouth Water.
There is no such thing. There are palatable meals that are edible, meals that are not terrible, and meals that will fill you up.
Do not be fooled by the posts on social media, showing delicious meals that look like something you would get in a fancy restaurant. Thick steaks, fresh vegetables, melted cheese, mayo, ketchup, spices, and herbs are all prepared over a fire. Ridiculous. In a survival situation, a good hot meal is great. And that’s as much as we can expect.
Those are glamping posts, carefully staged to get likes and views. It is not in any way representative of life outdoors, and definitely not of a survival meal.
In a long-term survival situation, if you have a base camp, a cabin in the woods, an off-grid location, etc, you might have the resources to prepare a delicious meal.
But that would technically be considered homesteading or off-the-grid living, hardly an on-the-move survival scenario.
Everyone should learn primitive cooking as a survival skill. That means cooking outdoors over a fire with a minimum of gear. This can be practiced in the comfort of your own backyard.
