# How will you bake?



## MountAiry (May 30, 2007)

Ok, so letâs say you have no power and your stove isnât a gas or propane stove. Letâs say your home isnât set up for solar power. How will you bake (or can you) using another method? Iâve been looking into this a bit and am curious what others will do. I havenât decided the best alternative yet because I honestly am not sure what the best alternatives are yet.
We have a Colemanâs stove which just has two burners and of course a fireplace, a grill and my husband can light a fire about anywhere. But I am not set up for baking. Well, at least I donât think I am. Can one bake in the fireplace? And if so, do yall have some resources I can look at on the Internet?
Of course, since I learn well visually, pictures are great, if they are not too much trouble or anyone cares to share. I will be content with any thoughts on the subject though.


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## tweety (Oct 14, 2005)

Look for a Dutch oven. It is a cast iron pot with a lid that holds hot coals. Pioneers used it and campers still do. You set it on a bed of coals and put coals on the lid, it can bake a cake as nice as you please in about 20-30 minutes.


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## Cheryl in SD (Apr 22, 2005)

Solar ovens aren't that hard to make. A microwave you won't be needing would work great.  They can cookon nice days. We also have a woodstove and are working on getting a wood cookstove.


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## booklover (Jan 22, 2007)

I am learning how to use my dutch oven outside in our firepit. Once I know that I can do this well, I'll invest in more dutch ovens of different sizes.


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## kitaye (Sep 19, 2005)

Cast iron dutch oven can be used on top ofthe wood stove for flat breads(cornbread) or in a firepit/fireplace for regular oven type breads and foods.

Solar oven can be built out of wood, insulation, and a glass lid. Several people have them and like to bake in them.

You could also build a wood fire adobe style oven. Takes some time and practice but the reported results are quite good.


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## lgslgs (May 30, 2005)

We'd probably steam. Wood burning grill, pot of boiling water, raised rack and steam on that.

We'd go with stuff like steamed buns and grain puddings.


We'd also do grilled flatbreads. We had the power out for three days last winter and those were great. Doesn't matter if it's too cold for the sourdough to do much rising!

Lynda


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## QuiltingLady2 (Jan 3, 2007)

Well, we have propane heat and a fast connect for our BBQ grill on the back porch. So, we'll grill. We also have dutch ovens .... and we know how to use them.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

DS is making me a oven box that will set on top a wood stove. I also have the stuff to make a solar oven, haven't gotten around to making it, but I need to so I can practice cooking in it. I have a few thousand antique red bricks out back. If we had to, we could probably build some kind of outside oven with them. I have a cast iron dutch oven and a bar-b-q grill. Finding a way to bake would be a bit harder than grilling, but we'd be able to put together something and make it work.


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## cheapskate (May 9, 2006)

Here is a good thread from the past. It deals with what you're asking about.

http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=130637


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## pixelphotograph (Apr 8, 2007)

google solar ovens


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## Herb (Jun 25, 2006)

It won't do a turkey, but it will bake.


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## MountAiry (May 30, 2007)

Oh thanks all! Lots of good information and I promise I will be checking them all out and it will help me make some good informative decisions. Thank you!


Oh and loved the pictures Herb!


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Wow, Herb - that looks good enough to eat.

And I wouldn't have thought to put the camp oven on the karosene heater like that.

Angie


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## Wizard (May 29, 2007)

Just a reminder about cast iron dutch ovens, there are several types - flat bottom and legged ones. For camp fires, fireplaces and such you want ones with legs and flat lids. For wood stoves flat bottom with domed lids is great. 

You can also bake on the top of a wood burning stove using a steel trivet with a cakepan and larger pan that will fit over it upside down.


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## FourDeuce (Jun 27, 2002)

You can bake in any large pot. As long as you have a lid for it, it can be used as an oven. I bake biscuits over a campfire often using a large aluminum pot and some pie plates. I also have some wire racks that I've started using in the pot, so I can do two pans of biscuits at one time(a whole can of biscuits).


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## mj1angier (Jan 3, 2006)

Being raised in the south, our main bread is hushpuppies and fried corn bread. But I also have a dutch oven that cook breads good.


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## Guest (Jun 19, 2007)

An oven is nothing more than a box to contain heat long enough to cook the food contained within.

It may have its own heat source or it may not.

But a box is all that it is.

Keep that in mind and you'll eventually realize you are surrounded by different ways of baking things.

The easiest is the old Boy & Girl Scout box ovens which are nothing more than cardboard boxes placed over a small pile of glowing wood coals. In a pinch you need not even line the box with foil, though doing so increases the efficiency.

Or you can use a metal can, such as a metal trash can (clean, of course) over the pile of coals.

Dutch Ovens have been around forever and there are folding camp ovens. Reflector ovens work too and many will fold flat.

Do some Googling on "camp cooking" and you'll come across site after site of this sort of thing.

Once you get the hang of it you'll be able to bake anything out in your yard that you can bake in your home oven.

.....Alan.


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## Sherri C (Jun 21, 2002)

If you scroll to the bottom of this page you'll find instruction on how to make and cook with an apple box reflector oven.
apple box oven


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

"Or you can use a metal can, such as a metal trash can (clean, of course) over the pile of coals."

"Heating galvanized metal gives off poisonous fumes
Heating Galvanized Metal:
Be very careful of heating galvanized products. Burned zinc gives a toxic vapor that can make you VERY ill (even in a well vented shop). Before I knew of it I gave my self zinc fever (a form of heavy metal poisoning). It feels kind of like a bad flu. The effects are cumulative and once you have had it, if you are exposed YOU WILL GET IT AGAIN and a worse case. Welding galvanized metal and in some cases over heating brass along with brass grinding/sanding dust can also poison you."

http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tutor/safety3/index.htm


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## Guest (Jun 19, 2007)

If you got the zinc hot enough to give off vapors like that you've probably burned up whatever you are baking.

We're not talking about high temperatures here. The pan of coals or pile of coals in a hole in the ground should be in the center, not in contact with the metal, and under the food. Get that metal hot enough to outgas the zinc and the food will be in flames.

.....Alan.


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## MountAiry (May 30, 2007)

Just purchased my first Dutch oven (the kind with the little legs). 
Oh happy day! 

It's a good start!

:dance: 

Also found a site with some camp recipes in case yall wanted to check it out.
http://www.scoutorama.com/recipe/


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## kitaye (Sep 19, 2005)

Herb, that would be perfect on top of my wood stove. Does it come in any other size?


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## Herb (Jun 25, 2006)

kitaye said:


> Herb, that would be perfect on top of my wood stove. Does it come in any other size?


I am not sure. It is a folding camping oven that Coleman markets. I bought it at Walmart in the clearance aisle.


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## longshot38 (Dec 19, 2006)

well if you light a fire in the yard, and get the ground good and hot then scrape off the coals. put your metal bread pan on the ground in the middle of the hot spot and put a matal large pan over your bread pan. use a shovel to put the coals back around the large pan and a some on the top of the pan you should have a loaf of bread in about 20 to 30 minutes. i haven't done this yet but my instructors in field craft school in the Canadian Forces tell me that this does work but its not like baking in a proper oven.

hope this helps

dean


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## FourDeuce (Jun 27, 2002)

If you have a large pot at home(stock pot or cast iron dutch oven) you can use it to bake biscuits or anything small enough to fit inside it and leave some air space around it. If you want to practice doing it on your stove you can try it there by just setting the large pot on top of the stove burner and using that as your heat source(that would be even easier than a campfire, since it's easier to regulate the heat). To bake biscuits, you just flip a pie plate upside down and put it inside the large pot and use it as a spacer to keep your biscuits off the bottom so they don't burn.
If the power was out and your stove wasn't working, you'd set the pot on a campfire outside. :dance:


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## grams (Sep 10, 2004)

A toolbox.
Tom brought home a big job box that was being thrown away, did some modifications and made it into a smoker. But I use it to bake bread in also.
Yep, we are real hillbillys.


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2007)

FourDeuce said:


> If you have a large pot at home(stock pot or cast iron dutch oven) you can use it to bake biscuits or anything small enough to fit inside it and leave some air space around it. If you want to practice doing it on your stove you can try it there by just setting the large pot on top of the stove burner and using that as your heat source(that would be even easier than a campfire, since it's easier to regulate the heat). To bake biscuits, you just flip a pie plate upside down and put it inside the large pot and use it as a spacer to keep your biscuits off the bottom so they don't burn.
> If the power was out and your stove wasn't working, you'd set the pot on a campfire outside. :dance:


 I use a cast iron trivet with the little rubber caps on the feet removed to do just this. Works well in a Dutch Oven too. I've baked a couple of pineapple upside down cakes this way with the can pan on top of the trivet.

.....Alan.


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## FourDeuce (Jun 27, 2002)

We just did a pineapple upside down cake(in a Dutch Oven) at our last campout in Missouri. We baked it on a campfire. It turned out ok, considering it was our first try at anything other than biscuits. :dance:


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

We have a wood cook stove with oven and warming ovens.


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## Blu3duk (Jun 2, 2002)

Back in the day [only folk over 40 can say that according to Mojo Nixon] i remember cooking cakes on the campfire using a brown paper lunch bag sitting it over the coals sometimes on rocks, or on a wire rack to keep it from tipping to far.... the moisture in the cake mix keeps the bag from burning.

"Doughboys" are biscuits wrapped around a nice green stick and twirled over the coals to roast them to a nice golden brown, makes the cooking chore go to everyone who actually wants one to eat as they are individually cooked.

I use the dutch oven my grandparents used to cook in back in the 1940's right in my electric oven, my wife loves it, a whole baked chicken, with taters and gravy and carrots and oinion..... guess whats fer dinner now.... or ribs, with BBQ sauce [though i dont like putting tomatoes in the cast iron all that much i will allow itonce in awhile] and onion, and carrots... then put chicken parts in the sauce the next day after the fat is skimmed off.. or just a plain ole beef roast with taters and gravy and onions and celery.... the heavy lid acts similar to a pressure cooker just not as much pressure so the food bakes a wee bit faster in the lectric oven some times.... over the fire outside most recipes are about the same cooking times....

Solar ovens are very simple to build, many varieties on the net concerning the building and cooking with one..... cooking times vary by the design and type of sun you get..... but is doable in the middle of winter on a cloudy day if you know just what type to build [foil lined 10 foot satellite dish with directed focal point at a shelf] an old tv screen can be cut out and lined with foil to make a parabolic reflector with the tfocused temperature being enough to boil water in a 55 gallon drum in minutes, and melt a hole thru that metal drum when empty [years ago before i had digital camera, or the thought of telling anyone about such a contraption... but it as it purposes for baking large objects, like an entire elephant should one happen by without having anywhere to freeze the steaks]

The box in Herbs picture looks like a coleman oven, used to be under $50 shipped by many camp supply stores but the price varies now, try Campmor they have them for $35 plus shipping, [cookware link, the outdoor ovens]... I just noticed they have aluminum dutch ovens... not something i would ever purchase, dont care for aluminum anything.

Being creative, i know several floks who bought the oval above ground fuel tanks and converted them into huge BBQ type firepits on legs, large grates, lots of room for cooking for a large crowd, room left over to bake on the grill too, or smoke something with green wood chips.... re-inventing the wheel was the hard thing, re-inventing an oven is easy.... steel drums, and old toolbox [mentioned above] the back window inside a car parked towrds the sun... you dont have to be a ******* to cook like one..... nor do ya have to "*go back to your doublewide to fry sumthin!!!"*

In the ducth oven on top the stove we make fry bread, bread doll in small flats, dropped into VERY HOT oil for a couple minutes gives a great variance to the regular fare too instead of "baking" and we use the round flat cast iron griddle for tortilla making once in a "blue corn" moon, not just flap jacks.... we use the larger oblong griddle over the camp fire for frying batter breads too, as well as the steak, eggs, and taters [though we use foil and toss em in the coals after cutting them up and adding onion, carrots, celery and burger, making an awesome "baked" meal and about the only thing i use foil for [a person could use parchment paper even inside the foil if they wanted to].... ad that of course brings us full circle back to using paper to bake in..... muffin tins and paper cups over the fire also work with batter breads and the griddle makes a more even heated surface, to get them brown on top though it requires something to reflecte a little heat or bring out the propane torch.... or the welding torch if the mood strikes!

William
Central idaho republic


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2008)

Bump.

.....Alan.


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## edcopp (Oct 9, 2004)

Herb said:


> It won't do a turkey, but it will bake.


Great looking sandwich.


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## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

I'm planning to build a cob oven eventually.


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## Sharon (May 11, 2002)

I have a wood cook stove now, but before we had it we had a power outage for over a week and all of the food in our deep freeze thawed. I had a frozen cherry pie in there, so I put it into a cast iron skillet with a cast iron lid on top and sat it on top of our regular wood stove. It made a perfectly cooked pie. It was delicious!


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

The answer to your question was in your question... if the power goes out and you don't have a gas or propane stove.... 

Get yourself a gas or propane stove NOW...

otherwise, agree with the others... dutch oven on a camp fire, coleman stove, any heat source.

People (including my silly sisters) that have all electric homes are SOL when they're only power source goes out. If they had a dual system of electrics for lights and gas for cooker/heating, they'd not nearly die every time the electric grid is down.

I've got a gas stove currently. When the gas goes off, I go over to the compressor/wellhead and turn some valves, walk back the third of a mile to the house and it's 'back on'. In the new home, I'll have gas (you couldn't give me the finest Wolf or Viking stove, if it had to be electric)range and oven, and planning on a small woodburning stove homemade, set in stone... and if I can figure out the logistics, a smallish fireplace to bake bread in.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

bump - cause this thread has solar ovens talked about, a way to cook without using other sources...

Angie


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I've got a cast iron dutch oven with the little legs to sit in the coals. But if worse came to worse, I'd do pan bread. You can make baking powder biscuits and cornbread in a frying pan.


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## pickapeppa (Jan 1, 2005)

In the fireplace in winter, and over the fire pit in the summer. We also have a wood burning stove, barrel burner, weber grill, and smoker in storage. Any of those could be used with wood or charcoal.

My folks cook everything on their grill in the summertime.

Cast iron is very versatile and long lasting.


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## pickapeppa (Jan 1, 2005)

Mom_of_Four said:


> I've got a cast iron dutch oven with the little legs to sit in the coals. But if worse came to worse, I'd do pan bread. You can make baking powder biscuits and cornbread in a frying pan.


And pizza. :goodjob:


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## LvDemWings (Sep 11, 2005)

If your relying on baking in a newer gas oven you had best unplug it and see if you can get it to light. Most gas ovens now have a electronic gizmo that allows the gas to flow and an ignitor. My stove works when the power is off but the oven won't. The next time you go to purchase a stove ask for one that can be lit manually.


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## Andy Nonymous (Aug 20, 2005)

I'd bake the same way I have for the past several years: in the wood fired kitchen range that heats my water, heats my house, and cooks my meals. If that failed for some reason, as others have pointed out, there are plenty of other options.


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## Henry (Mar 1, 2006)

We have wood cook stove inside and one out in the summer kitchen. I am of the opinion that one should get a system that will operate indefinitely. All the other fuels besides solar for those warm climate folks is a mistake in allocation of resources. Of course if you have your own gas well and it has a lot of life left then your laughing.
The good thing about wood is there are so many tried and true units on the market that will heat, cook and heat your water.
If you get a wood cook stove and a hand pump for your well then you are laughing. Next you need underground storage for your preps and you are set. We lived for years with no refrigeration or power of any kind and so know its very doable. Of course living in the north country we do have different conditions than most.


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

LvDemWings said:


> If your relying on baking in a newer gas oven you had best unplug it and see if you can get it to light. Most gas ovens now have a electronic gizmo that allows the gas to flow and an ignitor. My stove works when the power is off but the oven won't. The next time you go to purchase a stove ask for one that can be lit manually.


That's exactly why when we recently got a new stove, we ordered one with standing pilots only. No electricity needed for anything.

They are still out there, but most stores don't stock them. You'll probably have to order it.


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## Guest (May 4, 2008)

I have a flat bottomed cast iron dutch oven, but just about anything that can be closed up and holds heat will work.

I've gotten by without an oven before, and still managed to make a variety of "baked" goods.


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## Ohio Rusty (Jan 18, 2008)

I constantly preach 'reduncancy' in your survival plan. If you only have one way to do something and that fails ..... you are then out of luck. You must have multiple ways to do the same thing, whether it is lighting, cooking, etc. 
If you are completely, 100% dependent on matches for starting a fire, and your matches get soaking wet, you then either starve or freeze to death in winter as you can't make fire in either situation. 
For cooking, I have the camping stove that uses the small green propane bottles, I also have one of those portable chef's stoves that uses the canned propane fuel cans (BOB stove), I have a fire pit out back we cook over all summer and we have a Weber BBQ charcoal grill. The grill isn't dependent on propane, and we've built fires in it from scrap firewood and cooked pizza's in the grill !! I also have 2 sterno stoves with 2 dozen cans of sterno for portable cooking. Without electric for the stove or microwave, I have 5 additional ways to cook meals or make coffee-tea/boil water. If one or even two of them fail ...no biggie deal, as I have incorporated redundancy into my cooking systems. I've done the same with my water storage, my lighting if there is no power, my ability to make fire and my tools for hunting and gathering food. 
I use these different systems during the year to practice using them in all and every condition. I want my systems to be 100% workable in any survival or disaster condition.
Ohio Rusty ><>


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## ai731 (Sep 11, 2007)

I'm getting a solar oven. Not only for power outages, but so that I don't have to run the electric oven (or the woodstove, when we get one) in the middle of summer. It'll save money on the electric bill, too.


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## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

We have an 80-90 year old Boss stove top oven that my wife uses as decor in our living room to hold some of my VHS tapes. Put that on a Coleman stove and we're baking. The Coleman cooking stoves I found a rummage sales for under $5.00.


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## DoubleD (Jan 28, 2007)

Dutch Oven cooking for "baking" but truthfully in that kind of circumstance I would switch to mostly home made pastas (cooked in boiling water), cooked grains, and fry breads - such as tortillas, pancakes, and other flat breads.


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

Dutch oven, like everyone else says, but in truth, I have a propane stove and made sure that I can light it with a match if there isn't power. Also, several years ago we added a second propane tank and never have fewer than one full at any time. Usually both are full.

Prior planning! Some day I want a summer kitchen with a real wood stove!


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