Grid Down Cooking
How do I plan to cook in a grid down or post SHTF situation? I plan to use propane for as long as I can, now that I have ideas, to simplify grid down cooking.
Simplify Grid Down Cooking
We’ve all been through storms that have knocked the power out. If you have a gas or propane stove in your kitchen that’s usually not a problem, but if you have an electric stove, it’s time to head outside and light the gas grill.
My previous 2 burner, gas grill was over 10 years old and didn’t have any fancy features. I could grill with it, and that was all. I’m not complaining, as limited as it was, it came in very handy, when the power was out!
When it came time to buy a new gas grill, I really wanted to get the right one. I put on my prepper thinking cap, as well as my “dad’s backyard cookout” thinking cap and starting trying to decide if there were any features, that I “needed”, on the new grill.
My features ended up being pretty simple, I wanted a larger cook space and a gas stove top burner. I’m fairly confident that I was the last person in the world, who had a grill, with no stove top burner on it!
The new grill with stove burner
It’s amazing how just adding a stove top burner transforms my grill into a full blown cooking kitchen. Now I can boil, saute, blanch and fry on my grill.
The powers out and I want fried eggs… BAM, fried eggs!
It’s nice to have options when it comes time to cook.
I also opted to purchase a second propane tank, so I’d always have a full tank on standby. This will buy me some time, and will come in really handy, when my first tank runs dry, 1/2-way through cooking something.
Yes, this was a big enough issue for me, that I had to purchase a 2nd propane tank. It’s embarrassing to tell my wife that dinner is sitting on the grill and will be another hour, because I have to take the propane tank to get filled.
While I was on the propane thought-train, I decided to pick up a few other propane related accessories to keep my preps and camping gear up to date.
I have a Coleman Fold N Go Instastart Grill, a Coleman Two-Burner Propane Stove, and a Coleman 2-Burner Fold ‘N Go InstaStart Stove so I really wanted to get theOne Pound Tank Refill Adapter to allow me to refill those tiny 16oz propane tanks from my larger 20lb tanks.
No longer will I have to run out and purchase 16oz propane tanks, before I head out to the woods. I can always refill my tiny tanks, so they are staged and ready for deployment, at a moments notice. Bugging out will be so much simpler now, since I won’t have to stand in line at Wal-Mart, during a SHTF situation…. just for propane.
I would like to mention that there were some great tips in some of the Amazon comments, for the One Pound Tank Refill Adapters, with ways to refill those16oz propane tanks, much more efficiency.
There was also a purchase of a propane hose adapter to allow me to run my camp stoves and camp grill off of my 20lb propane tank at home, in case I needed more than one stove burner to cook a meal. The hose adapter also lets me test the camp stoves before I head out and let’s me try new camp cooking techniques, in a controlled environment, before I do it for real, out in the forest.
With a couple small purchases I was able to expand my outdoor cooking tools andsimplify grid down cooking. This will help me ride out any extended power outages, and should buy me a few weeks, of almost normal cooking, in a post-SHTF world…. at least until the things start getting really bad.