A4C Prepper Dan Cooking Without Power Vlog4
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode I talk about the pros and cons of having a good solid cast iron barbecue and what you should do when the power goes out and what to do when you don t have a generator to power your home.
Transcript
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well you can't go wrong by owning a really good barbecue a few things to keep in mind one thing
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I would recommend if you are going to invest in a new barbecue you want to get one that's got the
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cast-iron great not the little old wire ones the old wire ones that used to come with the barbecues
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like these ones here they will rust they won't last very long and that's why you see a lot of
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these old barbecues in the side of the road but the ones with the cast-iron great they're easy to
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clean they're really solid and they're really heavy so you want to keep that in mind another
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thing I would suggest to you as well invest the money and always keep three or four extra propane
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tanks on hand you know when the power goes out everybody rushes to get the groceries in the
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grocery store fill up on fuel fuel up their generators propane is something that well the
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shelves can get empty of that fairly quickly as well so I always keep a number of propane tanks on
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hand and it doesn't take up a lot of space either now this barbecue I've had for about eight years
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it's a broil king and it's never done me wrong I keep the little burners inside very clean so maybe
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every couple of months I clean them with a wire brush I barbecue a year round and so you know I
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really enjoy this so this really comes in handy and I never keep mine covered either if you keep it
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covered it's a little bit more prone to get bugs inside of it spiders earwigs where I live and rust as
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well now this particular model also has a side burner and you know you can throw a cast iron skillet on here
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and cook a teapot or coffee pot and when the power does go out here when we get a hurricane or whatever
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this will uh I throw my pot of coffee on here by the time I feed the chickens and the rabbits
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the coffee's ready so this is a really good alternative so if you're going to have a barbecue
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invest in a good one a good solid one and for our small family here I mean we could feed quite a few
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people on this we don't have to run it very long oh another barbecue you may say well not quite see
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this is where my uh reduce reuse recycle comes in now it's springtime here and we have spring cleanup
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happening all around our neighborhood you're going to see a lot of these on the roadside and the reason
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is because the inside of this usually rusts out and people throw them out and they get a new one
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so what I've done is I've picked up this old one I've taken all of the propane guts out of it
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so there's nothing inside just a grill and what I do when the power goes out or just when I want a nice
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really uh natural type barbecue I go in the woods here I gather up some dry hardwood
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and get some nice pieces here and I build a little fire in here it gets a little smoky but
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then when it's down to just the charcoal then I put my steak on here or put my salmon on here
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and um it doesn't cost me anything it doesn't cost me any propane now one thing I'm going to suggest
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with you and I'll make the suggestion again in a few minutes I would suggest and recommend anybody
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this doesn't take up too much space and I keep this outside all the time too
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if you're going to get one of these start collecting yourself some little bundles of wood
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dry firewood and keep you know cut them to length and store them somewhere in your property if you
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have a deck or a porch or something keep them underneath there that way when the power does go
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out or when you need it you've got your wood bundled and ready to go
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another popular method of cooking would be something like the egg now you've all heard of the green egg
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with a really hefty price tag walmart carries this called the grill the expert grill and it's less
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than two hundred dollars at least that's what I paid for last year and works very well you can fit
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like a large size turkey in his I've actually fit two large hams in here that I've smoked myself
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we raise my daughter raises her own pigs and so that's where we get our pork from and I smoke my
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own bacon briskets in here and smoke my own hands in here you can also use this to actually bake in
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here the temperature actually you can get it up to 400 degrees Celsius 800 800 degrees Fahrenheit
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built very solid very well insulated I keep this in one of my garages here and built very solid it's on
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a wheel so you can easily coat this around and it's got a really nice control up here so you can
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control how much smoke you want in here if you want no smoke at all you can leave the vent open
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and again I make my own charcoal for something like this again doesn't really cost you anything to to
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make it now if some of you are interested in maybe smoking or flavoring some of your meats that you would put
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in here maple you can get you know some branches or twigs maple you can actually make your own with with
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just a hatchet poplar is another popular choice poplar is a popular choice and I also use apples so I've
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got friends that have apple trees and whenever they do a lot of their heavy pruning I get some maybe two
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or three branches two two three inch branches and I put them through my chipper here and if it's smaller
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stuff I may put some in here and I soak soak the chips in here and there's a spot down here where you can
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actually put them in a in the bottom there where all of the the coals go and this does an excellent
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job so this is another alternative that you can consider it's a little bit bulkier than just a
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barbecue but definitely worth the investment another really neat item that you can consider getting is
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what we call a rocket stove now I've built these in the past using a larger four or five gallon bucket
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and then you get a bigger soup can and a smaller soup can I'm going to put a link in the description
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on how you can build these now these are run you about I'm going to say about 150 160 dollars but
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consider that a couple going out to a restaurant for decent meal these days is easily going to cost you
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fifty dollars so three maybe four meals out and it'll easily pay for one of these now the idea
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behind one of these is it comes packaged in this nice little tote doesn't take up much space at all
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and there's two components to it there's the main burning unit and then there's the little wood rack
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on here and basically all you do here is you start your fire down in the middle and then you would take
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some smaller pieces of wood now this is too big here but twigs basically just twigs out of the wood
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and you would keep feeding the wood in here and this literally is like a rocket the flames just shoot
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right up and this surface here is so large that you can literally put a large frying pan cat like I
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would recommend cast iron because it holds heat you can put a large Dutch oven on here a 12 inch cast iron
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frying pan with a lid on it I'm just going to use this for an example it just basically sits on there
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and you can cook a full meal on there you can put a big wok on there and all you do with the wood as it
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burns out you keep pushing it in and again just twigs I'm actually going to take this outside and
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demonstrate to you how it works later on but a very neat little gadget and like I said I've built a
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number of these before I've had a little workshop where we've built even really small ones that you can
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just carry in your pocket when you build these yourself you insulate them I've used sand and
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I've also used perlite both work well the sand one is a little heavier when you build it yourself
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obviously there's no cost to it just a matter of scrounging up the materials one thing I do want to
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recommend to all of you anytime and you'll notice a lot of these some of these methods that I'm teaching
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you require using some wood or some firewood I recommend that you all get yourself some of
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these little axes now this is dollar store stuff Canadian Tire may have them but these are like
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three or four dollars at the dollar store I have one in every one of my vehicles in the back of my
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tractor in every one of my outbuildings I've got one they're not too hard to keep sharp and you don't
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have to be too sharp but I'm always scrounging around for a little bit of wood and I use these all the
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time for something like that so not a bad investment get yourself a bunch of these not to say they
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can't be used for self-defense if you absolutely have to as well I mean they're good to have
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now here's another option that may leave you a little bit more committed
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here's a little old enterprise stove that I actually got for free it's a two burner stove
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and I've got it plugged in and get the chimney outside in my little shop here and as you can see
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You can see I've got a little pile of wood here, and I just collect junk firewood around the property here, let it dry and store it inside.
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Now this doesn't keep my shop really hot in the winter time, just, you know, comfortable.
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But the fact that I've got two burners on here that I can remove, I can basically keep some food warm on here, or cook some food on here actually.
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And this is the ticket really. The power goes off in an extended amount of time.
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I can bring a couple pots out here, I can actually take two roasting pans and put them across this way, and cook a full meal on here.
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A little table here I can sit down and stay warm and enjoy a meal, look out my window at the greenhouse at the woods here, and just enjoy some time.
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So, anybody can do anything like this. If you have a little shed, a little garden shed even, like a little 8x8, and you actually don't even need the stainless steel piping outside.
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This doesn't get really, really hot. If you can find an old stove, even one that's not CSA certified or whatever, you've got the room in your property to put just even a little shed.
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Insulate it, and you can actually just run stove pipe outside. Now the key is safety, you want to be safe. I want to make that clear.
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But in dire, dire times, people need to eat, and they need to stay warm, especially in the winter time.
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And if you've got snow on the ground, you can always melt snow on something like this, and you've got some water to drink.
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So, these are just some ideas that you can consider to help you along, and sometimes you just need, you know, some thoughts to help you think about,
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how am I going to keep warm, how am I going to cook, and what can I do? And so, these are just some ideas.
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But remember also, everybody should have a little stack of wood, or bigger stack of wood, and keep that in mind, because you never know when it may hit the fan,
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and you'll never regret being well prepared, and that's the key. If you're not prepared today, you may not be prepared tomorrow.
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So, don't lose time, go up there, go for a walk, scavenge, you know, go for a little scavenger hunt, and start preparing.