Ask a Prepper
  • DIY |
  • Terms of Use |
  • Privacy Policy |
  • Contact
ask a prepper survival every day
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • All Articles
  • Editor’s Pick
  • Survival Knowledge
  • How To’s
  • Store
  • About Claude Davis
  • Home
  • All Articles
  • Editor’s Pick
  • Survival Knowledge
  • How To’s
  • Store
  • About Claude Davis
No Result
View All Result
Menu
Ask a Prepper
Search
No Result
View All Result
Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Home All Articles
How to Cook without Alluring Smells

How to Cook without Alluring Smells

Karen Hendry by Karen Hendry
May 12, 2016
6

You have your preps all set up to keep yourself and your loved ones safe and comfortable post-collapse and you have made sure that you have keep it all under the radar.  No one outside of your immediate family knows about all the food and water you have stored away, which is just how it should be.  So what happens when disaster hits, the grid is down, and you are enacting your survival plan by cooking dinner on the camp stove?  Simply put, if you don’t take precautions, you have just hung a great big sign over your house saying “Food Is Here.”

That’s right.  When you cook, especially when you cook outdoors, the smell of the cooking food will drift on the air currents.  In fact, smells can travel for as much as half a mile from where you are cooking it.  If it is post-collapse and there are hungry people out there, you can bet that every one of them who smells what you’re cooking will come calling – and they might not be the ideal dinner guests.  This means that you will need to learn how to cook/prepare food in such a way that it doesn’t have an odor that will attract unwanted visitors.

Grace Period

smellingWhen society collapses, you will have a grace period of about three days before things really start to go south because most people have at least three days’ worth of food in their homes at any given time.  The lucky ones might even have food for a day or two longer.  However, it won’t take long before they use up what they have and start wondering where their next meal is coming from.

For this reason, you can use the first three days after the SHTF to cook up a storm.  Use up all of the perishable food in your house and cook meals your family will enjoy.  Perhaps you can use this time to can, dehydrate, or otherwise preserve some of the fresh food you have in the house.  However, once this grace period has passed, the situation will start to deteriorate quickly and by the time a week (at most) has passed you will have a lot of hungry, desperate people out there.  With this in mind, you need to learn how to prepare food without any tempting odor escaping.

Related: Preserving Potatoes Year Round – A Solid Choice for Preppers

Tips on Cooking without Smells

Fortunately, there are things you can do to minimize the odors coming from the food you prepare for yourself and your family.  Whether you live in a rural, suburban, or urban area, there are a number of aspects to the cooking process that you can control to keep your cooking under the radar.

Where You Cook

cook indoorsIf you are able to, cook indoors.  There is less of a chance of cooking smells wafting through the air if the cooking is done inside.  If you have to prepare some of the meal outside, then keep that to a minimum whenever possible.

When You Cook

Cook in the early hours or late hours of the day, when most people are likely to be sleeping.  This will minimize the chances that someone will smell anything from your cooking.  It is also advised to cook when it isn’t windy when cooking outdoors.  If you cook when there is little or no breeze, then any potential smell from your cooking won’t spread very far.

How You Cook

You will have a number of options for cooking without electricity, provided you have prepared ahead of time.  You might have plans to use your barbecue, a fire pit, a rocket stove, or a camp stove.  Whatever way you choose to cook your food, use a fuel for your cooking that does not produce smoke or any visible means of identifying your location (this includes wood and charcoal).  This leaves you with fuels such as propane, alcohol, butane, or natural gas.

If you have a gas generator, you will draw attention to yourself as soon as you turn it on because these generators are noisy.  Opt for a solar generator, if possible, which will run quietly.  You can hide it outside during the day and let it charge and then use it at night to power a hotplate or something similar to warm up some dinner.

What You Cook

boilWhen it comes to what you cook, you want to keep it simple.  Cook food that doesn’t have a lot of odor and avoid using herbs and spices that give the food extra flavor.  As nice as they are, they increase the odor of the food.  Just think of the smell of Indian food cooking.  When you do cook, prepare food for multiple meals (but not so much you won’t be able to eat if before it spoils) so you are cooking less often.  This will result in less chance of being detected.

Use cooking methods that minimize odor, specifically boiling or simmering.  Avoid frying, baking, roasting, grilling, or toasting food.  You can get cooking bags that, when you are cooking, will seal in the aroma of the food.  Aluminum foil will also help lock in the smell.  Neither of these will keep the smell down completely, but will certainly make a difference.

Related: 20 Foods that Will Outlast You

One very good way of cooking is to use a thermal cooker, which is a type of insulated crock pot.  With this you can start the cooking process outdoors.  Bring your water to a boil for ten minutes and then take it inside, add your ingredients, and seal it in inside the thermal container for 6-8 hours.  It will continue to cook the whole time and no odors will escape.

FoodThe way your food is prepared and stored prior to use also has an effect on how much it smells when being cooked.  It is wise to eat freeze dried foods when possible, as this only requires hot water to be added and will minimize the smells coming from the food.  Another option are MREs (meals ready to eat), which are already prepared and require minimal amount of preparation and cooking time.

Final Tips

Even though it is safer to cook inside to avoid people smelling the food you are cooking, you shouldn’t do this at the risk of burning your house down or generating carbon monoxide, which will kill you and your family.  Be very mindful about the safety of cooking inside.

In addition, you need to consider the garbage that is left behind when you cook food.  Is there packaging or leftovers that could draw attention should people see it?  For this reason, it is important to cook only what you need.  If you cook for more than one meal at a time, don’t cook so much you can’t eat it before it goes bad.  If you do have scraps, try to make use of them in some way, such as feeding it to pets or as compost.

Remember that food is the primary thing the majority of people will be looking for when the collapse comes.  If they know you have it, they will come and take it.  If you can keep your cooking and food preparation under the radar, you will be able to enjoy good food, hot meals, and the health and energy you need to see your way through hard times without unwanted visitors trying to take it away from you.

You may also like:

This Super Root Preserves Meat Indefinitely! fema spot

H2O Dynamo – The Awesome Device That Turns Air Into Fresh Water! (video)

The Most Delicious Cookie that you Can Make at Home

How to Tell When Your Canned Foods Become Spoiled?

WalMart Prepper Food Run

Tags: Food CrisispreparednessPrepperprotect your family
Print Friendly, PDF & Email
ShareTweetPin6

Comments 6

  1. Illini Warrior says:
    7 years ago

    Fabricating a cooking overhead hood and hooking it up to your chimney or plumbing soil pipe will channel those cooking smells up and above ground level …

    There’s a natural upflow on both channeling outlets but for additional “pull” a 12V muffin fan could be an assist ….

    This one aspect of living “dark”, in that initial chaos stage, that doesn’t get near enough coverage – any kind of cooking is going to be nothing but ringing the dinner bell for desperate sheeple and dangerous raiders ….

    Did you like this comment? 1
    Reply
  2. Robert says:
    7 years ago

    Never thought about using the first three days post-SHTF for cooking. Good idea.

    Did you like this comment?
    Reply
  3. The Wiseman says:
    7 years ago

    The following cooking method will (1.) generate no smell;
    (2.) save fuel. Here’s how you do it. (A.) Say you’re having spagetti with tomato sauce and canned meatballs.
    (B.) Set aside two pots with tight-fitting lids; one pot for the spagetti, the other for the sauce and meatballs.(C.) Fill the first pot with cold water, place it on a propane camp stove and bring it to a boil. (Because it is plain water, boiling it will not generate any smell). (D) As soon as it comes to a full, rolling boil, turn OFF the propane.
    (E.) Dump in the dry spagetti pasta. (F.) Put on the lid. (G.) Pick up the pot with the spagetti and water and place it in to a styrofoam drink cooler, after first wrapping the pot with a space blanket. (H) Fill the styrofoam cooler with packing peanuts as insulation to keep the heat in. (I). Now put the lid on the styrofoam cooler. (J) Go to the second pot; dump in a can of meatballs and a can of tomato sauce, plus any other seasoning (parmesian cheeze, etc.). (K) Place the lid on the pot and bring it to a boil, when it boils, immediately shut down the propane flow. (L) Take the hot, lidded pot to a second styrofoam cooler, place the pot inside, wrapped in a space blanket, fill the cooler with packing peanuts, place the lid on. (M) Wait 5 or 6 hours. You will open the pots to a hot, delicious dinner and no cooking smell!

    Did you like this comment?
    Reply
  4. pearline sanders says:
    7 years ago

    I have dehydrated most all of my herbs, spices and onions, garlic, peppers and other things you use for seasonings. I then run them through the food processor to make them a very fine flake and powder like black pepper flakes. then when cooking things with little odors, rice, potatoes, spheghetti or other veggies, at the last minute you can add the flakes for seasonings and they intergerate in the food fast. not hardly any odor, but lots of taste. You can also use them to add some beef or chicken bullion with the spices n veggies flakes to make a more hardy hot cup of soup to drink when cold, or on the run.

    Did you like this comment? 1
    Reply
  5. dweiss says:
    6 years ago

    would be good not to attract bears as well.

    Did you like this comment?
    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions Terms & Conditions.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

FOLLOW US ON:

PREPPER RECOMMENDS

YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE AN EMP STRIKE WITHOUT THIS

IF YOU SEE THIS PLANT IN YOUR BACKYARD BURN IT IMMEDIATELY

HOW TO GET 295 POUNDS OF EXTRA FOOD FOR JUST $5 A WEEK

THE AWESOME DIY DEVICE THAT TURNS AIR INTO FRESH WATER

5 INGENIOUS WAYS TO REFRIGERATE YOUR FOOD WITHOUT ELECTRICITY

HOW TO MAKE YOUR HOUSE INVISIBLE TO LOOTERS

Banner Generator

LATEST ARTICLES

If You Have This On Your Property, Hide It Immediately

This Is How The Government Is Stopping You From Living Independently

DIY Poor Man’s Greenhouse

Why You Should Put A Silver Coin In Water

7 Stores Where You Can Buy Cheap Survival Food

Essential Survival Know-Hows Modern People Have Forgotten

What Happens If China Becomes The Ruling Economic Power Of The World

How To Treat And Heal Wounds With Sugar

5 Ways To Actually Use FEMA To Your Advantage

Long-Lasting Amish Burgers

How To Get Back Home After An EMP Strike

Why You Should Bury A Trash Can In Your Backyard

6 Signs Your Neighbor Will Become A Looter As Soon As SHTF

Ancient Types Of Homes You Can Build For Cheap

5 Unexpected Events Following An Economic Crisis That No One Talks About

How To Recondition Old Gasoline

Veggies You Only Plant Once And Harvest Forever

20 Prepping Items That Will Skyrocket In Price This Year

How To Use An Old Refrigerator For Survival

6 Places You Can Go Dumpster Diving For Your Prepper Stockpile

Great Depression Foods We Will All Be Eating Again Soon

Prepping Projects From The Bible

When The World Runs Out Of Food, This Is All You Need

Banner Bor

Banner TLW2

The Lost Ways Claude Davis

HOW TO

How To Recondition Old Gasoline

How To Remove Radioactive Particles From Water In Case Of A Nuclear Fallout

How To Make Bread Last For Up To 5 Years

How To Prepare Your Car For SHTF

How To Cook Steak On A Stone In The Wilderness

How To Craft A Deadly Slingshot

How To Make Your Chickens Lay More Eggs

How To Make And Can Evaporated Milk

How To Prepare For The Rising Energy Prices

How To Protect Your Garden From Looting Intruders

Vote for ask a Prepper

YOU CAN ALSO FIND US ON:

Survial Websites Prepper

Banner LSF Hamburger

Copyright © 2014-2023 Ask a Prepper

  • Home
  • All Articles
  • Ask a Prepper
  • About Claude Davis
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2014-2023 Ask a Prepper

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.