It’s 4:30, you’re just getting ready to begin supper for the evening, and the power goes out. Without calling for pizza delivery, how are you supposed to cook dinner without your favorite mixer, your microwave, your electric stove, and all of the other modern conveniences you’re so used to?
We’ve talked before about how to wash and dry your clothes during an extended power outage (or for an off-grid, power saving lifestyle), but what about your kitchen? That seems a more daunting task!
Let’s assume that you don’t have a generator and you do not have gas or propane as an energy source as most Americans in suburbia find themselves.
Here are some off-grid alternatives to everyday kitchen tools:
Coffee Maker – Percolator, French-press. Or you could go truly simple and just put ground coffee into a coffee filter, placed in a strainer over a coffee mug, and slowly pour hot water through. Of course the hot water is made from your tea kettle you can put on your camp stove or grill or fireplace, right? Because you know the hot water heater won’t be working, either.
Fridge – Root cellar. This is a natural way to keep foods cool. Make a small one with a trash can buried in the ground, bury a fridge or dig out a full sized one on your property. Or create this nifty device:
from wiki.how
Oven – dutch oven on grill, camp stove or fire or Sun Oven (or homemade equivalent). You can make bread and casseroles easily this way. An alternative would be a wood-burning oven you can make yourself. Here’s a great example. Of course, you can do this with an adobe oven, etc.
Microwave – fire, grill, propane camp stove
(and for those of you who would die without microwave popcorn, try a saucepan or a Whirly Pop). Extended power outages may mean you don’t have much left frozen, but putting items in a pot of simmering water can help them thaw more quickly, as well as putting them under a running tap of cool water in a basin of cool water.
Blender – Use an old fashioned egg beater to do many of the tasks a blender or mixer does for you. There is a hand-crank blender on the market that is pricey, and some hacks you can do to
Mixer – hand blender/mixer/egg beater, manual mixer system, or a really great large spoon or whisk!
from cottagecraftworks.com
Stovetop – camp stove, Kelly Kettle, rocket stove.
Vacuum Sealer – zip top bags and a straw or water basin. You can also try one of the many hacks to make your own that are found on youtube or this tutorial.
Coffee or Spice grinder– old-fashioned grinder, modern non-electric grinder or mortar/pestal.
Toaster – cast iron griddle, pie iron or camp stove toaster
Waffle Maker – There are a few cast iron version for waffle makers like this one or this camp version. Or, you can just stick to pancakes on your griddle.
Electric Griddle – easy switch out to one of my favorite cast iron pieces – the cast iron round griddle. You can use a double sided version of this that is grill pan on one side, griddle on the other..
Can Opener – manual can openers of all kinds.
Slow Cooker – Dutch Ovens work really well as a slow cooker over a fire. A Wonder Bag (or homemade version) is another good alternative.
And what about that pesky Stand Mixer with all those awesome attachments? More on that tomorrow!
The most important part of this is to understand how you can have alternatives (backups to your backups) to the powered appliances we all rely on today. Playing with the alternatives during times of plenty will allow you to be better prepared to survive in times of need.
This is one of the reasons that we built a fire pit in our backyard. We wanted more options for cooking should we need them. What other appliances do you use that are ‘off the gird”?
photo credit: lindseywb
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Looks like you covered just about everything. The only thing I can think to add–not really for cooking though– is a dish pan and dish drain. When at my son’s house during Thanksgiving I jumped right in on clean up. The dishwasher ran during dinner, first thing I did was empty it, fill it & start it again. Next up, fill pots & pans w/ hot water & a squirt of detergent to soak while I wash those big (and wee), frilly, odd shaped dishes by hand. But wait DS has no dish pan (really helps with a large single sink system) or dish drain. I had brought my own mini drain (I figured one would not be enough, if I had known mine was the only one–I’d of brought my big set too). And towels, he only had two–both already severely used/dirty. So I laid bath towels on the counter to control the drips and face towels for drying the dishes. My son was amazed that the cleanup was finished before the dishwasher finished its round. He said they just would have run the DW back to back, all night long, until all was done; because they never wash by hand. Just as a side note: I have and use my dishwasher all the time–but some times you need/want to hand wash.
Yep…and that will be in another post 😉
How about a hand crank meat slicer? I have searched quite a few places but had no luck. If you know of anyplace, please post it… I had one years ago, but lost it while getting divorced…Thank you
Anything I found was pretty expensive… http://www.ebay.com/itm/Professional-Deli-Meat-Cheese-Slicer-10-Manual-New-/251372918452
Try Lehman’s for non-electric appliances of all kinds, Google it, they have a catalog.
I know! I have one from the thrift store (what some folks give away!) & dream of a kitchen where it could be permanently bolted down instead of dragging it out whenever.
This is a very cool article… though maybe I’m not one to talk. I’ve been known to mix up cookie dough with a wooden spoon because I’m don’t feel like bothering with digging out the electric mixer!
~ Christine
I think we’ve all been there 😉 Unless I’m making a mega batch of cookie dough, I don’t clear space for Betty for cookies.
very comprehensive list! We use a manual can opener and have been considering finding a percolator. 🙂
Some great tips here! We have a camp stove–just in case. 😉
Vacuum siphon for coffee. Not only does it use alcohol for fuel, and I could rig it to heat from my Solo stove burning wood or with solud fuel tabs, but it’s much tastier than a press.
Thank you fr linking up to last week’s Simple Life Sunday! I featured you on my blog for the Hop this week: http://cookesfrontier.blogspot.com/2014/01/simple-life-sunday-blog-hop-2.html
I’m honored, Charley, thanks!
One thing I’d add – I LOVE my manual food processor from The Pampered Chef! It’s perfect for small processing jobs, smoothies, etc…and no electricity needed!
I second the Whirley Pop! We have one and love the popcorn that it makes. So much better than microwave popcorn! =)
Love your list, by the way. Very helpful.
Another way to make coffee is to put the ground in with the water in a pot over a stove or fire. When it has boiled for a minute or two take it off and pour a little cool water in the mouth of the pot. Just pour your coffee, the cool water makes the grounds sink to the bottom!
Also for smaller items such as garlic, a chef’s knife works better than anything you can buy for the job. You’ll just have to look that technique up.
Great tips, thank you!
You can also use a drip coffee pot. Just boil the water and pour the top full. When all the water has gone thru. Pour you a cup. They are great when you have no power, or camping.
Thanks for the tip!
I didn’t have an electric mixer for the first year and a half of my marriage and I just used a spoon or a whisk. Also we just moved and got a gas stove to replace the electric one I had. I’m so glad because I hate electric stoves, but now we can use the stove even without electricity.
Great Post! We are one of those with a propane kitchen stove so we don’t often have to worry about a short term power outage, we have heated the main part of the house for up to a week by baking all day ( I can’t seem to let the oven sit on and empty) for a winter power outage we just put the perishables out side inside coolers or the BBq grill if we are not using it, however if a more major problem comes you could run low on propane or city gas lines may become damaged… (earthquake,flooding) we have the BBQ, Solar Oven and a few cinder blocks to make a quick rocket stove in a pinch. Our biggest issue for long term would be water, our well is 400 ft deep much to deep for a hand pump, we would have to come up with enough solar power to run the pump or drive a couple mile down to the lake for water.
A great manual replacement for a stand mixer when working with heavy doughs is a Danish dough whisk. I don’t have a stand mixer (and never have), but I got a Danish dough whisk when I started making my own sourdough bread regularly, and I really like it. Given the shape and design, it works much better than a wooden spoon when incorporating ingredients into a dough or batter.
Thanks for the tip!
Great ideas! Thanks!
I am interested to know were and how you made your kitchen aid mixer into a manual one. I sure you addressed it but I don’t see were. Thanks for your post. Selena
Just click the photo/link to get you there – http://www.cottagecraftworks.com/food-processor-how-convert-kitchen-aid-mixer-hand-crank-off-grid-p-1721.html
I have recently found a kitchen tool so cool, that I don’t know how I lived so long without it! It is a dough whisk. You can find them at any good kitchen store. It is long handled with a funny roundish end. I use it to incorporate flour into my bread mix, sugar into large batches of jam, cookie dough, etc. It works so much better than a wooden spoon. Here is a link to what they look like on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=dough+whisks&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=36586448724&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16666336644560531927&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_5lu82swt9j_b
But my vitamix, what about my vitamix?! We live in Utah, home of the food storage and stockpile on all supplies necessary to live off the land in case of an emergency, we love camping and cooking over open fire and dutch oven cooking, we are prepared for and experienced in that department, but my vitamix I have come to depend on so much.. how can I make that work?
Lehman’s non electric store was disappointing. Their kitchen gadget department looked like Target’s, not even an egg beater available.
Sorry to hear that!