Cooking during a power outage!

I can certainly see the pluses of being prepared. We are being told to use our earthquake kits.

1 Like

I managed to make the juice for the pepper jelly by lantern last night, and our powers back on. Thanks for althe input ad support! l

5 Likes

That was a lot to think of! Thanks for taking the time. How much advance warning do you usually get?

That was one of my first thoughts! Haven’t even put it away yet!

1 Like

You are suffering from decades of over regulation and ill-conceived good intentions. You can’t do anything about that now.

In the yachting industry we often deal with small fridges or no refrigeration at all. Regardless power management is the norm for us. You might start here https://theboatgalley.com/without-refrigeration/ and you could buy Carolyn’s e-book Storing Food without Refrigeration.

Americans put a lot of things in the fridge that doesn’t have to be there. Most condiments (mayo, mustard, hot sauces, ketchup, butter) do not need to be refrigerated. Eggs do not have to be refrigerated.

A lot of fruit and veg will last longer in the fridge but does well enough out. As noted focus on what will go first and eat that. Avocado, lettuce, maybe tomatoes. Cabbage lasts a long time - eat that later. Roots such as onions, potatoes, carrots, turnip, parsnip last a long time. Celery lasts a surprising length of time - you can make mirepoix without refrigeration!

If you shop look for shelf-stable UHT milk. You can get UHT half-and-half or cream as well (mini-Moos are UHT).

You are fortunate to have gas cooking and it sounds like utility water. People on wells lose water when they (we) lose power. For those with electric cooking (bah!) consider one or two butane caterer’s burners. They are inexpensive, the butane canisters are readily available, and a joy to cook on.

Ice is going to be expensive if available at all. Remember it takes power to make ice.

Don’t drive all over looking for things. Gasoline will be even more expensive. 1. It takes power to operate a gas station. 2. It’s a limited resource.

Groceries are going to start to be limited. No power means no refrigeration and no refrigerated stuff. You can do a lot with canned goods and produce. Out there in the land of regulation the stores probably can’t sell cheese that has been unrefrigerated even if it’s fine.

At some point power outage will impact the gas supply. Cook while you can and cook ahead. Do you have a pressure cooker? Home canning is your friend.

Your problem, as described, is not cooking without power but storing food without power.

3 Likes

Thank you!

I especially needed to “hear” this part;

"Americans put a lot of things in the fridge that doesn’t have to be there. Most condiments (mayo, mustard, hot sauces, ketchup, butter) do not need to be refrigerated. Eggs do not have to be refrigerated.

A lot of fruit and veg will last longer in the fridge but does well enough out. As noted focus on what will go first and eat that. Avocado, lettuce, maybe tomatoes. Cabbage lasts a long time - eat that later. Roots such as onions, potatoes, carrots, turnip, parsnip last a long time. Celery lasts a surprising length of time - you can make mirepoix without refrigeration!"

…as I sort through what to do with what’s still in there.

As it happens, I don’t keep a lot of truly perishable items in my fridge, (mostly condiments, hot sauce, shrubs, and preserved lemons!) , but I did want the tips I got on what to use first, and how with limited time and resources. I had to work, and it was already getting dark when I got home.

I happen to have a picture on this thread from a month ago!

I hoped the problem would be no more that 36 hours, and it started to feel like a challenge (especially the part about not opening the fridge much! but not a disaster.

We are going to plan better for the future (any tips on how to choose a generator?) and Iam thinking about the differences in scenarios that occur around the country and around the world.

I ended up focusing on the jelly, because In figured I could increase my chances of salvaging this years pepper jelly project; pepper jelly 7.0!

USDA has guidelines for home canning that I expect you are familiar with since you are making jelly. Big difference between water bath and pressure canning.

My wife used to freeze everything (pre-Dave) but now we can a lot. Shelf stable is a big help, and makes room in our chest freezer for a couple of 5 gallon jugs of water which, frozen solid, provide thermal inertia to carry us a long time through power outages.

Remember that people survived pretty decently without power, refrigeration, or grocery stores for a long time. Since you’re planning ahead, consider–in addition to Carolyn’s book linked above–a copy of the 4th edition of Joy of Cooking, from 1951 I think. The deal is that predated widespread refrigeration and there were a lot of helpful techniques that our grandmothers considered normal life. My grandmother anyway, you may be younger than I am.

4 Likes

Glad to hear that your electricity is back! We live in MA where snowstorms and hurricanes or Nor’easters happen seasonally. Usually we have at least 24 hours notice that a weather system is on the way. At least 1-2 times a year we wake up to an outage from unexpected high wind gusts, though.

Advance prep comes in handy. From October or November through March, we make it a point to have various foods stocked that we can eat in case of a power outage. Nothing fancy for us: pita bread in the freezer, peanut butter, shelf stable soup or stock, canned beans, etc. Stuff we’d eat normally that we make sure to have on hand.

Also we have a portable generator after we experienced a power outage in the dead of winter that lasted about a week. The generator is not foolproof or easy—it’s a stopgap that keeps us and from freezing and lets us heat up some food.

3 Likes

That is reminding me that last night I read some things about TPST* of solar panels I have on my roof. …hmmmmm.

*the proverbial shit ton.

3 Likes

Eggs are the only thing that should require refrigeration in the list that @Auspicious noted - although I know there are many schools of thought. Because the USDA requires commercial eggs to be washed, the protective coating is removed (European eggs aren’t washed, so they can keep their eggs out on the counter at room temp). Considering that millions of Europeans haven’t died, I’m thinking they’re on to something. :wink:

I do hope there are no more outages for you this week!

6 Likes

BTW,Consumer Reports was where I started my research on generators: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/generators/buying-guide/index.htm

It’s been awhile so I can’t recall the other research I did. I will say that I probably couldn’t manage the portable generator solo. It’s very heavy and we need to position it in a safe spot outdoors. We have it because we needed a quick solution before a big storm was about to hit, which is obviously not the best time to buy a generator.

3 Likes

You are right and wrong. BTDT. Washing eggs removes the bloom (the coating) you note which increases gas exchange through the porous shell. If you flip the eggs regularly (every couple of days) the internal albumin will coat the inside of the egg and solve the problem of gas exchange = oxidation = stale eggs for many weeks. The second problem is condensation - water straight out of the air on previously refrigerated eggs due to the temperature difference (look up “dew point”) which is solved by drying the eggs until their temperature stabilizes - a couple of times each the first day or two coming out of refrigeration.

Eggs do not need to be refrigerated, washed or not.

2 Likes

Your first point is important. Don’t stock foods you don’t usually eat.

The second point is nationally self-induced silliness. sigh Ethanol in gasoline is a horrible for small engines, especially those that don’t get run regularly. Between hydrophilic characteristics and what the ethanol does to rubber and metal parts it is just bad. At a minimum run small engines dry. Better is to use ethanol-free gas.

2 Likes

Properly installed with enough batteries and properly sized inverter you should have refrigeration, at least for part of the day which with care (“don’t leave the door hanging open” grin) should be enough.

We won’t dive into why photovoltaic solar is neither green nor renewable.

I’m not going to get into what needs and doesn’t need to be in the fridge - but one thing to consider, if your power goes out unexpectedly, is “thermal mass” - if things are in your fridge, and you are hoping to ride out the outage . . . keep whatever is in the fridge, in the fridge or of course if you are deciding to condense things into a cooler, pack the cooler rather than dividing things between the fridge and cooler.

I’m also in MA (now - previously OH, both of which have winter power outages), and we keep bags of ice (or right now, gallons of frozen water) in our freezer to take up the empty space (we have a large chest freezer that cycles between full and virtually empty). That way if the power goes out, the frozen blocks buy us a little extra time . . . .

Not helpful now, but if it keeps going, things to consider.

5 Likes

Dave, in nj almost every gas station has ethanol. Is it a law?

The only ones that seem to not have it are ones that have fuel for race boats. https://www.pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=NJ

Exactly why we keep a couple of five gallon jugs of water in our chest freezer - to increase thermal mass. We have ten gallons frozen and fifty gallons in the basement. If we lose power we lose water from our well. We have a small generator, enough for fridge, freezer, HVAC, sump pumps, and keeping personal electronics charged. AT&T cell towers in our area can go two weeks without power so we aren’t horribly inconvenienced as long as the food holds out. We even have tons of movies ripped to NAS which is on my emergency power bus.

For CA and other places that may have planned or anticipated outages, filling the fridge and freezer ahead of time is good planning. Use water if you don’t have anything else. As @Thimes aptly noted - thermal mass. Just ask your friendly neighborhood engineer.

1 Like

Heck . . . if I knew I was going to have power for a few hours during the day and then not for a few hours (back and forth and back and forth) I might even throw all my canned food in the fridge just to increase the “chilled stuff” in the fridge if that is all I had in my house. (an empty fridge is going to heat up much faster than a packed fridge - but you hate to fill the fridge with perishable stuff that you won’t be able to consume fast enough if the outage lasts longer than expected, thus the water jugs when my freezer isn’t full).

2 Likes

Yes. grump From the US EIA: “Most of the gasoline now sold in the United States contains some ethanol. Most of ethanol blending into U.S. motor gasoline occurs to meet the requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act (RFG Fuel) and the Renewable Fuel Standard set forth in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.”

That sounds more responsible than it is. The science is pretty clear that the diesel fuel used in agricultural equipment to grow corn (varieties not suitable for consumption by the way) for ethanol and the energy for blending overwhelms any energy savings from E10, E15, or E85. Bah! The law limits availability of ethanol free gasoline based on population density. NJ is pretty dense. Here in MD, with a lot more rural geography, we also cannot get ethanol free gas at the pump. In some areas (not here) you can get it in marinas. The only reliable source of ethanol free gas is GA airports. Avgas is expensive (about $6/gallon here) and high octane (100). It is NOT legal for road use. Most GA airports will sell it to you for off-road use (which includes generators and dinghy (boat) engines). My maintenance costs for gen and outboard are down a lot due to burning only ethanol free gasoline even accounting for paying 2-1/2 times pump prices for gas.

Again drawing from my yachting experience we have generator run time each day to maximize efficiency and value for money. For us that is evenings so fridge and freezer run while we are in and out for dinner prep. Electric water heater heats water. We hand wash dishes and keep up. We refill water jugs (well water remember). I force our water treatment into self-cleaning mode. Cool the house with A/C before bed time. Three or four hours of run time takes a gallon of fuel. I keep a five gallon jug of gas all the time and surge to twenty gallons if we expect weather (our usual source of power outage).

I buy cases of butane cartridges (12) when I get down to two or three cartridges. I go through about a case a year for work.

We have both a propane and a charcoal grill. If I had it to do again I’d get a grill with a side burner.

Without joining the whackadoodle prepper crowd (personal judgmental opinion YMMV) we can be pretty self sufficient for weeks, a little longer with a few days notice. We have essential services, some comforts, and entertainment. The biggest cost was battery banks and inverter so our sump pumps run without power until I can get the generator set up. The sump pump battery bank is set up with a powered USB hub so we can charge phones, tablets, and laptops without the generator. There are important safety issues here associated with 12VDC “cigarette” power connectors. Be careful! They can only support 6A continuous. Overloading leads to heat which leads to fire. The technical term for that is “bad.” Our weather-related power outages are usually tree fall which can lead to blocked roads which makes public safety access problematic. The technical term for that is “really bad.”

Cooking is dependent on some degree of infrastructure and when that is disrupted cooking and therefore eating deteriorates. That isn’t any fun. One of the things I tell people in my seminars for yachting groups is that sailing doesn’t have to be camping. Neither does losing access to utilities. Planning can provide a lot of support at pretty low cost and without much maintenance burden or storage requirement.

With just a little forethought you can be eating omelets and bacon for breakfast, tortellini Alfredo for lunch, and seared scallops with confit baylia for dinner while your neighbors are eating cold beans out of a can. grin

Everyone’s prep is situational. We have over $1k in batteries and inverter because of our water table height. Our basement will flood unless the sump pumps run. We really can’t go more than half a day without pumps. Generator was about $600 (sizing is important). Everything else for us is way under $500 total.

Buying food for storage and rotating it, unless you live paycheck to paycheck, is cheaper as you can shop sales and buy warehouse lots. Why buy two cans of something for $7 when you can buy twelve for $15?

This is the engineering version of waxing philosophic. grin Who knew there might be spreadsheets in philosophy?

Aren’t you glad you asked @corvette_johnny? grin Where are you in NJ? We have family in Brick and in Avenel.

1 Like

Anytime there is an electrical outage your gas appliances will still work. The only problem comes if they have electric ignitions then the stove might not light, but a simple match will do the trick. Just curious, now is your refrigerator off since midnight but your lights still on?

Good luck to you and all in the outage areas.

1 Like