Every prepper needs to know the ability to cook out in the wilderness. This basic skill will be needed to ensure your comfort in an emergency situation.
Everyone should be able to cook food outdoors after reading this article.
IN this article you will learn how to Build a Fire in a Rocket Stove
Almost everyone has bad fire skills. Its not that its hard to learn, but due to the technology that most of us have already, like electronic cooking gadgets, pre packaged meals, take out dining, usually don’t need us to light up a fire to cook. Just seems like a lot of work when we have everything basically automated for us. However, if some kind of emergency happens, or disaster, you might be left any electronic gadget that will help you start a fire so you can cook etc.
There are 3 basic elements you need to know in terms of building a fire. Like, oxygen, fuel, and heat. Together these elements make up the Triangle of Fire.
Building a fire is not difficult, but getting it started and keeping it going long enough to actual cook something can be a challenge if you have never done it before. There are dozens of ways to build a fire, some easy and some more challenging. The easy way to get a fire going with the express purpose of cooking in a survival situation is by building a Rocket Stove.
A rocket stove is a cooking stove that uses small diameter wood fuel such as twigs and branches that are burned in a simple high-temperature combustion chamber. As combustion takes place, heat is created producing flames that reach upward toward the cooking surface. Common among campers and backpacking enthusiasts, rocket stoves are basically new to urban dwellers or those that do not spend a lot of time outdoors.
There are many commercial rocket stoves available where you can purchase. An efficient rocket stove can cost about a couple of bucks. Especially if you are building this on your own. Here is a short list on what you need to build your fire outside.
1. A Rocket Stove
You can use a DIY version or a commercial backpacking stove such as the Solo Stove, EcoZoom or others.
2. Lighting Source
Its best to have waterproof matches, or a Zippo Lighter. A Magnesium fire starter is a good choice to have as well.
3. Tinder
Collect Dryer lint, cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly or buy tinder . All these will work. There are lots of other choices but these three are easy and don’t require a lot work to prepare in advance.
4. Fuel
You should use charcoal briquettes or twigs, leaves and branches.
5. Cooking Utensils & Tools
Pots, fireproof gloves, something to stir plus and keep a manual can opener with you for your canned foods.
Once you have these items, starting your fire is easy.
Your rocket stove will have an open chamber at the bottom where you will stack your fuel source. Do not pack the chamber too tightly.
Place your tinder in the center of your little stack of fuel and using your ignition source, light the tinder. As soon as you have a nice little fire going, gradually add additional fuel until the flames reach up to the top of the chamber. At this point your fire should be hot enough to boil water and to cook your meals on the top surface of the stove.
After placing your pot of food or water on the cooking surface, be mindful that you will need to continue to feed fuel into the open chamber. The same rule applies: do not pack the chamber so tightly that you starve the fire of oxygen. If that happens, the fire will go out and you will need to start all over.
BE CAREFUL, PLEASE!
Building a fire is something to be taken quite seriously and there are a few things to remember.
Never build your fire indoors, except in a real fireplace. Build your fire outdoors, but make sure its confined to a fireproof area or in a fire pit. Fires are hot, so wear fireproof gloves while dealing with the open fire and especially while feeding the chamber of your rocket stove with new twigs and branches.
You should go and purchase a rocket stove and start a fire in the chamber. Keep the fire going and boil some water to learn how long it takes and also to gain some experience keeping the fire going for an extended period of time.
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