How To Cook Rice

[Mackay]

So my neighbor and I were talking about how to manage cooking if the SHTF and there was no electicity. We talked about cooking on a wood stove and came to the conclusion that it may never cook rice cause a wood stove does not get hot enough.


I have gotten a pot of water steaming on the stove but never boiling so we were trying to figure out options for cooking with wood. We already have back up propane but if that ran out we would be stuck with wood and cooking rice and cooking dried beand is our main concern.

We decided that we needed to build a wood burner for outside use. You know those new things they sell at target and kmart for building a small fire in a metal, usually round, disk. It usually has a screen to cover.

If you take one of those, build a deep table that can hold sand, cut a hole in the middle for the disk, cover with a ceramic tile, you have an outdoor cooker. Now find a little cook stainless steel grill, round to set in the middle. Right now several neighbors have this home build tables that people can sit around in the evening with a fire. It is very pleasant in our chilly summer evenings.

But so finally here is my question.... on a wood stove, like a jotul or a Regency, a standard cast iron or steel wood stove, would a pressure cooker get hotter, would it be able to cook rice or beans if the stove was at a usual temp to heat the house in the winter?

Sure hope somebody knows....

 

[big brown horse]

Just curious, why would you need a pressure cooker to cook rice? My sister's Chinese great-god mother taught us how in any normal pot with a lid. (She taught us how to measure everything perfectly too without using measuring cups, but that is another story.) Are you going to use brown rice or white?

I have a homemade rocket stove now and it will bring a big pot of water to a boil faster than my stove. I think it cost me 30 bucks to build it with new materials from Lowes. eta: and it runs on yard waste.

 

[freemotion]

Yep, both the rocket stove and the cardboard box cooker are on my list yet again this summer. Something we should all learn to use, just in case. You can cook rice or beans in the box cooker, and the rocket stove should cook just about anything you want with a few gathered sticks. I have some pine trees, nice and dry, waiting for this project. They are not good for the wood stove but will be perfectly safe to burn in the rocket stove.

I can boil stuff on my little wood stove in my livingroom. I actually have a couple of horse shoes on it to lift the pots a bit if I don't want them to boil. I cook on it all the time in the winter. It is not a cook stove, and I couldn't get my pressure canner going on it and control the pressure in any way. I can't regulate the heat very well with it. It is usually going full-tilt.

I'm not sure about a wood stove heating a house if it can't bring a pot to a simmer....

The other option is to build a hot fire in a pit and put a cast iron dutch oven into the pit and pile it with coals and bury it for a few hours. Or use the old-fashioned version of the crock pot....the hay box. Bring the pot to a hard boil by standard methods, then insulate it with straw or hay for a few hours to contain the heat. Works like a slow cooker, but conserves fuel and would be a great method for warmer weather when you don't want to heat up the house.

 

[big brown horse]

Hey free, what is a cardboard box cooker?

Cool idea about the straw slow cooker. How would you keep the straw around the cooker? Dig a hole?

My house has no a.c. and it gets very warm in the kitchen. This is why I love cooking outside. Plus I have a serious "campfire smell" addiction.

 

[freemotion]

Hey free, what is a cardboard box cooker?

Cool idea about the straw slow cooker. How would you keep the straw around the cooker? Dig a hole?

My house has no a.c. and it gets very warm in the kitchen. This is why I love cooking outside. Plus I have a serious "campfire smell" addiction.

Here is a thread with some good links to instructions on pages 3 and 4 of the thread: http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=509&p=3

The hay box idea is from that book you told us about....what was the title? It was an autobiography of a woman who lived on a farm in the 30's as a child, her father left and her mother had to raise a bunch of kids on nothing. Remember? I'm pretty sure that is where I read about it. Filed it in my brain, but left out the citation.... It was a big box filled with hay or straw, and the pot was set into a nest of hay and covered with more hay. Sounded sort of how I insulate my yogurt in my cold house in the winter, except I take all the spare pillows and blankets and pile them all on the insulated cooler with the warm yogurt overnight. If it is really cold, I will even take the cushions off the sofa! Works great!

 

[big brown horse]

I just reread that book too, I must have skimmed over it.

 

[~gd]

So my neighbor and I were talking about how to manage cooking if the SHTF and there was no electicity. We talked about cooking on a wood stove and came to the conclusion that it may never cook rice cause a wood stove does not get hot enough.


I have gotten a pot of water steaming on the stove but never boiling so we were trying to figure out options for cooking with wood. We already have back up propane but if that ran out we would be stuck with wood and cooking rice and cooking dried beand is our main concern.

We decided that we needed to build a wood burner for outside use. You know those new things they sell at target and kmart for building a small fire in a metal, usually round, disk. It usually has a screen to cover.

If you take one of those, build a deep table that can hold sand, cut a hole in the middle for the disk, cover with a ceramic tile, you have an outdoor cooker. Now find a little cook stainless steel grill, round to set in the middle. Right now several neighbors have this home build tables that people can sit around in the evening with a fire. It is very pleasant in our chilly summer evenings.

But so finally here is my question.... on a wood stove, like a jotul or a Regency, a standard cast iron or steel wood stove, would a pressure cooker get hotter, would it be able to cook rice or beans if the stove was at a usual temp to heat the house in the winter?

Sure hope somebody knows....

Suggest you google wood cook stoves, whole different animal than the wood heating stoves you seem to be talking about. And yes they will boil water.

 

[Rebecka]

I've done rice on an open fire with a dutch oven. Maybe you could that in the fire box of your wood stove?

 

[Mackay]

Ive cooked on a real wood burning cook stove and had no problem but we dont have one.

The heat wood stove usually runs at 400 to 450 degrees. We have a thermometer on it. If it gets any hotter we get cooked out! Thats how well insulated we are. I've never seen it actually boil water.

Guess I will look into the rocket stove

I asked about the pressure cooker because it cooks very fast, hence needing less fuel. I was also thinking that the pressure might make up for less heat somehow.
Guess I will give it a try this winter on the wood stove and see what happens.

anyone have a good link for a rocket stove?

 

[sufficientforme]

I built this rocket stove and have no doubt it would cook rice quite well. I also put in my emergency supplies an aluminum rice pot. I should try it out but haven't :/
Youtube has several great rocket stove tutorials, I built the 16 brick but used more and did not mortar so it could be moved if needed.

We talked about them here http://sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2808