Firelight, smoke and cooking smell giving your position away

If you are in a survival situation that includes societal collapse, how do you plan to cook food?

If you camp in the woods, enemies can spot the light of your campfire

People can see smoke from your fire for miles

Everyone can smell what you are cooking.

What plans have you made, and what recommendations can you give, for not giving away your presence in the midst of a crisis?

a reply to: tovenar
take food that doesn't need to be cooked.

a reply to: Thurisaz



can you spell it out? If it doesn't need to be cooked, it probably needs to be refrigerated. So that's a problem too. Doritos and ice cream sandwiches will only take you so far in the middle of martial law / zombie war / comet-impact.

a reply to: tovenar

Muesli bars, fruit and raw vegetables...tins of sardines/smokes fish/salami etc. There is plenty of food that does not need to be cooked and also does not need to be refrigerated.

In the daylight, if it is hot...you can even make bread without an oven.

originally posted by: tovenar
a reply to: Thurisaz



can you spell it out? If it doesn't need to be cooked, it probably needs to be refrigerated. So that's a problem too. Doritos and ice cream sandwiches will only take you so far in the middle of martial law / zombie war / comet-impact.

Some MRE's don't need to be cooked. Actually there is quite a bit of food that you can eat that doesn't need to be cooked.

small whisper stoves produce very little flame and no smoke. check it out. you can even heat water for bottles to keep warm.
Link

There are ways of building fire that put off less smoke along with keep it from being spotted at a distance.
Theres also the heat tabs the military use to cook over .. sterno .. or my favorite method from my days with s.o.g break off a small piece of c4 light it and proceed to cook .. (*note* do NOT stomp on the c4 to put it out once you finished cooking )

If to lazy to make fire .. after catch fish make sashimi no cooking required ..

a reply to: tovenar

Jerky, dried and salt cured meats. Dried fruit.

Nuts, trail mixes.

Flat breads can last quite a long time.

Hard cheeses if you can keep them wrapped up will last for quite a bit too.

Are you really planning to live like that? Just focus on things like: energy devices, how to erect mud hurts if needed, how to grow garden and aquaponics and think of spreading the know how outwards to get villages going. Never ever think of lone wolf survival, because thats not what we're here for.

Best bet would be canned food/dried/powdered, etc. In the long run, learn to salt cure or dry your meats. Eat more veggies, particularly ones that don't need cooking, preparing to remove toxins, etc.

Know your area, and about 500 miles in each direction. The plants, the climates, the animals. Industrial areas, factories, possible pollutants. Learn all the plants there, each use for them and the different ways to use them.

It's rough but if you do have to use a fire, a small, fast and hot burning fire is your friend.

Your best bet is no fire though. Hope that helps. I'm a vegetarian so it's easier for us if we know what we're looking for.

I'll just stay home and cook on the woodstove. I can keep a gun loaded hidden in many places around the house if needed.

I don't think it will get that bad anyway, but five percent of the people can effect a lot of people negatively. You have to understand that. I think it will be more the rich or prestigious that will do that, they will feel entitled and that is where the problem comes in. The people who have little will probably not be trying to steal others food, they will see opportunity to break into stores though and may rob people's gardens.

How will I carry all my coffee around in a backpack anyway. Coffee needs to be perked too so I would need a coffee pot with me. It would be hell to go without coffee.

a reply to: tovenar


The Dakota fire pit.
www.youtube.com...

Set up my fire in a place that i can overlook in a snipers hide.

When the fire is down to coals i will put the food on it and return to the snipers hide till the food is cooked and its ready to eat.

I will grab to food and return to the snipers hide.

I might get lucky with the fire as bait.

Fire makes great bait and will draw enemies from miles around.

If you see my fire be afraid.

If you don"t its because i know how to hide a fire.

It does not take a big fire to cook food.

I can light a big fire and go down wind and hide a very small fire.

Anyone hunting the fire will find the big one and i can take a shot.

Never fight fair.

a reply to: rickymouse

It got pretty bad when the soviet union fell apart. People were defending their back-yard gardens on pain of death--- and being forced to do so.

I've heard personal anecdotes of people shot for stealing pickets from a wooden fence, which they were planning to use for firewood. Defender also said they were actually testing the home-dweller, to see what kind of resistance they could muster. And warning shots were not considered a deterrent.

Probably in a city the smell of cooking would be ubiquitous (that means found everywhere) and so it wouldn't single you out. But those survivalists who believe in hiding in isolated areas will have something to think about.

originally posted by: eriktheawful
a reply to: tovenar

Jerky, dried and salt cured meats. Dried fruit.

Nuts, trail mixes.

Flat breads can last quite a long time.

Hard cheeses if you can keep them wrapped up will last for quite a bit too.

And a Big Mac can last for years...

Peace

don't forget your smell can give you away as well. be it things like soap, or even the food you eat, especially spices. my grandfather told me how they could smell the Japanese and know they were around due to their body odors due to the foods they ate. apparently the VC could smell Americans due to both soap and the food they ate. and apparently at decent distances away in both cases.

The dryer the wood the less smoke. Cook one meal at a time, don't try to cook the whole pig or deer. Not everyone will have MRE's. You can cook a whole squirrel and nobody will know. But if your in the woods for a extended time your sense of smell will improve and you can smell smoke from miles away.

a reply to: tovenar
Anyone that has had survival training or been in the military all know about the cigarette, cooking problems, but
one thing a lot of people forget about though is latrine placement or proper disposal of your own waste, this is a huge problem if you are not moving from site to site, to heck with food cooking etc, your own waste will prove to be much more detectable in regards to giving away your position, to potential enemies or law enforcement, hounds etc...
Depending on where you live at bears and other animals will lock on to that scent, even if you think you have it covered.
Long term inability to shower or have regular hygiene on par with garrison situations or in town, will prove to be a problem you need to worry about as well, 9 times out of ten, if it comes down to it, hounds will be used to assist in finding the preppers they might want to round up first.

originally posted by: tAcAnAvAn
small whisper stoves produce very little flame and no smoke. check it out. you can even heat water for bottles to keep warm.
Link

Those are lightweight stoves, but from extensive field experience they are fragile and tend to break/fail. The refillable fuel bottle *is* a plus, but as I said -- they tend to break/malfunction quite a bit.

From experience, this Snowpeak Gigapower stove is a lot more reliable:


The only downside is that you have to buy non-refillable fuel containers:


Usually, on extended backpacking trips or mountaineering ascents the fuel containers last quite a long time. If you can supplement their use with an actual fire from time to time, you can really stretch their use out.

I've used both MSR and Snowpeak products in the Alaska back country in harsh winter and summer conditions. I'd take the Snowpeak over the MSR any day. Don't get me wrong, MSR makes a decent product -- but they are expensive and can be broken easily. Their water filters are a prime example of their fragility.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I own something similar.
It fits in my pocket and is made by MSR.

Its perfect for coffee or tea in the morning and boils water in about 3 minutes.
Thumbs up on that product.