"George,
I have done two published articles on “Fireless Cooking” (cooking with retained heat ), modern-day haybox cooking, bearing similarity to today’s posting about cooking rice in a pot that has had the fire turned off except that an insulated container is used to hold in the heat the pot has received. I have done fireless cooking many hundreds of times over 30 years in a variety of vessels and it works great. It is a way to potentially save a considerable amount of fuel in a crisis because most foods cook with no additional heat input beyond the point where boiling is achieved. I

www.solarcooking.org covers “fireless cooking” and every conceivable aspect of solar cooking, too, for those who might want to build their own solar cooker from scratch for a couple dollars. This is a huge website.

www.thermos.com carries Nissan vacuum products and they make the “Cook and Carry System” Fireless Cooker which I’ve personally used for 15 years. It is tremendously efficient and compact; has a 5 quart capacity. They had 4 sizes at one time but now just sell the one at $125. Their vacuum technology is head-and-shoulders the best in my testing. Their wide-mouthed thermos bottles make the best fireless cookers of this sort esp. where a portable unit is desired. Just pour in the boiling hot ingredients, seal it up and give it 2 to 2-1/2 hours for most foods (beans take longer and may benefit from a reheat.)

Another thing Aprovecho (www.aprovecho.org) has done work on is the “Rocket Stove”, a small cook stove that uses ridiculously small amounts of wood to cook a family’s food. See 40 pp. tech paper off their home page that also has a section on “Fireless Cooking”.

A lot of the best technology in the above areas is directed to Third World countries but it would behoove us to pay attention while the internet is readily available.

The commercially-produced “Zipp Stove” ( a wood-burning camping stove in two sizes from www.zzstove.com ) accomplishes a similar feat for a few bucks but the smaller unit requires a battery to power its draft fan. But I would still recommend knowing how to make and use a Rocket Stove if I lived where fuel might be an issue, which may be everywhere with the eco-nazis on the loose.

Another reader has thoughts about this, too:

The item about cooking rice in a pot (heat off) reminded me of "Thermos cooking". In short, you put whatever you're cooking in a pot, add water, and bring to a boil. Then pour it all into a vacuum insulated bottle. In a few hours your meal is ready. I tried it several years ago and it works great. For more info see: http://www.homestead.com/peaceandcarrots/Thermoscookinglinks.html

Home Stocking:

"Have your readers look at Sprouts... I've been buying the following in bulk.
http://www.wheatgrasskits.com/sprouting/5_part_salad_mix.htm 5 part salad mix Crunchy lentil fest and many others for variety

Then Spirulina, Grits, multi-grain cereal, Rice and seeds.
I have Chickens and Rabbits and then guns for protection..
Its funny how just about everyone at my work say that I can't stock pile enough for all of them and I just kindly remind them that I stock for my family and a select few and then bullets for the rest... They think I'm joking..."

And a question:

"I looked at the site about the 100 things that go missing first from a Sarajavo survivor.... Excellent reference list but #14 and #15 are missing.

Wonder what they were? They were near the top of the listings too."

Hmmm...haven't had time to look yet.... more tomorrow...