The smell of cooking

[CryHavoc]

Not sure if this goes here or Survival Skills.

Saw this on another board and I thought I'd post something about it here.

How do you conceal the smell of your cooking in a PAW? Especially if you are surrounded by other people who may be starving? The smell of something cooking (nice, crispy bacon, for instance) might draw people a long way.

[proteus]

you could always resort to cooking dehydrated foo...which is in an airtight bag (mountain house meals) that will minimize the sent or cooking. You could also just cook indoors with all the exits and windows closed...

[ITZombie]

Just off the top of my head -

Cook things that don't have a lot of smell like oats, wheat, rice or pasta. Or taste but you can add flavor later in the form of spices. You are stockpiling spices right?

Cook indoors. Unless we're pan frying steak restaurant style (smokin' hot cast iron pan and then into a 500 degree oven) you can't really tell we're cooking outside the house much less far away for almost any meal we cook and even then the windows have to be open or I'm venting the smoke outside. Cooking outdoors, especially things that have fats in them is going to carry, got nothing there for you other than cut it then and cook it fast over a rocket stove rather than a grill.

Cook in bulk once and then eat it just warmed up over the next few days.

[azrael99]

i intend to buy a bulk load of MRE, those can be cooked without smell other than a small chemical smell from the packaging

but i agree that oat, rice and similar food can be cooked without strong smell.

[Mampfies]

Google "Haybox cooking"--food is brought to a boil, then sealed into the haybox to finish cooking.

A pressure cooker doesn't release much odor.

Broil your steaks when you're burning the trash or fertilizing the garden with nightsoil.

[azrael99]

i wonder if cooking food under the burning ash would produce smell ?

like meat, potato, or others thing.

i did and tasted a pizza cooked on burning ash many years ago. it was so tasty, the pizza got the smell and taste of the wood and the smoke

[duodecima]

Cooking indoors is a good idea if feasible, but some types of stoves shouldn't be used without really good ventilation, carbon monoxide can be an issue.

Cooking ahead will work well for some things (bread, baking), but watch out for foods that don't keep well without refrigeration.

[JesterODX]

If I have to cook out side I'm not really gonna give a darn about the smell cause I think I will have other things to be worried about at that point.



EDIT: I didnt want to sound like a smart arse with that statement. I dont see how you can easily conceal the smell of food. And I truely wouldnt even try.

[NamelessStain]

Mr SHTF (Selco) talked about that in some of his posts. Basically he said that the other smells such as filth and sewage covered most of the cooking smells. I personally would probably not cook such items if I don't know what's in my immediate area. For example: If people are walking around my area pillaging (no, not condoning it) then I'd probably stick to MREs and Mountain House foods. If I was on a beach, I'd wait for the morning to cook them since the winds would carry the smells out to sea.

Basically, know your area and you should be fine if you take precautions.

[NachoBorracho]

I think if you get to the point where you are worried about it, there are a lot of more pressing issues to worry about. Also, I think at that point you are cooking whatever you have left to eat. The isn't really a big deal within the first few days of PAW. It comes into play a little later. Maybe cooking at odd hours, such as the middle of the night can help. If there is no power people will be asleep early. Also, I would prep everything ahead of time, so that the actual cooking time is minimized.

[dizie]

What about high ground. If you had time in paw, to build a tree house shelter. You could see who is coming. And im pretty sure zombies cant climb trees.

Or low ground, dig a big azz hole with a cooking tunnel.

[BigDaddyTX]

I was thinking you could just boil the food with a lid, no matter what it is. Yeah, soup smells good, but it doesn't have the distance that grilled meat or frying bacon does. I've never smelled my neighbors outside cooking soup all the way down the block, but I damn sure know when they're bbqing.

[KnightoftheRoc]

Cooking indoors is a good idea if feasible, but some types of stoves shouldn't be used without really good ventilation, carbon monoxide can be an issue.

Cooking ahead will work well for some things (bread, baking), but watch out for foods that don't keep well without refrigeration.

A good point, but I wouldn't be worried about the CO issue. We've used a gas stove for ages, with no over-the-stove ventilation, and the CO detector never goes off unless we're doing something like Thanksgiving dinner with the windows closed. And then, only because every burner is going full tilt in addition to the oven. If you're going to cook with gas, ventilation is a concern, but not the first thing I'd worry about if cooking in the PAW. Simply keeping the house closed up and NOT using the stove ventilation/ exhaust fan (power may be off anyway) should deal with it pretty well. Allow the house to breathe naturally, cook in small 'doses' as opposed to big dinners like Thanksgiving or Christmas, and the smells will diffuse as the house breathes in levels so small no one's going to notice them.

I know a lot of people will be trying to maintain as normal an operation to the house as possible. Consider taking a walk some warm evening, and noticing neighborhood smells. Who's having steak tonight? Drying laundry? Got the fireplace lit? Barbecuing? Add in the smells of an oil burner running (think diesel smoke here if you're not familiar with it), or a wood stove going, and you can start to imagine the kinds of smells that can give away information you may not want to share. Gas fueled appliances minimize this stuff quite a bit, as the exhaust gas is primarily CO2 and water vapor, neither of which "smells". Both LP and natural gas work for this.

Once you notice the smells of normal life, think about what smells you are producing, and how you can minimize or eliminate them- it's easier than you think.

[Ajira]

People that (have) smoke(d) a "bong" might be familiar with the principle: If your chimney ends up underwater, it greatly disperse smoke and reduce odors; because the particles in the smoke that give off the smell rapidly cool down and bind to the water; rather than becoming airborn. It will give some bubbling in the water and the water won't be pretty or drinkable, but it works like a charm.

[KnightoftheRoc]

People that (have) smoke(d) a "bong" might be familiar with the principle: If your chimney ends up underwater, it greatly disperse smoke and reduce odors; because the particles in the smoke that give off the smell rapidly cool down and bind to the water; rather than becoming airborn. It will give some bubbling in the water and the water won't be pretty or drinkable, but it works like a charm.

The problem with this in an actual chimney, is that it won't draft like it should, so the flammable bits will build up in it much faster. Creosote, cooking grease, or whatever it's clearing out, can be the source of a fire that wipes out the entire building. On a small scale, it works- but on a house sized model, it would be a recipe for disaster- and didn't a disaster bring about this scenario in the first place? Why create a second one?

Also, if your chimney is ACTUALLY under water, and not figuratively so with some contrived waterpipe device, I doubt you're getting the stove lit for dinner.

[Ajira]

Yes, the airflow could be a problem; i hadn't even thought of that

[Doctorr Fabulous]

Remember that bongs/hookahs have forced induction.

[crypto]

I could always smell when the stoners in the apartment next to me were ripping bong hits anyway, so that probably isn't the wisest strategy

[Jeriah]

It seems like there is a huge difference in the problems/solutions for this, depending on whether we're talking about a.) on a bugout, b.) while bugging in, and c.) while at your BOL. (If your residence is rural enough then b. and c. may be the same.)

It's been my experience that most backpacking food, i.e. Mountain House, and MRE's, doesn't have much smell. On the other hand, meats cooked at high temperature (bacon etc.) tend to have much more. So I would worry about this situation the most if I was bugging out, had caught a game animal, and wanted to cook it. I'd say boiling it as a soup would be safest, and also preserves most of the nutrition on it (no fat dripping off = you get to eat all that fat), so although maybe the least appetizing, that's probably the safest bet.

In your BOL, hopefully you're remote enough and have enough perimeter security that nobody is within nose-range of your cooking setup anyway, but it is good to consider things like, say, not having a big open-pit BBQ outside.

Bugging in, in an urban area, is the one case where I'd really worry about this. If your neighbors are starving and they smell your cooking, they'll come a knocking. They might even be polite about it at first. But, if their kids are hungry, they'll get more and more insistent. Boiling with a lid may help, but eating cold canned foods might be safest.

I know at lot of this has been said, I mostly just wanted to point out the distinction between situations.

[KnightoftheRoc]

For canned goods, you can cook them in the unopened can/jar by setting the jar in a pot of water, and bringing it to a boil. This also has the benefit of purifying the water AND the outside of the cans while doing it, with no smells to worry about. In fact, if you do have smells, you probably don't want to be using that water. Cooking inside the can is safe- the food in it was cooked in the can at the factory, and at higher temps, so warming it with boiling water isn't going to contaminate anything. You'll still have the smell of cooked food once the cans get opened, tho.

[Ajira]

What about the coating inside the can, that keeps it watertight ? Lots of cans have those, and you wouldn't want that stuff in your food.

[Weaver]

Bugging in, in an urban area, is the one case where I'd really worry about this. If your neighbors are starving and they smell your cooking, they'll come a knocking. They might even be polite about it at first. But, if their kids are hungry, they'll get more and more insistent. Boiling with a lid may help, but eating cold canned foods might be safest.

I have a horrible feeling that there's more then a few people out there whose 'answer' would be to shoot anyone who comes to their door.

[zombiepreparation]

It seems like there is a huge difference in the problems/solutions for this, depending on whether we're talking about a.) on a bugout, b.) while bugging in, and c.) while at your BOL. (If your residence is rural enough then b. and c. may be the same.)
<snip>
Bugging in, in an urban area, is the one case where I'd really worry about this. If your neighbors are starving and they smell your cooking, they'll come a knocking. They might even be polite about it at first. But, if their kids are hungry, they'll get more and more insistent. Boiling with a lid may help, but eating cold canned foods might be safest.

I know at lot of this has been said, I mostly just wanted to point out the distinction between situations.

This is me. Bugging In in an urban area. Or Bugging Out with hundreds close by also on the run. (I doubt "I" will go it in the woods alone as I doubt I could effectively do so... even if we had woods) This has been a personal puzzle for me. How to eat when no-one else has food.

So, most of my food supplies that have been prepped can be eaten out of a can or re-hydraded or sprouted and consumed if necessary. No cooking necessarily 'required' for consumption outside of legumes, breads, pastas, and eggs as of this prepping post. For better taste and comfort sure, but not required if that need is there.

For my actual Bug Out I carry four one cup size Ziplock cups (or something like Ziplock) that nest and that have screw on lids and Ziplocks full of powder looking stuff; dehydrated humus, spinach, parsley, oats, curry lentil soup, pea soup, milk, vegetables, potatoes, etc. etc. I have ground those items down to a powder which I hope is easily dipped into and not instantly recognizable as anything appealing or even food at all. Plus teas in tea-bags, instant rice, grits, dried fruit to be soaked and/or re-hydrated before consumption, plus barley, quinoa, wheat berries, lentils to be sprouted in those little cups in the dark of my pack until ready to be eaten.

My own idea, which I have now practiced with success, is place an amount of the powder of my choice in one of my Ziplock cups with screw on lid (or whatever brand they are), add water, and carry it with me (sitting/moving on/being in place for sleeping) until I feel it is re-hydrated enough for best digestion. Then drink it when appropriate to do so surreptitiously or boldly I guess as merely a cup of water for cover maybe. I can down a cup of liquid fairly fast and I hope to pour more water in the cup and quietly swirl repeatedly until it is as clean as I can get it while drinking the wash water.

I have normal size plastic pop bottles for obvious water consumption, with concealed 2 ltr. juice bottles of water for refilling the pop bottle. My olive oil for brain function is carried in two pop bottles identical to the 'water' pop bottles and I can 'drink' what I need of the oil quite easily then re-stash the 'oil' bottle. In a Bug Out I will be carrying no cans of food.

There will be no aroma for sure, hopefully I can do this clandestinely if needed... or boldly if that attracts less attention because everything hopefully looks like 'drinking water' and others still have water at that time and/or maybe not attracted by a singular pop bottle and a little one cup size plastic cup with a lid but rather looking, if looking to "take", could find this singular plastic cup and bottle not worth their time.

In a Bug Out I will be carrying the individual servings of Spam, peanut butter, and fish which are aromatic upon opening (especially the fish) so I would need to be extra careful if I am on the (metaphorical) road but would not be detectable within my apartment where I will have much larger containers available of course for Bugging In.

This is me so far and recognizably new to this. I will be following this thread for more and/or better information on this topic.

[edit]: I wonder if I could grind down the instant rice and instant grits to powder too. I can carry more in the same space if it is in powder form and once again it is not perhaps not so readily identifiable as food and easier to reconstitute. I need to do a test.

[ODA 226]

All cooking has a very distinctive smell, especially to those that haven't eaten in a while or have been out in the bush for a long period of time. When I was in the bush for more than a week, I could smell a cigarette from a couple hundred meters away. Fresh bread from almost a kilometer.

There is no way to hide the smell of a fire or cooking on a fire or cooking with trioxene or propane or butane.. All you can do is reduce the smell by making wise choices regarding the type of fire you make to do your cooking, but nevertheless, a hungry person will follow the smell directly to your location. So will bears and wolves or what ever else there is in the woods that can eat your ass.