25 Survival Cooking Systems For Your Outdoor Kitchen

No Pots. No Pans. No Stoves. No Electricity. No Gas. No Problem!

During a nationwide electromagnetic pulse disturbance, all citizens will cook over an open fire with one of these survival cooking systems.

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Table of Contents

• No Pots. No Pans. No Stoves. No Electricity. No Gas. No Problem!
• Survival Cooking Systems To Cook Nutritious Meals
  • 1. Foil Meals
  • 2. Directly On Coals
  • 3. On A Stick
  • 4. On A Racquet
  • 5. Crane Roaster
  • 6. Shish Kabob
  • 7. Kabob Rotisserie
  • 8. On A Rock
  • 9. On A Plank
  • 10. Inside Food
  • 11. Leaves
  • 12. Vertical Spit Roaster
  • 13. Ground Oven
  • 14. Cardboard Box Oven
  • 15. Solar Oven
  • 16. Cooking With Bricks
  • 17. Foil Reflector Oven
  • 18. Glowing Log Arch
  • 19. Swedish Fire Log
  • 20. Paper Bag
  • 21. Ziploc Plastic Bag
  • 22. Boiling Water Without A Pot
  • 23. Stone Boiling
  • 24. Can Cooking
  • 25. Shovel Frying

Therefore, if you are not already in the survival preparedness mindset, you need to expand your horizons.

That means you need to try a different form of cooking that you’re not accustomed to using.

These survival cooking systems are not exactly simple, which means there’s more work involved in preparing a meal or making a cup of hot cocoa.

However, grilling a hot dog and cooking a cup of noodle soup, etc. is simple, if you don’t include making a fire.

Cooking a main dish on the other hand require some camping and/or outdoor cooking/grilling skills.

The good news for people already looking for alternative cooking methods is: These 25 survival cooking systems are available to help you accomplish this goal.

Survival Cooking Systems To Cook Nutritious Meals

Here are the best emergency cooking ideas to prepare meals using these different techniques:

1. Foil Meals

Use aluminum foil to create a sealed pouch using $1 plastic wrap in which to cook a variety of different foods.

Depending on your emergency food stores, you can add some interesting variations to the basic hamburger patty, sliced potatoes and sliced onions, etc. as foil meals.

2. Directly On Coals

Similar to foil meals, use aluminum foil to wrap food, usually a potato or an ear of corn.

Wrap a couple of times and place directly on coals to cook.

Rotate to avoid burning.

Cook until soft.

You even forgo the foil and cut potatoes directly in the ashes.

3. On A Stick

This is the classic camping method of cooking over a fire.

Almost everyone has cooked a marshmallow this way, but what about meat cubes, sausage or vegetables?

Camp biscuits can be cooked by wrapping dough around a stick and cooking it.

4. On A Racquet

Make a foil skillet by wrapping foil around a green stick that has been formed into a circle or around the open end of a Y-shaped branch.

Or, weave sticks together to make a “snowshoe”.

Single servings of hamburger, pork chop, fish, chicken breast, and steak can be cooked this way.

5. Crane Roaster

This method is similar to cooking on a stick or skewer except you stick the non-working end of the stick in the ground and use a Y-shaped branch to support the stick so the working end remains over the fire.

6. Shish Kabob

Just skewer a combination of meat, vegetables and fruit and place it directly on coals or a cooking grate.

7. Kabob Rotisserie

Raise your kabob above the fire for easy rotating by using a support on either end of the fire.

8. On A Rock

Find a flat, smooth rock and place it on hot coals.

Once water sizzles on top of the rock, it is ready to cook on.

Anything you would cook on a grill or in a skillet at home, can be cooked on a rock, from burgers to steaks, and fried eggs.

Caution: Carefully avoid using rocks that are wet, or that have recently been in water as they may explode.

9. On A Plank

Another simple method, used most often to cook fish, is plank grilling where food is cooked on a wooded plank or split log set vertically next to the fire.

The food can be pinned, nailed or wired to the plank to hold it in place.

10. Inside Food

Cooking food inside food can be a fun, and flavorful way to cook at camp.
Several tasty combinations include:

• Stew in a pumpkin
• Eggs in an orange
• Meatball in an onion/potato
• Baked beans in a pineapple
• A duck and a chicken inside a turkey, etc.

11. Leaves

Before there was aluminum foil, Native Americans used non-poisonous leaves to wrap their food before cooking on coals.

You can do the same.

Large green leaves, corn husks, and cabbage leaves all work well.

If cooking corn on the cob, pull the husks back without removing the silk, and replace the husks around the ear of corn and place it on fire.

12. Vertical Spit Roaster

Place sticks in the ground around the fire or build a tripod over the fire, and attach strips of meat or fish directly to the stick and let them slow roast from the heat of the fire.

13. Ground Oven

The ground oven or ground cooking pit is one of the most simple and long-used cooking systems known.

At its simplest, a ground oven is simply a pit in the ground used to trap heat and bake, smoke, or steam food, particularly in a Dutch Oven.

To bake food, the fire is built with dry wood, and then allowed to burn down to coals, and the food is placed in the oven and covered.

Since you’re on your property, it’s fine to dig a ground oven because you will need it often.

Also, this is a stealthy way of cooking if you don’t want nosy neighbors to know that you’re cooking.

Make your fire look like you’re smoldering trash or leaves.

14. Cardboard Box Oven

If you can’t afford an expensive solar oven, make a cardboard box oven and cover it with aluminum foil.

Remember to cover all of the cardboard with foil or your oven will catch fire!

15. Solar Oven

Around the world, solar ovens are increasingly used to reduce people’s reliance on firewood and other fuels.

A solar oven can be an effective way to cook when direct sunlight is available.

There are many ways to construct a solar oven using widely diverse ingredients from pizza delivery boxes to auto windshield shades.

16. Cooking With Bricks

Chicken Under A Brick is a classic recipe, whether cooking outdoors or in the kitchen, but foil wrapped bricks can also be used like cooking stones to cook upon directly, or can be pre-heated and used to sandwich food in between the bricks to cook more evenly and more quickly.

Paving stones, clay bricks, and fire bricks can all be used.

Marble countertop scraps work great as well.

17. Foil Reflector Oven

Reflector baking is a fun way to bake your favorite goodies, such as pizza, breads, cookies, pies, etc.

Many like reflector baking for two reasons.

First, when you reflector-bake, you can build your campfire high, with lots of flames.

This is great on a cold night or when you want to have campfire in the backyard.

Also, in reflector baking, you can see the food while it bakes.

This makes it easy to adjust the cooking time and temperature as needed.

While commercial reflector ovens are available, these ovens can be made using aluminum baking trays or aluminum foil.

18. Glowing Log Arch

Another simple way of using survival cooking systems is using a large log that has been partially burned through.

Turn it upside down and place the food on the hot ground beneath the glowing arch.

USE EXTREME CARE handling the burning log.

If not using a stick to move the log, then use heavy BBQ gloves.

19. Swedish Fire Log

Another simple way of using survival cooking systems is using a large log that has been partially split on top and burned through.

Place the food on the open flame.

USE EXTREME CARE when making the fire, cooking and handling the burning log.

BBQ gloves are recommended.

20. Paper Bag

To cook classic bacon and eggs, cut bacon strips in two, place at the bottom of the paper bag, covering the bottom.

It is important that you have thick strips of bacon as thin ones will stick and adhere to the paper bag when cooked.

A little cooking spray will eliminate the sticking.

Crack egg and put in paper bag on top of the bacon.

Fold lunch bag down three times and poke a hole through it with the stick, so that the bag is hanging on the end of the stick.

Hold over charcoal and watch the grease from the bacon protect the bag and cook the meal.

21. Ziploc Plastic Bag

Another classic way to cook eggs at home outdoors in in a Ziploc bag.

For a tasty omelet, place your favorite ingredients into a Ziploc bag with two eggs, mash it all together, write name on the bag and place the bag into rolling, boiling water.

Ten to fifteen minutes minutes later you can do a squish test with gloves on to test doneness.

Take it out of the water, open (watch out for hot steam), and squeeze onto plate. No clean up!

22. Boiling Water Without A Pot

If you are preparing food that requires hot water to reconstitute and you don’t have a pan, you can boil water directly on the fire using a paper cup, or a water bottle.

Don’t believe it? Try it!

23. Stone Boiling

One method that has been around since the Stone Age is called Stone Boiling.

Take several rounded river stones-preferably granite, basalt or some other igneous rock and heat in the fire.

Safely lift stones out of fire and into container of water or liquid.

Heat will be drawn from the stones bringing it to a boil.

24. Can Cooking

Any canned vegetable can be cooked in the can it was purchased in once the lid and label are removed.

A “can” can also be fashioned from aluminum foil, shaped by wrapping around the base of a water bottle, then rolling down top edge for strength.

25. Shovel Frying

Frying on a shovel was an old trick used in the days of coal burning trains, by drivers and firemen alike.

Bacon, eggs, sausage and other culinary delights were cooked in the engine’s firebox on a well-used shovel.

New shovels have paint that can burn off during cooking.

Heaven forbid there is no power or energy to cook, but with a survivor’s mindset, you can at least prepare a hot meal and beverage for your and your family.

In good times, and when the everything is powered up, most people don’t want to cook much less roughing it with these survival cooking systems.

Nevertheless, adapting to survival cooking skills can be fun, and a learning experience.

None of the methods described above are difficult or time consuming, if you already have wood on hand and the other tools.

Don’t wait until the worst happens, get prepared and practice cooking nutritious meals in your outdoor survival kitchen.

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