Cooking in a grid down situation.

[O.S.O.K. 1961]

Last year when the power was down, I was living in an apartment. But I had a way to cook - a nifty little alcohol stove. Now the was sufficient to get me hot coffee and meals, but I would have liked to do some grilling - especially since the meat from my freezer was slowly defrosting.... There was a communal grill but I had no charcoal... go figure. At least I had my little stove.

So I've moved and now have a little house which makes me very happy. And I've been working to round out my preps. Today, my KUDU grill arrived.

It's a cool Australian style wood burning grill. Here's the web site: https://kudugrills.com/ They've got a sale going and that enticed me to pull the trigger = $100 off normal price.

I haven't unpacked it yet but I can tell you it is very heavy. I am really looking forward to using it. The legs are self-leveling.

Now, I have to get some good split mesquite wood. I've found a guy on the southwest side here in SA on Craig's list that actually delivers - $110 for a 1/2 cord which is plenty I figure - that would keep me going for a while. That's 2'x8'x4'.

Anybody have a good source you can recommend? I would really rather have like 1 1/2' long pieces as the grill is about 2' in diameter... I also have a splitter thing coming that you put the wood into and then hit with a hammer and it splits against the blade down in it. This is for cooking so I want small pieces...

I need to construct a simple rack for the wood to keep it up off the ground... I have several projects planned - a back deck is another one - to put the grill on.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

I have a gas stove top.

 

[Vaquero]

Wood.

 

[General Zod]

I've got a 60+ year old charcoal grill. It does the job nicely and has basically two moving parts - the lid and the grill grate.

 

[Fishkiller]

Get a chain saw, then a hydraulic wood splitter the find downed trees. Ask landowner to remove. A bit of work but you got wood to cook on

 

[no2gates]

When our power went out last February for 5 days, we luckily had a butane stove with 12 canisters. Used 2 of them in those 5 days.
We made a lot of hot food for us and our next door neighbors (who had Covid at the time), so they really appreciated it. The stove cost around $40 and worked great. One of the best investments we've made.
I also had a 4500 watt generator which was still brand new in the wrapper until then. Yes, I know it wasn't really smart of me to not test it before. That thing ran 24/7 for 5 days, only stopping twice a day to refuel. And yes I know you're supposed to change the oil after the first 25 hours of use, but that plan went out the window.

 

[O.S.O.K. 1961]

Get a chain saw, then a hydraulic wood splitter the find downed trees. Ask landowner to remove. A bit of work but you got wood to cook on

Oh, the wood splitter I'm getting is just to reduce the already split wood down to small cooking pieces. I do have a friend that has access to a lot of mesquite on a ranch nw of Austin.. and I do have a chain saw... a nice one -but it's buried in a box in my garage... it's going to be some time before I find it... so for $110 I'll just buy some for now...

 

[Grumps21]

I have my Weber gas grill with 3 tanks in rotation. 2 full + whatever is hooked on the grill. The freeze last year inspired me to pull out my 90s era Coleman stove that hasn’t been used, well…. since the 90s. Dumped the old fuel, cleaned it then fired it up. Worked like a champ. I have about a gallon of Coleman fuel, and I *think* I can run unleaded gas in a pinch but I need to read up on that. It says white gas which is why Im thinking unleaded. If it comes down to it, I have a wood burning fireplace I could use if I absolutely had to.

 

[O.S.O.K. 1961]

I've got a 60+ year old charcoal grill. It does the job nicely and has basically two moving parts - the lid and the grill grate.

Cool. Of course, you can use wood in that too - but mesquite burns pretty hot - maybe stick with live oak? Or just buy extra bags of charcoal - it keeps.

I had a nice Texas smoker grill but I left it in Mississippi the last time I moved...

 

[O.S.O.K. 1961]

I have a gas stove top.

I do too - but I wonder if it will continue to flow if the grid goes down for an extended period of time? I don't know.. but don't ruin my grid down grilling fantasy! lol lol

 

[General Zod]

Cool. Of course, you can use wood in that too - but mesquite burns pretty hot - maybe stick with live oak? Or just buy extra bags of charcoal - it keeps.

I had a nice Texas smoker grill but I left it in Mississippi the last time I moved...

This is a pretty sturdy grill - it's not made of sheet metal. It's half inch thick cast aluminum. It's done well with wood fires in the past. And hey, there's no reason I can't just build a mesquite campfire and cook over that!

 

[Grumps21]

Slightly off topic, but still related. Is huisache any good for cooking? We have a ton of it at the farm and would be free to me

 

[O.S.O.K. 1961]

Slightly off topic, but still related. Is huisache any good for cooking? We have a ton of it at the farm and would be free to me

Sweet Acacia... I had to google it I must admit.... and found this: "Other historic and current uses of huisache include medicine, wood, dye, tannin, ink, pottery, glue, toothbrushes and firewood. David Vaughan cautions that, although huisache and mesquite wood have similar appearance, grilling meat over huisache wood will ruin it."

So, no, not good for cooking over... but fine for burning. At least according to David Vaughan whoever he is lol

 

[General Zod]

Slightly off topic, but still related. Is huisache any good for cooking? We have a ton of it at the farm and would be free to me

Unearthly fragrance, cat-scratching thorns

The portals of heaven open to announce spring will soon return—that’s the only way that I can describe the aroma of huisache in bloom

npsot.org

According to this (oh, look, a source...)

"Other historic and current uses of huisache include medicine, wood, dye, tannin, ink, pottery, glue, toothbrushes and firewood. David Vaughan cautions that, although huisache and mesquite wood have similar appearance, grilling meat over huisache wood will ruin it.

Plants for a Future website provides details of various parts of huisache used as astringent and demulcent; and in treatment of wounds, skin inflammations, swellings, sore throat, diarrhea, typhoid, stomachic, dyspepsia, dysentery, leucorrhoea, conjunctivitis, uterorrhagia, neuroses and headaches."

 

[General Zod]

BTW, this is the grill I have. Pic was taken right after I built its new stand - the third it's had since I've been around, and this one uses a couple of lengths of aluminum tubing from the previous one.

 

[O.S.O.K. 1961]

BTW, this is the grill I have. Pic was taken right after I built its new stand - the third it's had since I've been around, and this one uses a couple of lengths of aluminum tubing from the previous one.

View attachment 350374

I like that it's wide enough to put wood in easily. Very versatile and has the lid to easily do some smoking too.

 

[General Zod]

I like that it's wide enough to put wood in easily. Very versatile and has the lid to easily do some smoking too.

For an extremely simple grill, it's surprisingly versatile.

 

[skfullgun]

Propane two-burner with connection to bulk. I’ve used it through several hurricane recoveries.

Charcoal grill supplements nicely. Don’t use oleander to bbq like my dumbass neighbor did during Ike.

 

[Axxe55]

A good option is a Coleman gas stove for cooking

 

[billtool]

If the natural gas keeps running- we’re all good. Grill/side burners/stove/house Genny are all good. If the nat gas dries up, I have some woods out back and not an insignificant amount of solid fuel squares and a purpose built stove for same. We’re getting more and more interested in preparing for an upcoming mess. Sure hope it’s money poorly spent.