Pickup bed cooking

[Annarchy]

Cool. Did you have grease in it while it was preheating?

 

Most definitely, just enough to coat the surface, didn't want it to stick.

[Mother]

Very interesting thread.

 

A truck bed (and the windshield and interior even better) works like an insulated cooker (haybox cooker, etc) if the food is cut into small pieces and brought to a boil before placing them there. I know that's not the same as cooking without fuel but it sure conserves it and you can do a lot of different foods at a time. (someone will have to start a maifold cooking thread too)

 

Many times in the past I have used a car or van for dehydrating produce. In that case you actually have to cool and vent the vehicle to keep the temps down. I saw a bus made into a portable green house many years ago and their worst problem was cooling. I could see the possibilities of using that heat to cook with. That started me on my own experiments with our window van. I've baked biscuits in the front window (facing into the sun) with a reflective foil windshield cover propped behind on the steering wheel. Takes about three times as long (In Illinois at least) and they get only just tan but are done through and edible. I've used it for a large insulated cooker and for cooking grain but not for cooking whole chicken or meat products, just diced meat in a soup or stew. I use a thermometer to make sure of the temp though.

 

We really do need to know these types of things, not only for TSHTF but even just if fuel gets scarce or way too expensive to use. Violet is right in that we need to be safe when we experiment though. It does us no good to if we are not alive to say the experiment failed.

 

Violet, maybe you can tell us again what safe cooking temps are, time frames, and etc without discouraging us too much from learning what we can do if we have to. That way we'll at least have a frame of reference to go by and make it easier for you to read the thread too LOL.

 

Great thread....

 

 

 

 

 

[CrabGrassAcres]

I was thinking of taking a cardboard box and removing two sides so I'd be left with a bottom and two adjoining sides. Then covering it with foil and setting the pot on it.

 

I might try the windshield reflector on the steering wheel too. I'd like to compare the temps if I can get two equal pots going at the same time.

 

I haven't had a chance to do anything for several days and prob won't for a few more. Hard to cook in the truck when it isn't parked at home. LOL

[DonsCountryGal]

In another thread here, I had inquired about dehydrating food in the cab of a pickup. I placed two 2x4s to span from the seat back up to the dash as a brace to hold my drying frame. I have an oven thermometer placed in the middle and the temp during the day (for up to 10 hours) reaches between 125 and 150 degrees! Even on cloudy days, it often gets to 120 or so. It turns out really good dried fruit! DD wants to try cookies sometime too.

[ol'momma]

I was fooling around seeing what I could learn on the subject and turned this up:

http://solarcooking.org/

Though it might have some useful info if a person cared to dig it out.