Emergency Home Preparation

From my Girl Scout days.

BOX OVEN

Choose a sturdy box hat has the lid still attached. A beer case box is an excellent choice.

Place the box on one side.

Line the entire inside with heavy duty aluminum foil. Make the foil double on the side that will be the bottom.

Place four empty soup can inside to support the cooking pan. OR Use straightened metal coat hangers to create a cooking rack in the middle of the box.

Distribute white hot charcoal, one for every forty degrees of heat needed.
The charcoals can either be in an established fire pit or can be placed inside around the bottom of the oven.

I always did the fire pit.

Place pan of food on cans or rack.

Close box carefully.

Cooking time is about the same as a home oven.

Directions from AlohaOR (Member, ReadyMoms Alliance):

And while I've got my Girl Scout leader hat on, here are the directions for making a box oven (to be used outside since it uses charcoal):

Supplies:
Cardboard box with flaps removed (the "banker's box" size works well)
Heavy duty Aluminum foil
Scissors
Raised grill that fits inside the box. For example, use 4 empty 14-oz cans with a round cooling rack on top.
Optional: disposable aluminum pan for the charcoal

Cover the cardboard box inside and out COMPLETELY with aluminum foil, placing the shiny side out.
The bottom of the box will be the top of the oven.

To use the oven, light the charcoal, then place the raised grill over the charcoal and place the pan with the food to be baked on the grill. The grill should be raised at least 6" above the charcoal. Set the box over the food and charcoal. Prop up one end of the oven with a stone to allow the air circulation for the charcoal or cut air vents along the lower edge of the oven. Control the baking temperature of the oven by the number of pieces of charcoal used. Each piece of charcoal supplies 35-40 degrees of heat. Optional: Construct a removable oven top or oven door.

Bake bread, brownies, roast chicken, pizza, coffee cake etc. Works just like a regular oven. Suggested baking times--30 minutes or less.

Caution: Never use charcoal indoors.

HOW TO: Building a Box Oven

Adventures in Self Reliance

Building a Wonderbox Style Insulated Cooking Box
http://selfrelianceadventures.blogspot.com/2009/11/building-wonderbox-style-insulated.html

Having enough fuel to keep warm and cook food in an emergency is an often overlooked area of preparedness. One way to preserve fuel is to use an insulated cooker like the Wonderbox. The Wonderbox was developed in the 1960's by Anna Pearse, a South African philanthropist, for use in third world countries. It has been used for several years through her charity Compassion. In 1977, Women for Peace became the umbrella for the establishment of the Wonderbox project. So there's your history lesson for today.

The insulated cooking box works kind of like a thermos. You put hot food in it and it continues to cook because of the insulating factor of the box. I'll do another post on cooking in the box. For today, we're just building it. --- Continued at link, above ---

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Adventures in Self Reliance

Using a Wonderbox Style Insulated Cooker
http://selfrelianceadventures.blogspot.com/2009/11/using-wonderbox-style-insulated-cooker.html

For instructions on making your Insulated Cooking Box, read this post from yesterday.

To use your box, you'll need --- Continued at link, above ---

Wonder Oven



10 Reasons to Have a Wonder Oven
https://americanpreppersnetwork.com/10-reasons-to-have-a-wonder-oven/

In the depression when times called for conserving and stretching a budget, people came up with ways to save on cooking fuel costs. By using an insulated hay box they were able to cut down on the cost of cooking and baking foods. Food was brought up to a boil or to a certain temperature and then placed into the hay box. The hay box was usually a wooden box and had lots of hay stuffed on all sides of the enclosed pan that maintained the temperature. This process of cooking worked to allow the food to retain the heat by using insulation.
Today there is even a better option to the hay box. --- CONTINUED at LINK, above ---

Includes:

• Directions for construction
• Cooking Times for Food

Box Oven-Styrofoam stuffed Fabric Bag for Insulation



http://everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/you-can-save-lot-of-your-fuel-needs-on.html

You can save a lot of your fuel needs on those less than sunny days by using a rocket stove. (see previous posts) But you can save even more fuel by using a thermal cooker (pictured at bottom) or a wonder box. (pictured at top and middle) These are heat retention cookers. --- CONTINUED at LINK, above ---

Wonder Oven-General Information



A Word about Wonder Ovens
http://eatingfoodstorage.blogspot.com/2010/02/word-about-wonder-ovens.html

We have been counseled to store a year's worth of food and fuel where possible. The food I have but fuel is a whole other issue. I quickly realized that it was logistically impossible to store a year's worth of any kind of fuel for a family as large as mine. Especially considering the types of food we store, long grain rice, dry beans, etc. Items that have to boil for hours to be edible. I was looking at mountains of propane, or charcoal, or whatever. Just not feasible.

Then I discovered the Wonder Oven. --- CONTINUED at LINK, above ---

Wonder Box (PDF File)
http://www.iwillprepare.com/files/pdf/handout-wonder_box_instructions.pdf

A wonder box is a heat retention cooker. After you bring your food to a boil, (so it is heated throughout) using any number of cooking methods, you remove it from the heat source and quickly place the pot inside the wonder box. The insulation of the wonderbox will slow your food’s loss of heat keeping at cooking temperatures for hours. Using a wonder box reduces the amount of fuel needed to cook your meal because the fuel that would normally be used to keep your food at cooking temperatures after it has started boiling is eliminated.

Includes Materials needed & Instructions to make ---CONTINUED---