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Nickelless
Administrator
USA
5580 Posts |
 Posted - 01/28/2009 : 04:24:55
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quote:
Originally posted by legacypac
Visiting family in rural Malaysia now - not all homes have electricity, and if they are electrified sometimes its down for days. Gas is the cooking medium here. Gas can be stored in small or large tanks or piped to the house. In most areas for many disasters, I would think gas would continue to be available - and if not, figure out how to build a fire.
WOW, that's a long way from Canada! Is your family originally from Malaysia?
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deleted
105 Posts |
Posted - 02/01/2009 : 23:36:15
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quote:
Originally posted by Nickelless
quote:
Originally posted by drs499m
I figured those who already were in the mindset would like the cheapest/most cost effective/efficient way of doing things.
A box fan would use a lot more electricity than the fan on the dehydrator. And I think a $30 dehydrator would be a much more effective and inexpensive device than a homemade contraption like you're suggesting.
Considering it would cost me $.08 in energy, the filters are reusable for some time, the liners are practically free, and most of us own a box fan. I disagree. The food dehydrator, with equivalent drying space, is running @ 400 watts vs the fans 100 watts. |
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Nickelless
Administrator
USA
5580 Posts |
Posted - 02/02/2009 : 07:28:25
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quote:
Originally posted by drs499m
quote:
Originally posted by Nickelless
quote:
Originally posted by drs499m
I figured those who already were in the mindset would like the cheapest/most cost effective/efficient way of doing things.
A box fan would use a lot more electricity than the fan on the dehydrator. And I think a $30 dehydrator would be a much more effective and inexpensive device than a homemade contraption like you're suggesting.
Considering it would cost me $.08 in energy, the filters are reusable for some time, the liners are practically free, and most of us own a box fan. I disagree. The food dehydrator, with equivalent drying space, is running @ 400 watts vs the fans 100 watts.
OK, suggestion: If you have a dehydrator, go ahead and set that up with, say, diced apples or something comparable, then set up your box-fan contraption and see how long it takes for each machine to amply dry the food. I'm betting on the dehydrator because of the heat necessary to dehydrate items.
But I think the bigger point is that we try to do all we can to win over friends and family members to all things survival-oriented as a normal outgrowth of preparation in general. The weirder and more impractical the machine looks, the less inclined others will be to use something like it and the harder it will be for those of us in the preparedness community to convince others that what we're doing is not only normal but advisable.
Set up your two machines and give things a test run. I'd be curious to see the results. But given the difference in wattage between your fan and a dehydrator and the fact that the heat is much more concentrated in a dehydrator, I'd think that it would take multiple times as long to dry with your device than with a dehydrator, which would defeat the purpose. Beyond that, I'm not worried about saving 24 cents on electricity when for the time saved with a dehydrator I can prepare a lot more food more quickly for storage instead of waiting around to see if an alternative idea works or not. I'd rather have more food on hand than to have a neat new toy to prepare that food.
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--Latest article: Stocking up on spices to keep food preps lively
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Edited by - Nickelless on 02/02/2009 19:18:05 |
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1641 Posts |
Posted - 02/03/2009 : 09:09:38
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I would go pro instead of building my own for the sake of trying to obtain consistant results, but I would keep in mind the old fashion way of doing it too just in case electricity became unreliable.
Now if I lived in a California or Arizona I might feel differently, but here in Indiana weather (humidity for example) can be a real problem when trying to dehydrate stuff. I use to hang up herbs to dry with mixed results.
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Nickelless
Administrator
USA
5580 Posts |
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n/a
deleted
105 Posts |
Posted - 02/04/2009 : 12:57:04
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| The lack of heat is its best attribute. It keeps the flavors "fresh" and allows the food to be rehydrated without losing much flavor. |
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Nickelless
Administrator
USA
5580 Posts |
Posted - 02/04/2009 : 23:09:31
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quote:
Originally posted by drs499m
The lack of heat is its best attribute. It keeps the flavors "fresh" and allows the food to be rehydrated without losing much flavor.
But how long does your method take to dehydrate something as thoroughly as a regular dehydrator? For that matter, WTSHTF, I think slightly dulled flavor will be extremely secondary to just having food at all, which is why I think using a regular dehydrator is the only thing that really makes sense at this point in our economic history. I don't think time is on our side.
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Visit my new preparedness site: Preparedness.cc/SurvivalPrep.net
--Latest article: Stocking up on spices to keep food preps lively
---------------
Be prepared...and prepared to help: http://www.survivalblog.com/charity.html
Are you ready spiritually for hard times? http://www.jesusfreak.com/rapture.asp |
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deleted
105 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2009 : 15:24:35
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| Well, I was just in the kitchen filleting a salmon, and it occurred to me that no one had mentioned that you can "cook" fish by marinating it in acids like lemon/lime juice. It denatures the proteins, like heat does. |
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Nickelless
Administrator
USA
5580 Posts |
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keys
Penny Collector Member
383 Posts |
Posted - 02/11/2009 : 19:41:14
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I didn't know about the website that mentioned you could reduce rice's cooking time by putting it in water overnight-
I found that out myself. I figured if beans needed to be kept in water overnight before cooking, why not do the same for rice?
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Something I read from a book by Ragnar Benson (at least I think he mentioned this)
When he was a boy he was asked "how do you boil water in a plastic container without melting the plastic?" He thought and thought but couldn't think of a way.
He was told the way to do this was the same way the indians boiled water in heavy stone bowls (bowls that would have cracked if put on or over a fire.)
Get some clean smooth stones, wash them good before using. Heat the stones in a fire, put the hot stones into the stone bowl/plastic container filled with water, exchange the stones as often as possible until the water boils.
I suppose this idea would work along the lines of the one cup hot water heater, the water is heated, not the container holding the water. (Anybody remember the one cup water heater? They looked a bit like a soldering iron with a coil on the end that went into the water.)
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I change with the times-
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I stay the same.
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Cooking after TSHTF
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