Emergency Bread – Can You Bake Bread Without an Oven?
What would you eat if you were stranded without power? It could happen; it does happen. A natural disaster, a breakdown in the delivery system as the Northeast experienced recently, or a terrorist strike against the infrastructure could leave you without power. Don’t despair. You probably have a source of heat-a camp stove, a barbeque grill, a fireplace, or a place to build a fire to cook with. (Never use a grill or camp stove in an enclosed room.) In most cases, you can find a way to eat your daily bread–even without an oven.
Fry it. Those indulgent raised, glazed donuts are fried. You can do the same with any dough. Serve them hot with a little butter and syrup or honey and you will have a treat that the kids will clamor for-even without an emergency. Simply mix the bread as instructed and let the dough rise. Instead of forming loaves, roll or pat the dough on a counter until it is about 1/2-inch thick. Slice the dough into wedges, separate the pieces, and let them rise again until twice as thick. Heat a pan of oil until hot and slip the dough pieces two or three at a time into the hot oil. When one side is browned, turn the dough over. If the oil is hot enough, the dough should absorb little oil. When done, drain the fried bread on paper towels.
Boil it. Bagels are boiled. Actually, they are boiled and then baked. You can form your dough into a bagel shape, let it rise, and then gently slip it into a large pan of rapidly boiling water. Once the bread is firm, remove it with a slotted spoon, let dry, and then fry each side in a lightly greased skillet to create a crust and finish the cooking. The advantage in this technique is that you can use much less oil (and oil may be limited in an emergency) than deep frying.
Bake it. That’s right-even without an oven you can bake bread. It’s easy to do on most outdoor grills. (Be prepared. Always have extra propane or charcoal on hand but never use an outdoor grill indoors.) Baking requires heat from both above and below. If your grill doesn’t have a cover, use a bucket or tub to capture the heat and direct it down onto the bread. (You want as much heat coming from above as below.) If the bread is too close to the heat-as it likely is-stick something under the bread pan to raise it-a couple empty tuna cans, an old brick-almost anything will work as long as it doesn’t insulate the bread from the heat.
You can use a Dutch oven to bake bread. Line the Dutch oven with aluminum foil and place the dough on the foil or lay the bread pan in the Dutch oven. Stack hot coals on the lid.
You can bake bread over an open fire with two pans. Two pie tins will work for biscuits. To form a makeshift oven, put a large heavy pan on warm coals, a lid or baking sheet over the top, and stack on hot coals. Remember, you are trying to get as much heat from above as below. (The tendency is to have too much heat at the bottom.)
A good place to practice these techniques is on your next camping trip. You can become a real pro at making unconventional bread while enjoying the treat of fresh bread while camping. We guarantee that fresh bread over an open fire will make you the envy of the campground.
With a little imagination, you can bake almost any bread without an oven. If you want to try frying bread, most white or wheat bread recipes are nearly foolproof. Even without the emergency, it won’t go to waste.
We can hope that disaster never strikes but it’s nice to know that those bread fixin’s in the pantry can be used in an emergency.
This is an excerpt from The Prepared Pantry’s Emergency and Outdoor Bread Manual which is available free for download.
By: Dennis R Weaver
About the Author:
Dennis Weaver is the author of “How to Bake“, a free 250-page e-book. Which is free at The Prepared Pantry. The Prepared Pantry sells bread mixes and other baking mixes and offers a free Bread Center with recipes and techniques.
Categories: How To Bake Bread Tags: Boiling Water, Glazed Donuts, Spoon
A Good Gumbo Recipe!
I am going to give you my gumbo recipe. I learned to cook from my mother and grandmother who were born and raised in New Orleans and really knew how to cook. Most of the time, you could not get them to write down their recipes because they used a “pinch” of this and “just enough of that” and “two fingers of water” and so on. This recipe is a combination of both of their recipes which I have added to over the years. My brother cooks his gumbo a little different than mine and like all good cooks; he will tell you his is better.
You need a large pot. I like to use Magnalite brand pots which are what my mother always used for everything. I have cooked gumbo in other types of pots and it still tastes good. The magic of any good Creole dish is the “roux”. This is flour which is browned to a rich mahogany color. A lot of people try making the roux while they are cooking the vegetables in the bacon grease. My mother taught me to brown the flour first and then you can add it as you cook your gumbo. The advantage is you don’t have to worry about burning all your seasonings and you don’t have to watch everything as closely.
She would take a five pound bag of flour and brown it in a flat pan in the oven. This is only good for people who do a lot of cooking and even I don’t cook that much. I take a large Teflon frying pan and put in a cup or two of flour and under a medium to high heat slowly brown the flour. I constantly stir the four with a spoon or spatula and it will brown quite nicely in a matter of ten minutes or less. You can get it as brown as you want and if it burns, you have not wasted all your seasoning. Actually there are a lot of gravy and roux mixes on the market now and they work quite well as a roux so you can substitute that if you like. A brand named Tony Chacherie’s is a good choice. I buy a large container of gravy mix at Sam’s when I am feeling lazy. This would not meet with my mother or grandmother’s approval however.
Here is the recipe and Bon Apetit. Creole Gumbo
Recipe shared by Edgar M. Dapremont Jr.
1c. Chopped celery 1 large onion, chopped 1 large green bell pepper, chopped 4 tsp. File (if you can’t get this, it will still be a very good gumbo) 2 toes minced or chopped garlic 1 cup of all purpose flour 3/4 cup bacon grease 1 lb. Andouille sausage (a Cajun sausage) – if you can’t get this use a good smoked sausage 1 tbsp. Sugar 1/8 cc Tabasco 1/2 teaspoon Tony Chachere’s seasoning 3 Qt. Water 6 beef bouillon cubes 4 bay leaves 1/2 tsp. Dried leaf thyme 1(14 1/2-oz.) can stewed tomatoes 1 small can tomato sauce 2 (10oz.) Frozen cut okra, thawed 2 tblsp. White vinegar 1 or 2 lbs. of lump crabmeat 3 lbs. shrimp 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
ROUX: Add flour to 3/4 cup melted bacon grease in large heavy skillet and stir well to blend. Cook this over low medium heat stirring constantly until it becomes a dark mahogany rich brown color. This will take 20 to 30 minutes and it must be watched continuously and you must continue to stir until finished or flour will burn.
Alternate method of preparing Roux: I take the flour and brown it on a high fire while stirring constantly until it is a rich brown. I make the roux by then adding the brown flour to the bacon grease and then I just add the processed vegetables. I use brown flour a lot in gravies and soups so I have a big container of brown flour always available. (My mother browns 5 lbs. of flour in advance in her oven and then keeps it in the freezer for whenever she needs it. Both methods of making a roux work well but you just have to make sure it is good and rich brown.
VEGETABLES: Process the onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic in a food processor. Add sausage and the processed ingredients to the roux and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring constantly to saute the vegetables. Set this aside.
BOIL WATER: While preparing the roux and vegetables start the 3 quarts water to boiling in a large Dutch oven or Gumbo pot at least 6 Qt. Size. Add beef bouillon to boiling water to create a beef broth. Combine roux mixture to boiling broth and stir. Reduce heat and add bay leaves, thyme, tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar, salt, Tony’s seasoning, and Tabasco to boiling mixture. Simmer on low heat for 1 hour. At the 45 minute mark, add 2 teaspoons file to gumbo and stir.
OKRA: While the gumbo is cooking, cook the okra in a large frying pan with the 2-tablespoon of vinegar for about 15 or 20 minutes. Drain the fat off the okra and set aside.
CRABMEAT, SHRIMP, OKRA: After the gumbo has been cooking for about 1 hour, add crabmeat, shrimp, okra, and Worcestershire sauce. Cook for about 45 minutes more after adding these last ingredients. At the end add 2 more teaspoons of file.
Serve over rice.
Comments from Edgar: The gumbo can be frozen or refrigerated and many people like it better the next day. Bon Apetit!
By: Edgar Dapremont
About the Author:
I am a Board Certified Ophthalmologist who has been in practice for 30 years.
Categories: How To Cook Beef Tags: Bon Apetit, Gravy Mix, gumbo recept +ockra, kenyérgép recept, reteta gumbo, Spoon