Manual kitchen tools are important to have in your home in case of an emergency that includes no electricity. We inherited my childhood home from my Depression-era grandparents and I have been blessed enough to still have many of the high-quality manual kitchen tools that they used. But all is not lost if you weren’t this lucky! These kitchen gadgets can be found anywhere. Garage sales and thrift stores may be just the place to get the quality ones of the past, but IKEA, Target, Walmart and dollar stores sell most of these manual kitchen tools as well! Just always be thinking when you are in the kitchen “How could I make this if I didn’t have electricity?” I guarantee almost every new fancy appliance we have has an older generation solution! Here are some of my favorites!
My favorite manual kitchen tools for emergency preparedness:
- Cast-iron pans. I am SO blessed to have many of these from my great grandmothers farm. They connect and ground me to my roots every time I cook in them. Cast iron really is one of those things that gets better with age. Seasoning new cast iron pans are a lot of work. This is one thing I really suggest you find at a second hand store or garage sale. I have heard numerous complaints from preppers buying the ones at camping stores and then not getting them seasoned right. But if you cant find it there? Buy a new quality set, take the time to season them correctly and pass them onto your grandchildren someday.
- Tea Kettle-not your decorative kitchen one! A camping one like this can handle the high heat of outdoor flames. Remember, if electricity is out, you probably won’t be cooking indoors unless you have gas burners that you can light manually. Also remember in your preps that herbal teas are a great way sooth sore throats, sinuses, and calm nerves. You can use this as a quick way to boil water for packaged soups or instant coffee as well.
- Egg Timer– Just the regular wind up timer. It’s going to be pretty handy when you are trying to cook something without anyway to see how much time has passed!
- Can opener-That was this weeks Sunday Skill so I am sure you all went out and got one already!
- Thermometer-You are likely to be using cooking methods that aren’t part of your daily routine. Things cook much differently on a propane grill or open flame than they do in your kitchen. Have a thermometer that has the safe temperature of common items marked out on it like this:
- High quality kitchen hand tools like a masher, peeler, wisk, egg beater, large metal stirring spoons, and large heavy duty tongs.
- Camping Stove– This is common item many of us had growing up. I just don’t know how many families are big campers anymore so I want to throw this out there as likely the most important thing on this list. None of the other items matter if you have no way to cook! Make sure you have a camping stove and plenty of the small propane tanks for fuel! Depending on what part of the country you live in camping items may be very cheap right now. It’s a great time to invest in one if you don’t already have one. You never want to use one of these indoors but I have all intentions of using mine in a highly ventilated room (open window in the basement) if we should ever get to the horrible place where we don’t want neighbors to know we have hot food.
A camping stove and as much fuel as I could afford would be my highest priority on this list. The rest of the items are things you should look for as you are out and about and hit sales or stop by a thrift store one day and browse for them. But if you don’t have an alternative way to cook without drawing a lot of attention to yourself like using that big BBQ you have in the back that the whole neighborhood can smell, go figure out a solution TODAY!