How to eat in a blackout

[00:00] It's thunderstorm season here in East

[00:02] Tennessee, and we live in a neighborhood

[00:04] with tall trees, so it's only a matter

[00:07] of time until one of them falls on the

[00:09] power lines again. How do you feed

[00:12] yourself when the power goes out? What

[00:14] about all the stuff in the fridge? How

[00:16] long is this stuff going to last without

[00:18] power? Well, let's start there. The food

[00:21] safety guidelines that you will get from

[00:23] any government generally tell you the

[00:25] same basic ballpark figure, which is

[00:27] food in the fridge lasts about 4 hours.

[00:30] Now, that's the government safety

[00:32] talking. And so, it's probably a pretty

[00:34] conservative figure, but nonetheless one

[00:36] that we should all keep in mind. The

[00:38] freezer, on the other hand, is actually

[00:40] a lot more forgiving. Even according to

[00:42] the officials, uh, a half full freezer

[00:44] could last 24 hours. If it's chock full

[00:47] of stuff, like my basement freezer here,

[00:50] this is just a whole lot more mass for

[00:52] the same amount of ambient heat to warm

[00:55] up. So, the stuff in here can last for

[00:57] up to 48 hours. This is assuming that

[01:00] you aren't opening and closing the door

[01:02] constantly. Every time you open the

[01:04] door, the denser cold air sinks and

[01:06] spills out the bottom of the opening.

[01:09] This creates a vacuum inside the box,

[01:11] allowing warm air to push in. Opening

[01:13] the door a few times to get what you

[01:15] need is like no big deal. Most of the

[01:18] cold inside the fridge is effectively

[01:20] stored inside the mass of the food

[01:23] itself and the walls, etc. So, even if

[01:26] you fill this box with warm air, the

[01:28] ambient temperature in here is going to

[01:30] drop again as soon as we close the door.

[01:32] But definitely minimize door action.

[01:35] Open it once, take out everything you

[01:37] think you might need in the next like

[01:39] hour or so, and then close it. Why is

[01:42] the freezer different? Do the laws of

[01:44] thermodynamics work differently in here?

[01:46] No, of course not. It's just starting

[01:48] off way colder than the stuff in the

[01:50] fridge. Plus, it doesn't really like

[01:53] last 24 to 48 hours. It just remains

[01:56] safe after 24 to 48 hours. The quality

[02:00] is going to suffer. Like the

[02:01] construction crew that we have working

[02:03] down here right now accidentally

[02:04] unplugged this freezer the other day and

[02:06] it was off for almost a whole day before

[02:08] I noticed. Look at these nuggets. Look

[02:11] at the freezer burn on them. I mean,

[02:13] they're still safe to eat, but they're

[02:14] not going to taste as good. Most of

[02:16] today's frozen food is flash frozen at

[02:19] the factory. They get it incredibly cold

[02:22] incredibly fast, and that results in

[02:24] tiny, tiny little ice crystals. When we

[02:27] freeze or refreeze food at home with our

[02:29] home technology, it doesn't go as fast

[02:32] and the result is big ice crystals that

[02:35] puncture the cell walls of vegetables

[02:37] and meat. Like look at all this meat

[02:40] that I've got frozen in here. This stuff

[02:42] partially thawed and then refroz. Which

[02:45] means that if I were to just like grill

[02:47] it up, it would come out super dry cuz

[02:50] it would lose a lot of juice and the

[02:51] texture might be kind of gummy. I mean,

[02:54] if you use it in a stew or something,

[02:56] then you're going to be fine because

[02:58] it's a wet dish where things are

[02:59] supposed to fall apart. And that's why

[03:01] I'm saving this stuff. I'm going to use

[03:02] this in like sundae sauce. And that's

[03:04] what I think you should probably do if

[03:06] you lose power for a day or two. Don't

[03:09] expect your meat and veg to be anywhere

[03:11] near as good once it refreezes. It's

[03:13] going to fall apart. So, make a big old

[03:16] stew or something where the food is

[03:17] supposed to fall apart. As for the stuff

[03:19] in the fridge, the the soda and the beer

[03:22] and all of that, that's going to come

[03:23] back just fine. It's shelf stable. You

[03:25] don't even need to refrigerate it. But

[03:27] like the leftovers and the milk, yeah,

[03:31] that stuff you probably are going to

[03:32] need to throw out after you've had an

[03:34] extended power outage of more than 4

[03:36] hours. So, if the power goes out,

[03:38] consider having yourself a little feast

[03:40] of your most spoilable food over candle

[03:43] light. It'll be fun. And remember that

[03:45] your most effective food storage device

[03:47] is uh your own body. Once calories go in

[03:50] here, it can actually be pretty hard to

[03:52] get them back out again. Don't I know

[03:54] it. Of course, you may need to cook your

[03:56] most spoilable food before you can eat

[03:58] it. And if you have an electric stove,

[04:01] that could be a problem if the power's

[04:02] out. So, you might consider the sponsor

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[04:17] outage. For example, you could plug the

[04:19] fridge into the utility hookup right

[04:21] there and you could run it for up to 2

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[04:35] 1/2 hours with a gas generator. Plug in

[04:37] your phone right there while you wait.

[04:39] Plug in the stove to cook, or you could

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[05:17] Jackie. Anyway, if you have a gas stove,

[05:19] you're going to have a much easier time

[05:21] in a power outage. Gas lines are just a

[05:24] much harder target than power lines

[05:26] because a gas leak is a much bigger deal

[05:29] than a power outage. The gas lines are

[05:32] generally all buried and they're pretty

[05:34] tough. But modern gas stoves generally

[05:37] have electric igniters that might not

[05:39] work when the power is out. Here, let me

[05:41] unplug this to simulate. You might turn

[05:44] the knob and nothing happens even though

[05:46] you can smell the gas coming out. That's

[05:48] bad. This is a reason to keep one of

[05:50] these uh fire sticks around just to

[05:52] light it up and then turn the gas on and

[05:54] it ignites just fine. My grandma used a

[05:56] match. And just remember that if your

[05:58] power is out, that means your

[05:59] ventilation system is out. So, don't

[06:01] cook with a gas stove unless you've got

[06:04] big old windows that you can open. But

[06:06] this is one reason I always keep a

[06:08] charcoal grill around along with some

[06:09] charcoal to grill on. All you need for

[06:12] this is just some chunk of the out of

[06:14] doors and you can cook your food on it.

[06:16] Uh if your water isn't safe to drink,

[06:18] you can boil it on here. And even if I

[06:20] didn't have the grill, I could just cook

[06:21] with my charcoal chimney starter right

[06:24] here. These things are great not only

[06:25] for lighting charcoal generally, but

[06:27] also just as a cooking device. You can

[06:29] just start it going and then when it

[06:32] gets hot, you just take a grate and you

[06:34] can cook directly on top of the starter.

[06:36] Or you can take some hot charcoal, put

[06:38] it into like a metal bowl or something,

[06:39] put the grate on top of the bowl. All

[06:41] kinds of things you can do with

[06:42] charcoal. Now, if I've got you feeling

[06:44] like you can survive the apocalypse, uh,

[06:46] no you can't. These are all just

[06:48] techniques for coping with momentary

[06:50] disruptions to the systems that make all

[06:53] of our modern lives possible. By

[06:55] suburban standards, I live on a pretty

[06:57] big piece of property. It's a full acre.

[06:59] If I wanted to grow all of the food that

[07:01] I would need to feed my family of four,

[07:03] I would probably need about five times

[07:05] this much land. And I'm lucky that I

[07:07] live on dirt and not on rock or sand as

[07:10] so many other humans do. And obviously,

[07:12] I would need to cut down every single

[07:14] tree and then bust up all of this turf.

[07:16] And then I would need inputs. I would

[07:19] need seed. I would need fertilizer. I

[07:21] would need a lot more equipment than I

[07:22] have. And even then, think about the

[07:25] lives that our ancestors lived. People

[07:28] who had ancestral subsistence farming

[07:30] knowledge that you and I have lost. Even

[07:33] with all that knowledge, they still

[07:35] starve to death all the time in horrible

[07:38] famines when there was just uh one

[07:40] summer of bad weather or when uh one

[07:43] warlord came through and took your

[07:45] harvest to feed his men. Most of us on

[07:47] this planet are only alive right now

[07:49] thanks to a delicate web of

[07:51] interdependence or let's call it

[07:53] sharing. We're only able to survive

[07:55] because we have this global network of

[07:58] sharing. Prepping is not an excuse to

[08:01] opt out of the difficult social,

[08:03] economic, and political work of keeping

[08:06] all of these delicate systems up and

[08:08] running. Your bunker may be nice, but

[08:11] believe me, bro, you don't want to ever

[08:13] have to use it. By all means, stockpile

[08:15] the canned goods and the bottled water.

[08:18] Prepare for the worst, but let's work

[08:20] real hard to avoid the worst. Okay?