Alternative cooking - sterno

[Bearman202]

Okay, checking a grid-down situation, I decided to do an experiment. Since I have an oven, (regular sized, kitchen stove) I thought I should check and see if I could use it with an altermative heat source. I have an oven thermometer, so I opened a can of sterno, put it in the oven, and lit it. The ambient room temp is 74 degrees. Following are the results:

15 minutes: no change
30 minutes: 125 degrees
60 minutes: 128 degrees
90 minutes: 145 degrees
120 minutes: 145 degrees

Fooey. What do you know of that will bake at 145 degrees? I was hoping for at least 325. Good to know before, though. Anybody: Please feel free to replicate this experiment. Even better, tell me how to make this work. I am shooting for at least 325 degrees. I think you can bake bread at 325.

[monkeybird]

Why not try it with one of those toaster ovens. A stove oven probably would never reach a cooking temp.

I have used sterno, along with the accompanying stove to cook bacon and eggs during a hurricane. The food was great. It will also boil water and make great coffee with one of those camp coffee pots.

I like sterno.

[Spock]

honestly I've used sterno before and other than using it to heat a can of beanie weenies I found it to be inadequate for anything else. a freind of mine has the coleman "oven" that sits on top of a propane or coleman gas stove. he's a true southern boy and has to have his biscuts and gravy when he's camping. it works for him.

[monkeybird]

I carry sterno and the accompanying stove in the bag in my car. I put it there, along with some instant coffee, after I read about those people stranded in a blizzard for over 24 hours.

[SCinPNW]

Years ago when I first got into prepping my friend and I tried boiling water with sterno. We timed it and everything, but like I said it was a long time ago and the only thing I remember is it took a long time to get the water even close to boiling. Whether or not it actually came to a boil I don't remember. Our overall conclusion was that sterno was not a reliable cooking source. Maybe if you tried using more than one sterno can at a time that might make a difference, not sure.

I do keep it on hand just in case however.

SC