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Food and cooking
Kitchen in a crisis
Cooking during a power cut or gas outage: camping stoves, cooker boxes, carbon monoxide safety and the kit that keeps a kitchen going.
By Slightly Anxious
1st July 2026 16 minute read
IN SHORT
Camping kit is the answer: a stove, a power station and a camping fridge for the essentials, plus disposable crockery to save water. Using it outdoors in normal times helps justify the cost.
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Arguably, when there is no imminent threat of danger, food is the most important part of any crisis situation. It doesn’t just sustain us physically but also mentally. Good hot food is vital for people getting through any emergency situation. Warmth and nourishment feed the body and soul and give you the strength to keep calm and carry on. This is why we put so much importance on it and so should you. If you consider yourself as even slightly responsible for how you and your loved ones will get through the next crisis, then please do carry on reading and also read our article ‘Curated Meals at Slightly Anxious’. We are here to turn your worries about your kitchen in an emergency into sense of pride in knowing you’re ready for any eventuality.
There is no disputing, that there is a high chance that in any future emergency situation, that you may have restricted choices in what food you can cook. These restrictions may be on your supply of food. Due to whatever catastrophe, food may not be making it to your supermarket shelves. Other kinds of emergency can make it impossible for you to make it to the shops. Then there are crises that mean you have no electricity, so you can't use your fridge or freezer or airfryer or microwave. You may have no gas so you can't use the oven or stove. Whatever the catastrophe, unless you’re prepared, you and your loved ones could go hungry and nobody wants that.
Let’s start by looking at where do we get our food normally when we want to make a meal. With the exception of takeaways, for most of us this comes from the fridge and/or freezer and from the kitchen cupboards. We have a varied supply of frozen, chilled, fresh and tinned/jarred/packaged food stuffs and for nearly all of us, the main ingredients, usually come from the fridge and/or freezer and other ingredients sourced from what we can collectively call ‘the pantry’ (shelves, cupboards, drawers etc.) – wouldn’t it be nice to actually have one! When considering how to prepare for an emergency, we have to accept that there is a very good chance that we lose the electricity to power the fridge/freezer. As you will have read in our article, ‘What to do when the power goes out’, it is possible to purchase back-up batteries or portable power stations to continue powering your appliances. As you will have also read that can be a very expensive route to go down and is not cost-effective as you can’t power them for very long. We just have to plan that our fridge/freezer will not have power.
When the fridge goes off
A fridge/freezer without power is a bit like a cooler, an insulated box. This means that for your fridge you have about 4 hours and for your freezer about 24 hours where all the food within it will be okay. You have to remember to keep doors and drawers closed. Then you have about 24 hours for the fridge and 48 hours for the freezer where everything is thawing out and the food is rapidly approaching too risky to eat. Anyone who is medically vulnerable should definitely avoid any food from longer than the okay stage. If its from the next few hours, use your common sense – smell it and inspect it – anything that seems off dispose of immediately. Dispose of everything if its gone past the 24/48 hour limit. Food poisoning in a time of emergency is probably the worst thing you can imagine. Just read our article ‘Hygiene is everything with Slightly Anxious’.
What we recommend is that you use the time while your fridge/freezer food is relatively safe to transfer your essentials to your emergency fridge/cooler if you want to use one. The advantage of having an emergency fridge/freezer is twofold; firstly, in the rare circumstance that you have to evacuate your property, it provides a relatively easily method for storing and transporting food, and secondly, as they are electrically powered, a portable power station can be used to keep the food chilled. If you can plug your fridge/freezer into a portable power station that is excellent, though how long it keeps it running is the question. The advantage of the emergency fridge/cooler is that it’s much smaller than your actual fridge/freezer so there is less that needs chilling, so less need for electricity and this means it can be kept chilled for longer.
When the fridge goes off
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Fridge food stays safe for about 4 hours
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Freezer food stays frozen for about 24 hours
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Then about 24 hours (fridge) and 48 hours (freezer) of thawing
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Camping fridge size: 35-45L for one, 50-70L for two, 75-95L for three or more
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Gas stoves must be used outdoors or in a very well-ventilated room
Camping fridges
Emergency fridge/coolers are just camping fridge coolers. They use electricity to keep things chilled, either mains or 12v, both of which a portable power station can provide. The capacity required is based on the number of people you will be looking after and for how long. We always suggest that you should plan on 7 days, and with that in mind, a rough rule of thumb; 35–45 litre fridge for one person, 50–70 litre for two people and for three or more you need at least 75-95 litres.
Examples of available emergency fridge/freezers are: the Outdoor Revolution Compressor Cooler Box 40L at c.£200-£275. This has a temperature setting from -20c to +20c and can take power from 12v/24v DC so an appropriate power station is needed unless you can charge from your vehicle. The Dellonda 60L Portable Car Fridge/Freezer at c.£250-£350. This comes with two compartments that you can set at different temperatures (-20c/+20c), so you can truly have a fridge/freezer. It also can only take DC power but with the purchase of an AC adaptor you can power it from a mains plug. This can be helpful as not all portable power stations offer a DC output but they all offer an AC socket. The Aaobosi 95L Car Fridge, Camping Fridge Freezer Dual Zone at c.£350-£450 is an absolute beast. It can carry the equivalent of 144 cans of coke in size. It also has two zones that can offer different temperatures to enable a fridge/freezer. This comes already able to take DC or AC power and, as with all of these, comes with wheels and pull handles to move them around.
Camping fridges compared
Fridge
Size
Guide Price
Outdoor Revolution Compressor Cooler Box
40 litres (one person)
c.£200-£275
Dellonda Portable Car Fridge/Freezer
60 litres (two people)
c.£250-£350
Aaobosi Dual Zone Car Fridge Freezer
95 litres (three or more)
c.£350-£450
We recommend you buy the one that fits your household size and you choose the portable power stations to go with it. You can justify this on the basis that you will be using it when dining alfresco or going camping or just having picnics. Let it become a part of your household’s life and then when an emergency starts, you can set it up in your kitchen and transfer the key essentials. Obviously you will need milk for your tea or coffee and you will need to keep white wine cool. Meat and vegetables go in as do one of my top tips for emergencies:
Always ensure you have a bag of garlic cloves and onions in your freezer. Hopefully peeled and chopped/sliced but it’s not the end of the world if not. Its just that when we came to put together some of the recipes we gave in our article, ‘Curated Meals at Slightly Anxious’, we realised that garlic and onions were a part of many recipes and we would usually keep them in the fridge (we know some don’t). If you’re like us, keep some in the freezer and then when the emergency happens transfer them to the emergency fridge. Even if you don’t buy one, just having them, they will last a few days, will be very helpful for your culinary creations.
Where to store your food
This leads us onto the next question about where do you get your food from? As stated, most people have the main parts of a meal in the fridge/freezer and the supporting cast, in the ‘pantry’. With the fridge/freezer no longer an option and we do understand that there may well be people not wanting to spend hundreds of pounds on emergency fridges, then you are left with what’s in your pantry. Hopefully, you would have signed up for Slightly Anxious’ s Curated Food offer, where we provide you with delicious recipes from around the world based on tinned food. You get to choose your meal choices to enjoy during the emergency and we provide you with recipes and shopping lists so you can purchase the supplies you need to cook up fabulous meals so everyone can keep their spirits up.
Obviously, if you don’t take us up on our Curated Food offer, you will be having to make do with what you have in your pantry. While this isn’t optimal and once you’ve had one emergency living off what you can find, we call it scavenging, we’re certain that you will come back for the Curated Food offer! Just remember that if the electricity is out, which means you can't use your fridge or freezer then its highly likely the internet won't be working also, so googling what you can make with a tin of beans and some chickpeas won't be an option. Do not despair though, you will have about a day with fridge remnants and another day with freezer scraps, so it will just be days 3-7 that need filling (as will your bellies), you will probably have some dried pasta, tinned tomato sauce and tuna. Though this may get monotonous. One of the things we remind our members on their quarterly reminder to charge-up their power packs/banks, is to check their pantry has some well-chosen cans of food as this is the way forward.
How will you cook?
How will you cook your tinned food? Whether beautiful produce identified by Curated Food or the tinned gruel you may have sourced from a supermarket, you still need to heat it up. This is where a gas powered camping stove becomes a necessity. Examples are: the Campingaz Camping Cook CV Gas Stove, 2-Burner, Camping Stove at c.£50-£70. This comes with 2x 1.8kW gas burners. This is the basic format for a recommended camping stove, more expensive ones come with a lid and carry handle and more powerful burners. It is powered by Campingaz CV 470 Plus gas cartridges which cost c.£25-£35 for four and can be used in lamps as well, see our article ‘What to do when the lights go out’.
A word on safety
Now is the time for the public service announcement. Gas powered camping stoves are meant to be used only outdoors. This is for two main reasons, the risk of fire and the risk of the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. That second one is worth a moment, because it is widely misunderstood. Carbon monoxide is not something that escapes when a stove goes wrong. It is produced by a stove burning perfectly normally, and it has no smell at all. A gas leak you would very probably notice, because the gas is deliberately given a stench so that you do. Carbon monoxide gives you nothing to notice, and that is precisely why it catches people out.
If you can, you should cook outdoors. You could get the Outsunny Portable Camping Table, 3ft Lightweight Folding Aluminium Picnic Table with Roll Up Top, Carry Bag at c. £25-£35. You can erect it in the garden or on the balcony and it will also be very useful when camping or dining al fresco. To protect against windy days, you can add the Hikeamn Gas Stove Windshield at c.£30-£40, which fold around the gas stove as a barrier.
If you really must ignore all the safety advice and cook with a camping stove indoors, then ensure that you only do it in a very well-ventilated room, with no flammable material nearby and you have a fire extinguisher close at hand - Small Home Fire Safety Pack, Small 600g Aerosol Dry Powder Fire Extinguisher & 1m x 1m Soft Case Fire Blanket at c.£25-£35. Then add the one item that list is missing. A fire extinguisher deals with fire and does nothing whatsoever about carbon monoxide, so you also want a battery powered carbon monoxide alarm sitting in the same room as the stove, such as the FireAngel Carbon Monoxide Alarm and Detector at c.£15-£25, the same one we recommend in our article 'What to do when the heating stops'. Of everything on this page it is the cheapest thing you can buy and the one most likely to matter.
Stoves we recommend
Other choices for cooking are: a Hisencn Camping Stove Camping Cooking set at c. £110-£150. This is a foldable gas stove with 2x 10,000BTU burners as well as a griddle pan, a frying pan, a cooking poot with lid and a kettle. This all fits into one purpose built rugged carry bag that comes with pockets for the gas cannisters, with connectors for both propane and iso-butane. Truly the all-in-one camping cooking set that also doubles as keeping all your emergency cooking kit in one place. If you prefer to go more old-school then you could consider the Trangia 25-1 UL Cook Set at c.£80-£100. For a generation of scouts and guides, the name will be reminiscent of freezing cold and wet camping trips where the Trangia was your stove and source of warmth. Its fairly basic and comes with two windshields that fit together, a burner, a couple of pans, a combined lid/fry pan, and a handle. The reason we mention it is it runs of methylated spirits or bioethanol, which may be easier/cheaper to source than propane or iso-butane. You may have heard that in an emergency you can use alcoholic spirits like vodka, this is true but only if its 90% proof, most vodka sold in the UK is just 40% and it will hardly burn.
A rather basic but effective option is the Green Haven Portable Camping Stove - Double Burner Gas Cooker with Auto Ignition at c.£40-£50. This comes with a lid, automatic ignition, uses butane gas canisters or LPG cylinders and a carry lid. It's cheap, cheerful and does the job. But remember our safety announcement.
Kitchen top tips
Another one of our kitchen based top tips for emergencies is make sure that you have a kettle that works on a gas stove. Most of us, these days, rely on electric kettles to boil the water for our much needed cups of tea and coffee that we will increasingly rely on in a time of crisis. Having a stove heated kettle means that you don’t have to waste your valuable emergency battery power on the high electricity demands of boiling water. Options are the Milestone Camping 24860 2L Whistling Camping Kettle at c.£12-£16 or for the more rugged outdoor style, the Fire Maple Antarctic SUS304 Stainless Steel 1.5L Kettle at £30-£40. Gas powered tea is the best way forward, so remember to have an enormous supply of teabags.
Another thing to purchase is a tin opener. Yes, we know that you already own at least one. But we can be pretty certain that once an emergency happens you will either not be able to find them or if you, they won't work. That, I’m afraid is how life works! So buy an emergency set and keep it with your emergency tinned food and that way you will always know it's ready for use.
Not as critical as a tin opener but worthy as a top tip, are vacuum flasks. You know these as Thermos Flasks and you may have used them to keep tea or soup warm, when camping, fishing or even watching football. This is their benefit, they keep things warm, and if you buy ones with wide enough openings you can use them to keep food in as well. You just pour the food from the pot into the Thermos and then it can keep it warm for up to 9 hours. The Thermos Stainless King Food Flask with 470ml food capacity at c.£20-£30 or the Thermos Stainless King Food Flask with 710ml food capacity at c.£25-£35 are definitely be a consideration especially if the practicalities of cooking in emergency conditions means that not everyone gets served at the same time and/or the chef is available for the desired meal time.
Definitely a top tip is purchasing disposable crockery and cutlery for you crisis scenario. When the emergency strikes, you will have all the cooking utensils you need in your kitchen, apart from a stove heated kettle probably. But, when it comes to what we’re eating off and with, knives, forks, spoons, plates and bowls, our incumbent supply is based around the fact that the washing up gets done. Whether by hand or a dishwasher. While the dishwasher needs electricity, which we may not have, it and hand washing both need water and that may be in short supply. Even if it isn’t at the start of the emergency you shouldn’t depend on it being available throughout its duration. The best thing you can do is use disposable crockery and cutlery and dispose of it. Read our article on ‘Hygiene is everything with Slightly Anxious’ as to how best to do it. We think not using paper gives a better presentation as after a few days of it, it can be depressing! The Foogo Green 150pcs Disposable Palm Leaf Plates Wooden Cutlery Set and Brown Napkins at c.£20-£30 which comes with 25x large square, 25x small side plates, 25x forks, 25x knives, 25x spoons and 25x napkins is a winner as is the Foogo Green 25pcs 10oz Disposable Strong Triple-Wall Brown Paper Coffee Cups with Secure Lids at c.£8-£12.
At Slightly Anxious, our motto is that we want our members to look on emergency situations like adventures as this, we think, is the best approach to have, especially when distracting children. Don’t focus on the negatives, focus on the opportunity that the challenges can bring. We think as you will be using so much camping equipment to provide you with the things that will comfort you, food, heat and light, then why not look on it as a camping holidays, just with the advantage of being inside in the dry. So, why not make mealtimes, maybe just a few of them, like parties and decorate as such. Bringing a party vibe will help take everybody’s minds off the situation and bring some much needed fun to the situation. Read our article, ‘Keeping entertained with Slightly Anxious’ and you will read what music and performances you can provide to enable this. You can also add some items to your emergency kitchen store, such as: 10 pack of disposable party tablecloths at c.£15-21, 4 ballon stands with confetti-filled and black and gold balloons at c.£14-£18, 12 pieces of tissue paper pompoms for hanging from ceilings etc. in party colours at c.£13-£17 and as a centre piece which doubles as emergency lighting, the Sumnacon Metal 3-arm candelabra at c. £15-£21.
Your to do list is:
1. Pick a camping fridge sized for your household and a power station to run it
2. When the power goes, move essentials into it within 4 hours
3. Get a two-burner camping stove and spare gas, and cook outdoors
4. Buy a manual tin opener, plus a spare
5. Stock disposable plates and cutlery to save water
6. Keep garlic, onions and long-life milk in the store
The bottom line
Ensuring that you can keep you and your loved ones fed and watered during any emergency is vitally important. Purchasing what is essentially camping equipment will enable you to do this with minimal hassle as well as give you the equipment necessary, as well as justify the expense, to cook outside whether that’s in your garden, on your balcony or on a real-life camping trip. Just remember that, even with the excellent food that you can get using our Curated Food service as a guide, you will still just be eating tinned food. It just won't be as good as the fresh food you will have transported from your fridge/freezer to your emergency fridge. This will supply you for a few days and the tins will supply the rest. It will still be very tasteful and nourishing. Throw in some alcohol and party decorations and everyone will be happy as it will just be part of the adventure you have designed for your loved ones.
Remember, keep calm and visit us here.
