I did this 3 years ago. We lost power after a transformer blew in 5 towns. So remembering my girl scout days and my dads survival methods. I did tealight candles in a foil lined cake pan and a dollar tree cooling rack on top. Heated water for tea , reheated pizza wrapped in foil. Boy you could hear sizzle. Cooked some eggs. Yes the more tea lights will give more heat, cover the pot or pan traps heat and steam in pot or pan. Just watch and do this on the stove. Becareful with flames. . As always be safe.
have used this method with a couple of differences, I use beeswax candles because they burn hotter and a recycled aluminum pie plate with the oven door open and both racks as close together as possible with the "tealight pie" on the lower and the cooking pot on the upper.
use the tray from your pressure cooker, steamer, or even your air fryer rack , i have just started cooking with tea lights, however i am also ex armed forces, and we cook like this all the time, when in the field.
Folks in the U.K. have been on mind as of late with the energy situation, and unfortunately, I think we could be close behind. Thanks so much for being here :)
I had to do this often around 10 years ago. I had a stainless steel rack, used my butcher block to place the tea lights on, put the rack on top and then put my pan on top of the rack. I made bacon and eggs, used foil to close it all up to make an oven and heat up left over lasagna, etc. It works like a charm!!
I love that the tea lights will actually cook my food. I am currently prepping for winter or any kind of catastrophy God forbid. Thank you so much for demonstrating for your viewers. I will be getting more tea lights.
this is a wonderful video, simple and concise info. ive experimented with tea light candles for heating up water just now. i bought a lovely chinese tea set but i hate having to go downstairs for the kettle. i always have candles lit in my room and found this video. it takes 3 tealight candles to heat up about 250ml of water in 15mins and im now enjoying a lovely cup of camomile tea. i want to try making rice now :)
Great Idea!!! Thanks! I have an idea: use a piece of spaghetti to light the tea lights. As for it having trouble getting hot enough for stir-frying: if you extended the walls to the grate it would hold in more of the heat. If it is going to be a long-term need making the box and sides out of thin metal would be doable. Maybe tin cans would work. I LOVE your tea mug!!
To get that stir fry sizzle for your veggies, it might be best to let the oil heat up before you add the veggies. This also reduces the amount of time the veggies cook (are in the skillet) and then they can retain more of their nutrients.
@@asimpleseason2616 That could be it. When I make rice I use a double pot with a strainer(steamer). I add my veggies for the last minute of cooking. This would probably be ideal for then tossing them in the skillet. 🤔
About 15 years ago we had a very bad ice storm and we didn’t have power for 6 days. I made coffee, oatmeal, and heated soup using tea lights. I put the candles on foil and used 2 cans to put a small grate on. My family was happy. Even the kids that didn’t like oatmeal. I always keep lots of tea lights. Thanks from Oklahoma 🇺🇸🇺🇸💐
Could use a cookie tin with holes in side ( manual can opener is good for this ) to hold tea lights and use foil pie pan or bowl on top of rack to cook in. Thin foil container will allow heat to penetrate through quicker than a regular pot bottom...
That really is so cool. I have a couple of single burner propane burners for back up and a small barbeque on the deck. I buy tea lights by the package at Dollarama here. Those tea lights burn 4 hours which is great. I use a flat bottom pressure cooker as opposed to an insta pot because I can put that on a propane burner and still cook a meal fast.
You can get cast iron food warmers specifically designed to accommodate a tea light that heats a cast iron grid which helps retain and spread the heat evenly long after the tea light is spent. The pot or pan sits on the iron grid and its economical and indispensable in times of power outages or emergencies. With some basic modifications by making a windbreak you could use it outdoors, obviously not in an enclosed space such as a tent or dwelling as this can be dangerous and lead to carbon monoxide poisoning, a colourless, odourless gas. Even from bbq's particularly the disposable variety and poisoning can occur even if the bbq is smouldering or almost spent.
Thank you that was good to know for senior citizens without a spouse , now how to keep things cold. Do have a generator but in case it doesn’t work need a alternative thank you
If the weather isn’t too humid clay pots, one at least 1 inch larger than the other, with wet sand on the bottom of the largest then place sand on the bottom, insert the smaller pot, add sand around the sides, cover small pot with lid. Evaporation keeps it cool enough to save fresh produce. Meats dairy etc will need a cooler with ice. If you don’t know how to properly pack a cooler do a little research online. If I ever get land I want a root cellar. If I’m lucky enough to have a creek I’ll build a cold house!
I bought a small charcoal grill just for this purpose. Thankfully we haven't needed to use it yet. You can also keep a product called Sterno on hand. It's what is used at buffets to keep the food hot. Love your idea about using the tea light candles, 🍃🍂🍁🥰💗✝MAGA🍃🍂🍁
Don’t have your tealights so close together, leave a good space around them, as they heat up So close together you can get an almighty flash and burn yourself or the house down. It’s essential to keep good airflow . You probably could have used 5/6 candles rather than 9 for a good result ❤
Keep in mind that there are several grades of tealight candles. The cheapest quality might last from a half hour to 2 hours. Then there are the graded candles with 4, 6, and 8 hour burn times. In Canada, Amazon has the burn times in the descriptions. If the package doesn't say anything you can safely assume they are 4 hours or less. If you find them at the dollar store don't expect anything better than the 30 minutes to 1 or 2 hour grade. But they all work. For a hotter burn (quickly boils water and frys), check out the DIY alcohol burners made from beverage cans that hikers use. I first learned about this for rehydrating and warming up dehydrated (fully cooked then dehydrated) camping/hiking meals.
Some people that do jewelry making use small alcohol lamps to heat the little colored glass rods. They run on denatured alcohol. I use that instead of canned sterno in my little folding camp stove.
I wish I had seen this sooner 😭 We had no power for over a week during Hurricane Milton a couple of weeks ago. I was missing my own tea and coffee. I know for next time
If you use a small cake pan (I got mine at dollar tree last year we used to use a chicken bake pan originally) the heat will stay in the area of the pan better than tinfoil. When my daughter was younger (30 years ago) we started having “in the dark” meals. We basically cooked much like you did in this videos only we added small River stones among the candles to even out the heat. We even got really creative and managed a Alfredo lasagna in a ceramic oven my friend made us after joining us for one of our “in the dark” meals. We still do them and maintain the no electricity (except for the heater during the winter) rules no phones, tv, radio etc. it’s a great time to chill and just talk about things going on. Don’t forget you can also use the heat from the sun in a sun oven during the day.💕
I would've just used a 9x9 inch square backing pan lined with foil, and why not use larger candles to get more heat. When I was a teenager, our heater went out, so I lined my mom and dad's kitchen counter with all the candles I could find, and I put a mirror 🪞 behind the candle 🕯 the temperature went from 32 to 52 degrees, so at least it wasn't so bad , and our handy man got our heater fixed before the next day
A 20 degree difference is impressive...I didn't film it but I did try using more candles to raise the temperature in the room...it did work but the only thing I found was that the fumes from all the candle wax was too much for me
We live in north eastern Michigan, I get it. We are out in the woods near Lake Huron. We have outages ever winter. I have made soups and hot chocolate - tea - and other thing with tea light candles.. You are Oh so good doing this for all, Thank you.😊
I keep a bunch of burners for chafing dishes.. or just get my grill going on my deck.. always keep a bag of coals and some firewood for the winter months, you never know when you might need them badly
You have very good heat distribution on the bottom of your pot with all those tea lights. I wonder if you could have used half the tealights spaced a little further apart
An oven rack should work but I’ve had success with a cake cooling rack and another time I used a splatter guard which is meant for use with a frying pan to prevent splatters. A thin pot helps as well, as it’s quicker. I usually put the tealights in a cake tin, with the rack over the top and then the pot of water etc. a lid also of course on the pot.
are Coleman stoves safe to use indoors? Don't think so. They are for outdoor use only, so the tea candles make alot of sense in a power outage during the winter.
You could use any type of rack...even a cookie cooling rack if you raise it up with something underneath that's a good height. Even some canning rings in each corner might work
Your skillet needed to have the heat spread out to the size of the skillet. Like having a smll stove burner for smaller pans and bigger burners for larger pans. Your heat was concentrated to the center of the skillet.
Instant rice would take less time, and the water doesn't need to boil. I think your frying pan is thicker than your rice pan and the fry pan wasn't hot before you added the food. Steaming your veggies on top of your rice will also work as you make the rice.
I've done it, it works. I used a smaller stainless steel pan. I got it hot first, then easy to sear a small steak. You could easily do hot dogs, burgers or eggs. All good in an emergancy.
