# They Will Smell Your Food From Miles Away



## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

http://readynutrition.com/resources...s-to-mask-food-aromas-when-the-shtf_23102013/

*Sustainable in the City: 7 Ways to Mask Food Aromas When the SHTF*

_Scenario: It's been 20 days since the blackout and 3 days since you have eaten. All the store shelves have been cleared out and there is no sign of recovery. The lucky ones already made their way out of the city, but there are some who decided to stay in the neighborhood. After your daily dumpster diving for food and supplies, you are walking past an apartment complex and smell a delicious aroma. Could it be the smell of stew making its way out of the window of the abandoned apartment complex? At this point, you have nothing to lose and your sole thought is on survival. It's either you or them so what would you do?_

*Our Smells Will Give Us Away*

A fear of many preppers during the beginning stages of a true SHTF event, is how our smells, as well as the aromas from foods we prepare could attract unwanted visitors. Cooking food can be smelled in best conditions up to a half mile or so. Further, those who have gone without food for days on end will have a heightened sense of smell and will use this to their advantage. After all, this is what we do when we hunt, we use our senses to track down food. Animals can also be a security risk. For one, their range of smell is further and could make their way to your residence in hopes of getting any leftovers. This is a very real security issue and one that we must prepare for. Using your outdoor cooking sources such as a Sun Oven, Rocket Stove, outdoor grill or oven could add insult to injury and endanger you due to the food aromas.

As nice as it is to have a fully stocked food pantry, in the beginning of a massive disaster (economic collapse, nuclear or EMP attack, pandemic, massive grid failure, etc.), we must carefully choose the types of foods to eat in order to conceal our whereabouts. Generally speaking, most people have a three day supply of food in their home. After that is when the crazy begins. Remember, you want to use or preserve all the contents in your refrigerator and freezer before you begin using your food stores. Once it is time to use your larder, be thoughtful about which foods you consume.

*Densely Populated Areas Will Be Most At Risk*

In this type of event, basic resources such as food, water and disaster supplies will be near to extinct if you are living in a large metropolitan area. Those who live in densely populated areas, apartment complexes or sprawling neighborhoods will be challenged with bugging in and trying to not emit smells of food.

If you decided to hunker down and bug in place ensure that you have all supplies stored and ready to go. Plan to keep a very low profile and to stay indoors. Further, invest in black out curtains to conceal any light that may emit from your home. Never underestimate the desperation of the unprepared; they will want what you have. Take steps now to learn how to conceal aromas and learn which ways you can prepare food indoors to protect you location.

To maintain a level of discretion, you may want to look into these tips:

1. *Cook indoors.* Finding clean burning fuels such as those found in sternos. Now isn't the time to break out the outdoor grill.

2. *Cook on the down low.* Plan to prepare and cook food in the early morning or late at night when a majority of people are sleeping.

3. *Stock up on MRE's.* These are self-contained meals that will not require long preparation times.

4. *Have meals with quick prep times.* Prepare meals ahead and can them for quick preparation such as beans, soups and stews. This will cut down on fuel and keep the smell of food down to a minimum.

5. *Go easy on the spices.* As much as we love to add spices to our meals, they will bring added aromas to your food and inevitably could be your worst enemy.

6. *Eat foods that are already prepared and are shelf stable.* Shelf stable foods is another solution to cut down on strong aromas.

7. *Use a thermal cooker.* This is an insulated crock pot that will allow you use minimal fuel to heat the food and also help insulate the aromas that the food gives off.

In the aftermath of disasters, the main objective of the unprepared is to find food and water. Dumpster diving, rummaging through homes and foraging will become a norm for those trying to meet their survival need. During this time, you must be discreet in your food preparations until the recovery period or the die off begins.


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

Best just to have some preps on hand that don't need cooked. You can do well on dried foods such as jerky, fruits, and nuts for quite awhile plus there are no dishes or utensils to wash. One of my favorites when hunting is granola bars with a layer of peanut butter over them. (You need the peanut butter to make the granola bars fit for human consumption.) Poptarts are a favorite with the kids.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

mosquitomountainman said:


> Best just to have some preps on hand that don't need cooked. You can do well on dried foods such as jerky, fruits, and nuts for quite awhile plus there are no dishes or utensils to wash. One of my favorites when hunting is granola bars with a layer of peanut butter over them. (You need the peanut butter to make the granola bars fit for human consumption.) Poptarts are a favorite with the kids.


Those yummy chewy cereal bars are good for kids too (less sugar than Poptarts). Last thing anyone needs is for Junior to be bouncing off the walls with a sugar high post SHTF.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Any canned good is an MRE. Beans, soup, meat, tuna, vegetables… You will just have to get used to eating cold, or room temp, until the heard is thinned out.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Another challenge is what to do with garbage. Don't put your empty food cans / jars, wrappers, spoiled or unused food, or anything else that shows you have food in the house in garbage cans or bags where there is the slightest chance it will be seen. 

We have garbage pickup once a week and for that I'm grateful because not everyone in rural areas is able to have this service (even though I take the bags a mile or so down the road to a drop-off place; however, I tip well at Christmas to show our appreciation he even comes out this far). As inconvenient as that may sound to some of you, I'm glad we live in the country where I already look at everything we would put in the garbage and figure out, in a post-SHTF situation, what would be a burn, what would be a bury, and what would be wash and keep. We already use the chickens as a garbage disposal.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Dig a pit for garbage. cover it up as you add to it.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

I can attest to smelling what is being cooked from a quarter mile away, both as a kid and as an adult after a long day in the field. If you can have a 1/2 mile or so buffer around your property things are easier.

People in populated areas can also consider carbon filters (like the ones certain hydroponics facilities use) if used properly they can remove 99% of odours. 

Bad smells can be used to cover up good ones.

Particularly good smelling foods can be used as a litmus test to determine how bad things are and/or to lure people willing to do harm into areas more suitable for explaining the situation/dealing with unreasonable ones.


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

Cook inside with the windows closed, regardless of the outside temperature. If you have to, open your windows at night then close them again just before sunrise.

I'm sure there are ideal conditions when you can smell food cooking for a good distance away but I don't think it's like that all the time. If there's no wind it won't travel. If it's too strong or in the wrong direction then you won't smell it.

Here in Wisconsin, I've smelled food cooking outside on a grill but I don't remember the last time I smelled cooking smells coming from a house. Maybe if you're unusually hungry you'll be more sensitive to it.

I'm more concerned about where to dump my garbage and where to dump poop buckets. Further away is better but the further you have to go the more dangerous it becomes. I think for smell purposes, the best direction should be mostly east. I'd like to find an abandoned building to put it in but even opening a garage door at 3:00 in the morning will make noise that you'd hear from a good distance away. If you dump it all in the same place then people can set up an ambush and wait for you to show up. Maybe it would be better to have 7 locations that you use randomly to dump stuff.


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## HamiltonFelix (Oct 11, 2011)

In line with the idea of cooking ahead: Beans and other foods can be cooked ahead of time, then dehydrated. Now you have dry "instant food" without paying Mountain House or AlpineAire prices. Just add hot water when you're ready to eat. I understand that if you intend this for long term storage, cook without seasoning (store it separately) and seal it up with O2 absorbers. 

I knew there was a reason my wife bought that nice Excalibur dehydrator. 

In a pinch, a lot of fully cooked dehydrated food can probably be rehydrated without heating. But hot food is nice. Along with not making a lot of "cook fire" smells, another advantage of dry precooked food is not needing so much fuel for cooking. That attracts attention, too.


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## Sybil6 (Jan 28, 2013)

This never came to mind and it happens all the time. I can smell the food cooked from the lower fields after I've been working for a while. But our BOL is on top an incredibly steep hill and isolated, so this won't be too big an issue.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

And now I will be setting aside about 10 steaks heavily coated in montreal seasonings and 10 of those throw away tin-foil charcoal grills. That way I can sneak into the backyards of my enemies, throw a chunk of beef on the grill and then leave. When the hoards of sheeple are searching for the beefy goodness I can sit in my basement eating my homemade MRE's and loading AR mags.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

I'm trying to remember when I've smelled food cooking at someones home. Other than walking down a communal hallway in a complex or a barbecue I'm having a hard time remembering smelling someone else's cooking. Even going over to a friends for dinner I don't remember smelling the meal till the door was opened.

Bakeries are known to vent their kitchen exhaust to the street in order to draw people in. As enticing as fresh bread smell is if the exhaust system has to be specially designed to reliably enable the public to smell the bakery then this may not be a really serious problem if you don't live in a complex. If, when you come home, you know what is for dinner before you open the door then you have a problem to deal with. Being aware of your particular situation is of primary importance.


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## Gians (Nov 8, 2012)

Maybe using something like a safe room would work, no windows or vents. Most our preps can be eaten cold, it'd save fuel and water for washing. Probably be a good idea not to make coffee too..:eyebulge:..now that would be tough.

Added: Of course a room with no windows or vents would not be a good idea for cooking any other way besides a generator powered small electrical stove or microwave. Otherwise the "safe room" would become a "*death chamber*" faster than you can say "I feel sleepy". Generator noise might carry as far as the smell of food and could attract people also. Maybe boiling water using whatever fuel you had, then adding dehydrated food and placing it in a closed off room or closet to heat up on it's own might work. Probably make coffee this way too.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Caribou said:


> Bakeries are known to vent their kitchen exhaust to the street in order to draw people in.


Disneyland does this only its not the real food baking/cooking you smell but a type of aroma therapy consisting of mostly vanilla. They even pump it backstage near the employee restaurants.


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## tugboats (Feb 15, 2009)

Over a year ago we were invited to spend some time at a buddies cottage. We took the food and I cooked it. We were on his lake and there were other cottages on the lake but they were a long way off. I cooked bacon, ducks, beef, quiche and I think a leg of lamb and some steaks over the three days we were there (waiting for our boat to be repaired). On our last night there, just about dusk, the pontoon boats started arriving. His fellow lake owners "invited" us to NOT return unless we brought enough food for them. The food smells wafted well over two hundred yards over the lake. 

Our cooking was smelled all the way across the lake. This was in good times when no one was hungry. I can only imagine how our senses will elevated after a SHTF episode. I have since worked on controlling the effluent from our cooking outdoors but even in a good dutch oven the smell still escaping.

I'll have to go back and read my thread about this fiasco and make any pertinent corrections if required. My rememberer does not work so right goodlier sometimes.

Tugs

No steaks......Drunken Bratworst instead.


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## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

Another smell that alerts folks that food is present is freshh poo smell. If you aint eating you aint poopin. if you smell poo then someone has been eating. early it will not be a worry so much but a month in people will notice if you don't take care with that disposal. Again not too worried out here but if you are in a more urban area its somthing to think about. YOu gotta have a way to get rid of it anyway but instead of a open trench or somthing later on you might want to think about the bagging it up method just to conceal the smell.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

Woody said:


> Any canned good is an MRE. Beans, soup, meat, tuna, vegetables&#8230; You will just have to get used to eating cold, or room temp, until the heard is thinned out.


I'm thinking cut a couple holes in the top of the can and insert in hot water to get the chill off.
Take the can to a room with no doors and windows--that's you new dining area.
Even better, put cold food from can in a ziplok, close and heat in that.
There are ways to get around eating cold foods or letting one smell the odor of it cooking.

Sentry --good idea, but steaks of good cuts are about $7 here.


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## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

BTW Sentry I"m going to be a very very very bad person so you might want to use three or four or even more steaks in my back yard to make sure you really get me good


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## BlackDogWV (Jun 3, 2013)

jsriley5 said:


> Another smell that alerts folks that food is present is freshh poo smell. If you aint eating you aint poopin. if you smell poo then someone has been eating. early it will not be a worry so much but a month in people will notice if you don't take care with that disposal. Again not too worried out here but if you are in a more urban area its somthing to think about. YOu gotta have a way to get rid of it anyway but instead of a open trench or somthing later on you might want to think about the bagging it up method just to conceal the smell.


If you are able to, make sanitation water a part of your plan. We'll be flushing into the septic tank as always provided we are able to bug in. The tojlet doesn't care if the water in the tank was pumped from the well or poured from a bucket.


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## dirtgrrl (Jun 5, 2011)

JayJay said:


> I'm thinking cut a couple holes in the top of the can and insert in hot water to get the chill off.
> Take the can to a room with no doors and windows--that's you new dining area.
> Even better, put cold food from can in a ziplok, close and heat in that.
> There are ways to get around eating cold foods or letting one smell the odor of it cooking.


We used to pour instant soup into a thermos, then pour boiling water into that, and seal it up. By noon everything would be rehydrated and fine. This would work well with any dehydrated foods I think.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

dirtgrrl said:


> We used to pour instant soup into a thermos, then pour boiling water into that, and seal it up. By noon everything would be rehydrated and fine. This would work well with any dehydrated foods I think.


I did this with Ramen with a wide mouth thermos I had. It worked great. I'd add a little meat, onion, or whatever I had to add flavor and texture.


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## musketjim (Dec 7, 2011)

Excellent thread. Invisibility will be key after a few weeks post shtf. Eventually mobility will have to be added as well. Cooking small meals indoors will help, but here in interior AK folks who have woodstoves will be instant targets as someone who has heat as not everyone has backup wood heat, so food smells won't be as big an issue until summertime.


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

I'll just be popping tops off mason jars, it will be cold food, but will be OK if I get hungry enough. the root cellar is deep enough so nothing freezes if the door is kept closed. In the army, I used to put a can of lima beans and ham on the trk manifold for a couple days just to get it warm, but most of the time, I just ate it cold.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

I think all the rotting dead bodies that were a couple hundred yards out from my house would mask the cooking smells.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

UncleJoe said:


> ...*Our Smells Will Give Us Away*...


I'm surprised that none of the replies mentioned the smell of cigarette smoke. That carries a good distance too.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

or any smoke. to most a campfire means food.


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

TheLazyL said:


> I'm surprised that none of the replies mentioned the smell of cigarette smoke. That carries a good distance too.


I can smell those stinking ciggs from a long way off and the smell carries on peoples clothing.


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## Tacitus (Dec 30, 2012)

UncleJoe said:


> 7. *Use a thermal cooker.* This is an insulated crock pot that will allow you use minimal fuel to heat the food and also help insulate the aromas that the food gives off.


I learned something new today. I didn't even know that thermal cookers existed. Makes sense...I just didn't know people did that. I will have to put one on my Christmas list.

Marlene_OnTheWall -- Another Kitchen Must-Have: The Thermal Cooker


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

Actually early morning aromas left over from breakfast have a strong chance of drifting farther due to thermals lifting it up and maintaining it as the smell drifts.

Smells will drift along the ground longer in the mornings and late evenings. 

I've worked on this problem since moving into the new BOL. I'm finding that smells pushed up get caught up in air that is moving around and it gets broken up better. Have enough friends who like to come over and help out for a free meal...:2thumb:

Jimmy


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## VoorTrekker (Oct 7, 2012)

Another reason early morning odors are detected is because people coming out of sleeping have heightened senses. Smells or hearing are more acute the first hour or so.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

If things are so bad that we have to worry about being attacked because someone thinks they smelled some food then I would likely clear the area before I relaxed enough to heat up any food.


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

VoorTrekker said:


> Another reason early morning odors are detected is because people coming out of sleeping have heightened senses. Smells or hearing are more acute the first hour or so.


VoorTrekker your comment was very interesting would you care to elaborate please, always interested in new things.


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## roselle (Oct 20, 2013)

Tacitus said:


> I learned something new today. I didn't even know that thermal cookers existed. Makes sense...I just didn't know people did that. I will have to put one on my Christmas list.
> 
> Marlene_OnTheWall -- Another Kitchen Must-Have: The Thermal Cooker


I have one and I love it! I bought my sister one for her birthday last year too. I bought it for a prep, but also to use during the summer, since we don't have air conditioning. I've loaned it to my "Old Order" Mennonite friends. I think they would like them, since they don't have electricity, so no air cond. either. Don't get one too big...They work best when they are filled just about to the brim. You can also use them for cold items, so good to take on a road trip or picnic.


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## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

VoorTrekker said:


> Another reason early morning odors are detected is because people coming out of sleeping have heightened senses. Smells or hearing are more acute the first hour or so.


You have NOT seen my wife in the morning. There is nothing heightened about her for an HOUR or more


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## Gians (Nov 8, 2012)

VoorTrekker said:


> Another reason early morning odors are detected is because people coming out of sleeping have heightened senses. Smells or hearing are more acute the first hour or so.


"Mack awakened, started up, stretched, staggered to the pool, washed his face with cupped hands, hacked, spat, washed out his mouth, broke wind, tightened his belt, scratched his legs, combed his wet hair with his fingers, drank from the jug, belched and sat down by the fire....Men all do about the same things when they wake up." John Steinbeck 
Probably more than food can be smelled for miles


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