Cooking and brewing
What burns, and for how long
Everything you can feed a fire and how long one of each keeps it burning.
| Propane Canister | 45 min |
| Fuel Can | 40 min |
| Coal | 30 min |
| Kerosene | 30 min |
| Hardwood Plank | 25 min |
| Firewood | 15 min |
| Charcoal | 11.7 min |
| Animal Fat | 6.7 min |
| Pine Resin | 5.8 min |
| Firestarter | 5 min |
| Hexamine Fuel Tablet | 5 min |
| Paperback Novel | 3.3 min |
| Birch Bark | 2.5 min |
| Cardboard | 2.5 min |
| Kindling | 2 min |
| Old Newspaper | 1.5 min |
| Old Dollars | 1 min |
| Straw | 1 min |
A fire holds up to 3 hours of fuel. A stove burns the same fuel 1.5 times as long.
An unsheltered campfire in the rain has a 2% chance of going out every 5 seconds.
A lit fire warms you by 25 °F within 20 ft, and a stove by 29 °F. Stand in the flames for 3 seconds and your clothes catch.
On the grill
What you can lay on a fire and walk away from. A fire has 4 grill places. Burns after is how long past done it lasts on an open fire before it chars; water never burns.
| Canned Food |  Survivor Stew | 1 | 120 s | 180 s | |
| Canteen (Unboiled) |  Full Canteen | 1 | 90 s | ||
| Corn Cob |  Roast Corn | 1 | 90 s | 120 s | |
| Dirty Water |  Clean Water | 1 | 60 s | ||
| Fish Fillet |  Grilled Fish | 2 | 70 s | 60 s | |
| Morels |  Grilled Mushrooms | 2 | 60 s | 60 s | |
| Oyster Mushrooms | Grilled Mushrooms | 2 | 60 s | 60 s | |
| Parasol Mushroom | Grilled Mushrooms | 2 | 60 s | 60 s | |
| Porcini | Grilled Mushrooms | 2 | 60 s | 60 s | |
| Potato |  Baked Potato | 1 | 180 s | 240 s | |
| Rainwater | Clean Water | 1 | 45 s | ||
| Raw Beef |  Grilled Steak | 1 | 120 s | 150 s | |
| Raw Fish | Grilled Fish | 1 | 100 s | 90 s | |
| Raw Fowl |  Roast Fowl | 2 | 300 s | 180 s | |
| Raw Mackerel | Grilled Fish | 1 | 100 s | 90 s | |
| Raw Meat |  Cooked Meat | 1 | 90 s | 120 s | |
| Raw Rabbit | Cooked Meat | 1 | 150 s | 120 s | |
| Raw Venison |  Roast Venison | 1 | 150 s | 150 s | |
| Wild Mushrooms | Grilled Mushrooms | 2 | 60 s | 60 s | |
| Wild Pork |  Roast Pork | 2 | 240 s | 180 s |
Boiling makes any fresh water safe to drink.
Smoking racks
Salted meat or fish hung on a rack beside a smoky fire cures into food that keeps. Time in smoke is real minutes beside a lit fire; hung with no smoke it spoils instead.
| Meat |  Smoked Meat | 6 | 45 min | 90 min | |
| Fish |  Smoked Fish | 10 | 30 min | 60 min |
One salt cures 3 pieces. The fire must be within 9 ft 10 in of the rack. Cured food left hanging keeps for 24 hours.
Fermenting
Mash in a fermenting barrel becomes wash, which a still turns into spirits or fuel. Temperature is the liquid's, which follows the air slowly.
| The barrel | Holds 6 pails of mash. |
| With yeast | Ferments in 16 real hours at 68 to 86 °F, and gives back 1 jar of starter for the next batch. |
| Without yeast | Wild yeast takes 28 real hours, and only 75% of the pails come out as wash. The rest sours. |
| Too cold | Below 50 °F the yeast sleeps and nothing happens. |
| Too hot | Above 93 °F you keep 85% of what ferments, and 104 °F kills the yeast. |
| Left too long | A finished wash keeps 48 real hours in the barrel before it turns to vinegar. |
Water at camp
Getting clean water without carrying it home.
| Solar still | Turns dirty water or rainwater into clean water at 151 minutes a gallon in clear daylight (7:00 to 19:00). Scorching sun is 1.2 times as fast; cloud, fog and overcast cut it to a third or half. |
| Rain collectors | Fill by how hard it rains: a heavy rain of 0.98 in an hour gives a small collector 14 fl oz a minute and a large catcher 56 fl oz. |
| Camp shower | Uses 2 waters and takes 8 seconds. |