Thermos cooking

[SILVERHARP2]

I came across a survivalist thread the other day and there was some articles about thermos cooking, basically bringing food to boiling point and then letting it cook in a thermos flask. anyone come across this? on the face of it seems to be a useful energy saving solution.

[Erik]

A quick google comes up with a fair few sites.
This one is fairly descriptive (http://www.kurtsaxon.com/foods005.htm), though you'll have to take some of his less PC comments with er... a pinch of salt?:

With some experimenting, you can become an expert in thermos cookery. If you are single and live alone, you could, conceivably, eat nothing except what you cooked in a thermos. But if you are married, and especially if you have children, don't push it. Even with the economy of this system, it's not worth alienating your family. If your wife doesn't like it, challenge her to make the food tastier and think up some thermos recipes. You might also tell her the advantages of thermos cookery. For one thing, she would spend much less time in the kitchen. What with the expected brownouts, she could do all the cooking in five, ten, fifteen minutes, depending on how many thermos bottles she used. Another important factor is that, especially during the heat waves, the home would not suffer the added heat from the kitchen. This would also cut down on the air conditioning costs.

I guess the proof would be in the pudding - if you give it a go let us know how you get on!

[Tracy P]

"If your wife doesn't like it, challenge her to make the food tastier and think up some thermos recipes."

What do I do if my husband doesn't like it??

[mikepepler]

"If your wife doesn't like it, challenge her to make the food tastier and think up some thermos recipes."

What do I do if my husband doesn't like it??

You can tell him to cook dinner himself

[Erik]

"If your wife doesn't like it, challenge her to make the food tastier and think up some thermos recipes."

What do I do if my husband doesn't like it??

You can tell him to cook dinner himself

Looks like Telepizza are going to be visiting the Pepler house again tonight!

[kenneal - lagger]

I came across a survivalist thread the other day and there was some articles about thermos cooking, basically bringing food to boiling point and then letting it cook in a thermos flask. anyone come across this? on the face of it seems to be a useful energy saving solution.

It's just the same as haybox cooking. Bring the food to the boil and stick it in any highly insulated, close fitting container; polystyrene, hay, straw will all do. Good for soups, casseroles and stuff like that.

[SILVERHARP2]

It's just the same as haybox cooking. Bring the food to the boil and stick it in any highly insulated, close fitting container; polystyrene, hay, straw will all do. Good for soups, casseroles and stuff like that.

seems like there should be a market for an electric, thero. controlled insulated cooking pot, Dragon's Den here I come

[Erik]

seems like there should be a market for an electric, thero. controlled insulated cooking pot, Dragon's Den here I come

Something like this:
http://www.mysimon.com/Specialty-Electr ... 39065.html
Bit expensive though...

[Vortex]

It's just the same as haybox cooking. Bring the food to the boil and stick it in any highly insulated, close fitting container; polystyrene, hay, straw will all do. Good for soups, casseroles and stuff like that.

seems like there should be a market for an electric, thero. controlled insulated cooking pot, Dragon's Den here I come

It's called a slow cooker.

We use ours to make about 2 or 3 evening meals each week.

You have to kick start it first thing in the day.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_cooker

[Greenbeast]

yeah we use a slow cooker twice a week also

great for cooking things like lamb/beef currys and casseroles as the meat gets so tender after 8 hours cooking

[Erik]

It's called a slow cooker.

We use ours to make about 2 or 3 evening meals each week.

You have to kick start it first thing in the day.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_cooker

I was looking at the slow cooker entry in wikipedia, and noticed there was a link to Vacuum flask cooking. Isn't this more like the device mentioned in Silverharp's original query? The idea is to heat up to a high temperature and then insulate, rather than cook things slowly at a low temperature. Surely the slow cooker doesn't actually use much less energy than say a pressure cooker?

[SILVERHARP2]

I was looking at the slow cooker entry in wikipedia, and noticed there was a link to Vacuum flask cooking. Isn't this more like the device mentioned in Silverharp's original query? The idea is to heat up to a high temperature and then insulate, rather than cook things slowly at a low temperature. Surely the slow cooker doesn't actually use much less energy than say a pressure cooker?

the insulation/sealed feature seems to be most relevant from an energy saving point of view. Also if you expect brown outs in the future then it would be a useful method of getting around the problem. In the future if we get variable electricity or gas pricing then I guess these types of cooking may become popular

[reefskin]

I got a storm kettle for christmas and was absolutely blown away by it.

Because of its design I've been able to boil 2.5 pints in 7 minutes using anything that burns I've got lying around.

My favourite so far is burning my junk mail. But I've read about everything from twigs to camel dung being used. It's also used by villagers on the Andaman islands

It's impressive not just because of the speed but how little fuel needs used and the fact it uses anything that burns. I've also seen pot stands meaning you can boil water and cook at the same time!

This link explains how it works: http://www.kellykettle.com/works.html

I was going to set it up as a little business but the margins don't really justify it. Either way, I think it's a fab piece of kit.

[Keela]

I got a storm kettle for christmas and was absolutely blown away by it.
...... I think it's a fab piece of kit.

I bought one for my 2 younger daughters who are very into camping out etc. The kelly kettle is pretty amazing I agree.....