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Time and Energy Efficient Cooking, by KBF
I wish to share some valuable information on my personal experiences with
the use of two cooking devices which I incorporate into daily homemaking practice
when I am attempting to conserve on water and on fuel usage. Both of them
are extremely time and energy efficient.
The two kitchen products which have earned their weight in silver in my home
are my pressure cookers, and my newest kitchen toys, which come from an old
Asian origin and cooking concept, the thermo cooker pot.
I have and use several sizes of pressure cookers. I chose the pot size for
use for the job I’m performing based on the fill capacity of the product
I am cooking in it. The pot capacity should never be over 2/3rds full. The
food is liquid pressure cooked on the basis of requiring very little water
or liquid and a minimal amount is lost and released as pressurized steam, thus
it cooks evenly, thoroughly, and quickly. Time savings average about one half
compared to the usual on the stove top methods. Fuel savings are dependant
on the time required for the recipe. I use this method for large vegetable
batches, and large cuts of meat, like roast cuts or several chickens and get
a finished product that is tender to cut with a fork. My very large pressure
pots are mostly used for canning purposes to put up jars of volume batches
of seasonal produce, meats, and jellies. Using the pressure cookers overall
cuts my actual cooking and canning time by one third, compared to using the
open pot boil methods. When you are putting up hundreds of jars, this time
efficiency becomes necessity. I have had a few mishaps however over the years.
They were character building learning experiences of what not to
cook in a pressure cooker. Beans, rice, and whole grain cereals need to be
constantly
monitored, as the small needle outlet from which the pressurized steam escapes
becomes easily clogged, and when it does you have now created a bean bomb!
If you’re
like me and are multitasking in or out of the household, constant sitting to
a pot is not time efficient or possible. I have discovered my next favorite
device as a result of this need to cook my one pot meal favorite dishes and
also to simultaneously free myself to leave to do other equally important jobs.
This device allows me to leave the house and come home hours later to a safe,
hot cooked meal.
The thermo cooker pot is actually two pots, one (the cooking pot)
is inserted into a second thermo insulated pot and is sealed with a hermetic
seal lid. The pots
can be found in Asian market stores, online, and from high end kitchen and
industrial supply houses and are sold by numerous makers. Some makers sell
their pots to other distributors who stick their retail labels on them. More
expensive in this case is not necessarily a better pot. Key points of its success
for your needs are to consider the following issues when searching to procure
one. The pot set needs to be constructed of excellent quality stainless steel
in order to maintain heat conductivity and easily clean and withstand staining.
The floor of the pot must be constructed of no less than two air-insulated
layers. The inner pot's volume size needs to be one
that will compromise and accommodate the majority of food dishes you normally
prepare, if you desire to own just one size. Think in volumes of servings somewhere
between how much soup, stew, arroz con pollo [rice and chicken], or
how much hot grain cereal you make in one batch. Waste is non productive and
expensive
ultimately
in
time and money. Thermo cooker pots work on the principals of applying fast
radiant energy cooking to your prepared dish by using the inner cooking pot
on the stovetop. The recipe chosen must be able to be brought up to and kept
to a boiling temperature for at least 5 minutes, the longer you can boil it
the better. Secondly, this inner pot is covered and then immediately placed
inside the slightly larger external thermo chamber pot, it is tightly sealed,
and taken off the radiant source to finish the cooking process over the next
hour on its own kinetic heat requiring no external fuel source. I leave mine
in the warmest location in the house. The food contained inside the thermo
chamber continues to cook by conductant heat for the next hour or so at a heat
temperature gradient loss of kinetic energy which gradually decreases over
6 hours of time and maintains itself at a warming temperature up to 8 hours.
The food will then remain warm to +/- 160 degrees up to 8 hours, this being
dependant on normal external ambient room temperatures. I have tested my unit
with a thermometer after 8 hours, and it made the grade in 65 degree ambient
room temperature. This can be a boon to use in fuel and time conservation modes
during TEOTWAWKI.
It can also be used inversely chill perishable foods safely for consumption
for 6 to 8 hours. Think summer mayonaise and egg based salads
or cool fruit salads or transporting fresh farm pot cheeses without ice.
I have now mastered my pots usage to include making yogurt, soft goat cheeses
and tofu successfully by not boiling the milk or soybean curd
but by bringing it slowly up to incubation temp for the culture I am using,
and then using the thermo pot to finish the process of maintaining the heat
source. In the past I used an old wide mouth thermos bottle to do this method
but it did not hold enough volume for my family’s consumption or barter
needs. We also now wake up to fresh hot maple wheat berry cereal in the morning
by preparing this before retiring for the night. I have used the thermo pot
now on different stove and fuel sources, including wood burning and get pretty
consistent result. I have used it even away from home to travel and on hunting
trips using the butane camp stove. I have boiled the recipes required water,
and dumped in our packaged dehydrated camp food, to either wake up to warm
eggs and sausage or to come back from the hunt to eat a great hot meal.
I hope this info will help all the cookies create more efficiency in their
survival preparations and also to help them find more enjoyment time to read
JWR's great postings and books!
Have a blessed and bountiful New Year!
