The Hot Box: Eco-Cooking Without an Oven
by Eric Leech, New York, NY on 10.12.08
Photo by Gbalogh
And we are not referring you to the microwave...
We are talking about an age old trick of cooking that has been used for years underneath the sands of the beach, or the dark soil of the Mid-Americas. Recently I purchased a new home and it was void of one important appliance of which I had become rather accustomed to... an oven. Until we purchased a stove, we quickly learned that there are a variety of creative ways to cook with alternative energy, using a minimum of electricity or gas, and a hot box is certainly one of our favorites, least expensive, and most tasty.
How it Works
The way a hot box works, is it is basically a well insulated area (box, drawer, underground pit, etc.) of which you can place a warm pot of food and allow to cook for several hours. This is a similar theory to the crock pot, except it functions on its own without the need of any electricity what-so-ever, other than whatever means necessary you used to get the pot warm in the first place.
How it is Made
An easy way to make one of these is to take a large cardboard box and then insert a smaller cardboard box within the larger box. Then in between the space of the two boxes, you fill it with insulation. Your choice of insulation can range from towels and sleeping bags to foam board and straw. Once your box is made, you are ready to prepare a meal to be cooked in the box.
How to Cook with a Hot Box
The recipes that work best with a hot box are roasts, stews, chili's, and casseroles. You should begin with a pot that will fit snug in your box, and heat it over fire, a stove, or whatever you have available. Put in all the ingredients and get the pot nice and hot. Then put the lid on the pot with its ingredients, place it snugly in your homemade insulated box, and let it slow cook for several hours (generally 5 to 8).
The Benefit
Slow cooked meals within a hot box are delicious. The meat comes out tender and moist, practically melting in your mouth. The vegetables keep their color, taste, and form, and won't just turn to mush as they can when overcooked on a stove top. You can even cook rice and pasta this way.
Not only will you be saving energy, but you will be engaging in a traditional and very effective form of cooking that has been passed down from families for centuries!
More cooking ideas
Emeril Episode: Cooking With Kids
Emeril Episode: Country Cooking
Chocolate Cake with Armagnac Ice Cream
Dishwasher cooking- The Recipes
Source
Planet Save: Take Action to Save Energy: Cooking with an Insulated Hot Box (http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/10/09/take-action-to-save-energy-cooking-with-an-insulated-hot-box/)
Interactive Website Shows How "Acoustic Smog" Is Killing Whales
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Girls Gone Green – An Eco Calendar for Charity
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I made a haybox a year ago that I occasionally use for large stews. I chop up all my veggies I have fresh or stored, fill my cast iron pot, get it hot, and leave it for about 2 hours. I don't even need to get it boiling, and in fact if it does boil it super-overcooks the stew. Cast iron and 4+ inches of cedar shavings keeps it warm overnight and then I ladle the rest into quart jars. That's lunch for a week, that only needs a quick reheat instead of trying to boil a stew everyday.
There's many ways to save energy like this that are very easy. For pasta, let it sit in cold water until it just barely is not longer brittle and hard. Get a pot near a boil, turn off the stove, and add the pasta. Keep the lid on and 15 minutes later you have fully cooked pasta with about 10% of the energy used.
The best thing about both of these methods is that the food cooks evenly. The pots and water distribute the heat, unlike conventional cooking on a stove where the bottom gets scorched if you forget to stir it often.
In South Africa we have been using such Hot Boxes for many years, although they have largely been forgotten now.
I use one that I got from here: www.thehotboxco.co.za.
I am amazed how effective they are.
The thing is that once we have brought our food up to temperature, all we are doing after that is heating our kitchen: the only reason we have to keep heating the food is because of the heat escaping from the pan.
The big bonus of using a hot box is that you can just leave your food there and not worry about it burning. My wife uses one for rising bread, and i just love cooking rice in it. I am astonished that these haven't caught on more. They should be in every home (and every kitchen shop).
cooking without fire can save forest in africa it is cheap,grean way of cooking this knowledge need to be shared and spreed among African especially children in primary schools
Then there is the commercialized version:
http://www.zojirushi.com/ourproducts/breadmakers/snaeb_br.html
or
http://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-SNAE-B45-Stainless-Thermal-Cooking/dp/B00004S57K
I can recommend it as the only rice cooker without teflon inside as well as the best chili pot ever. I don't have any association with them I just love the one I have.
There is also the option of boiling a kettle of water and putting it in an airpot for the day so you don't use more and more energy. The convenience is awesome too!