How to Cook Using Retained Heat to Save Fuel and Money

Retained heat cooking is a fuel and energy saving method of food preparation that I predict is going to become more widely practiced in the future due to rising fuel costs. Here are some methods and suggestions for cooking this way.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• kitchen
• pot to cook in, with a tight fitting lid
• an insulated box or other insulated container to use as your fireless cooker
• a desire to save fuel and energy

1. 
    
   basket fireless cookers

   Retained heat cooking (also known as fireless cooking), is a way of cooking that saves fuel because, after bringing the food in your pot to a boil and simmering it for a few minutes, you then cover your pot tightly, remove it from the stove and place this covered pot in an insulated box or other insulated container where the food will continue to cook until it is done. So, after just those first few minutes of heating your food and then simmering it for a few minutes, you turn off your stove and do not require or use any more fuel to cook your food.
   
   Like a lot of the so-called new green, or energy-saving, ideas; retained heat cooking has been around for a very long time. Thrifty people have used this method successfully throughout recorded history.
   
   If the idea of saving fuel is attractive to you, then you are going to want to give retained heat cooking a try. It's very easy and fun to do. You'll be amazed at how tasty food is when cooked this way too.

2. 
    
   fireless cooker

   A lot of people make their own fireless cooker because it is so easy to do. All you need to know is that, in this method of cooking, you simply need to keep the food you started on the stove in your pot, tightly covered with a lid, and then place the pot in an insulated container of some kind where the food will continue to cook using the heat that is retained in the food.
   
   Your insulated container can be very, very simple, or as fancy as you want to make it. Campers and backpackers have used a sleeping bag as the insulated container, placed the pot with its lid tightly covering it, inside the bag and then keeping it covered until the food in the pot is done cooking.
   
   You can get fancier and make a box of some sort to do your retained heat cooking in. Just remember to use a material that can take the temperature from the heated cooking pot. You wouldn't want to use anything that would release toxic fumes, or that might melt for example. Wood works very well.
   
   The box you use needs to be somewhat bigger than the pot you're cooking in. Then, after placing the heated cooking pot in the box, you also put some sort of insulating material between the pot and the box. Hay or straw is often used for this, but you can also use newspapers, wool, cotton, and other materials. Make sure your insulation material is about two to four inches thick for good insulation.
   
   Then the box itself should be covered with its own lid. That's it. You can then leave the fireless cooker and come back in a little while to a perfectly cooked meal. Most foods will take a bit longer to cook using this method, so take note of that fact and do some experimentation on your own to see how long things take to cook.

3. 
    
   retained heat cooker

   Since you are not chained to a stove while using this method of cooking, you'll be saving time too, besides the up to 80% estimated fuel savings that you'll see using this cooking method.
   
   You won't need to use as much water either, so plan accordingly when preparing such foods as rice for example. Like any new cooking method, you learn by doing.
   
   Food cooked in this way is perfectly safe, with the food cooking at about 180 degrees to 212 degrees, studies have shown. It is also delicious as the flavor is retained in the pot rather than lost as in other cooking methods.
   
   This is a simple and effective way to save energy, time spent in the kitchen, and even water. Plus, as those of us who have cooked food in this manner can attest, food cooked in a fireless cooker is delicious.

Tips & Warnings

• You can start your dinner or lunch in the fireless cooker, leave it to cook, and then come back hours later to a perfectly cooked, hot and delicious meal.
• Cooking this way, you almost never burn any food on the bottom of your pans.
• No one cooking method alone will totally reduce your cooking energy and fuel needs, but retained heat cooking can reduce the fuel you use to cook your meals to a significant degree, thus saving you money.

Resources

• Cook In Your Thermos to Save Energy and Money

[our5kids]

on 4/21/2009 Very informative article on How to Cook Using Retained Heat to Save Fuel and Money thank you 5* and recommended you!!

[slphilbrick]

on 10/18/2008 I'd love to try this idea....I never heard about it before reading an article on cooking in a thermos ! Same idea, but you obviously can't cook as much. Great details....... 5*

[Athenable]

on 10/3/2008 I had never heard of this, but I love it!

[wytetyger059]

on 9/21/2008 What a great idea! My electric bill is out of this world right now, and this would help a great deal. 5*

[Vanillatte]

on 9/19/2008 What a resourceful idea!