Solar Cooking

[coastie]

INteresting.

what other alternate cooking methods have you encountered?

My dad, back in his Army days, used to wire c-rats to the engine of his truck....

I have cooked on my engine a couple of times. There are a number of websites that have a lot of info. We just wrapped our food in heavy duty aluminum foil. We cooked stuff like chicken and veggies and hot dogs. Worked fine. If you heat cans make sure you poke a hole in them or they will explode.

For saving fuel look into the haybox and thermos cooking. THe haybox is just a box filled with an insulating material that you put a hot pot into and the food slowly cooks from the retained heat. You can use just about anything. We made a stew and wrapped it in towels and blankets in a cooler. It works kind of like a slow cooker.

THermos cooking is just using a thermos and boiling water. I have made rice, oatmeal and pasta in one. Just take a thermos put in your food and then pour the water in. Cap the thermos and let it sit. The food cooks away. Oatmeal was the best because you can just put it in the thermos and go to bed. In the AM you have a hot breakfast. This method takes some experimenting to get the right amount of water and time. Both the rice and pasta have been hit or miss for me. The oatmeal has been great. The key is to also use a good thermos.

I think it is very important to have a number of ways to cook long and slow particularly because a lot of LTS foodis things like rice, beans and grains. These take a while to cook and prep. Anyway I can make that less labor intensive and less fuel use frees up time to do other things.

[coastie]

Another thing that I havent played with much is a pressure cooker. I have and use several pressure canners but I havent cooked in a pressure cooker. From what I have read they significantly cut down on cooking times saving fuel. Might be a project for tomorrow.

[maryz]

im gonna try it too.... probably its cheaper than the ordinary one

[ns939393]

I made one out of mirrors and used a cast iron skillet to cook in.
Left it on the deck. The wind moved the mirrors and changed the focus.
Now I get to look at the melt marks left on my vinyl siding every time I walk into the house.
Be carefull they are not toys.