Thermos Cooking

[ojai22]

I must have been living under a polar ice cap for years. How else could I have missed thermos cooking? It finally dawned on me that the rolled oats I've been eating are actually "flakes" and not whole oats, or oat groats. So I set out to learn about oat groats and learned more about thermos cooking. Cook grains in a thermos? Or cook anything else in them, for that matter. Had to wrap my mind around that idea and start reading so it would penetrate.

At eHow I found an interesting tidbit:
"Thermos cooking isn't well-known in The United States of America, but in countries where fuel is very expensive, most cooks usually use their thermos in ways that save both fuel and energy. We can learn from them."

You need the correct thermos for cooking. It should hold most of the heat for 24 hours, and not leak, of course. There's a video at www.thermoscooking.com showing how it's done. Also, recipes. On the sites I visited, the general opinion seemed to be that this is the best way to cook whole grains. But don't add salt to the oat groats till the next morning. Here's the reason from www.thermoscooking.com:
"Tips
Don’t add the salt until the oatmeal is cooked. This produces a creamier oatmeal because an element within the oat – pentosan – can combine with the water and make a creamier texture. Using salt during cooking will keep the water from interacting with the pentosan. Just sprinkle the salt on the oats in your bowl or into the thermos."

You only use enough fuel to heat the water that will pre-heat the thermos, then heat the water that will actually cook the groats. Put in the oats, add the water, then lay the thermos on it's side and go to bed. In the morning pour the oats in a bowl, add salt, walnuts, a few raisins, maybe some cinnamon, and breakfast is ready.

How grand! You can get it set up at night and it will be ready for breakfast. Cooked in the hot water overnight, sort of like a slow cooker without electricity.

I have to get a thermos. Or two, or three. The Stainless King 40 ounce Thermos appears to be a good choice.

Now how does this work out macrobiotically? If oat groats are Yang and more suited to cold climates, plus twelve hours to cook them, which is time...perhaps I should be living under an ice cap. Need to understand this.

[ojai22]

AND IT WORKS WITH BEANS!

Here's a video made by a man who wanted to know if you could cook beans in a thermos. He chose several different kinds to cook together. The difference here is the short per-cook. While the thermos was being heated with very hot water, he put the beans in a saucepan, brought them to a boil, and cooked them for 5 minutes. No soaking, just the plain hard beans. Then into the thermos they went with measured hot water.

He did this at noon one day and let them cook till the next morning - 16 hours. They cooked, they really cooked! Think how long you have to cook beans - all that fuel. I cook garbonzos with Kombu, chopped carrots and onions and they have to cook for 4 hours on the stove. And I have to keep watch to make sure they don't run dry.

Here's a link to the bean video:
Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSENxdh-3ec

[ojai22]

There's a heck of a lot of info on the internet about thermal cooking. There are thermal pots that will cook soup, make a pot roast with veggies and gravy, and you just take it out into the woods or a park and have dinner.

I watched a woman make a carrot cake, it was done in 4 hours but she wasn't ready to open it so she left it for 12 hours. It was still great.

This is like suddenly finding the sky is down instead of up. Cooking without a stove. And very little work. Oh, my! You could start the beans at noon, start the oat groats that night for breakfast. Next morning start the rice and the soup. For dinner the beans, rice, and soup are cooked while you watched a movie on the iPad. Sounds good to me.

Actually I sound like a kid with a new toy....sorry, folks....

[Lynn]

I'm coming to this late (like 6 years late!) having a browse and wondered if this worked for you ojai22? And did you find out if it balanced macrobiotically?? It'd be great if it does - so much saving on fuel!