Thermos Cooking

[nigel1]

Wonderbag is a good buy, and available in the UK, I'll probably pick one up before the next trip.

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by nigel1

Wonderbag is a good buy, and available in the UK, I'll probably pick one up before the next trip.

I got mine from Amazon UK and they say that they honour the buy one send one to a poor family promise. My husband thought that it would be a gimmick that wouldn't be used after the first few weeks. He is now as much of an advocate as I am. My Wonderbag gets at least daily use to rise bread dough, cook beans/lentils/rice, keep food hot, make yoghurt etc etc. I call it my energy free slow cooker and wouldn't be without it. It's worth the space as far as I'm concerned.

I think I should be taking a cut from their sales, I'm so enthusiastic about it!

Sorry for hijacking the thread SWL

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by NornaBiron

I got mine from Amazon UK and they say that they honour the buy one send one to a poor family promise. My husband thought that it would be a gimmick that wouldn't be used after the first few weeks. He is now as much of an advocate as I am. My Wonderbag gets at least daily use to rise bread dough, cook beans/lentils/rice, keep food hot, make yoghurt etc etc. I call it my energy free slow cooker and wouldn't be without it. It's worth the space as far as I'm concerned.

I think I should be taking a cut from their sales, I'm so enthusiastic about it!

Sorry for hijacking the thread SWL

Hijack away .
The Wonderbag is a fantastic concept and with its thick insulation I suspect it may even work better than any of the stainless steel units.

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Hijack away .
The Wonderbag is a fantastic concept and with its thick insulation I suspect it may even work better than any of the stainless steel units.

My friend made her own from a cool box (eski I think you'd call it) and some beanbags made from scraps of leftover fabric and the filling from a couple of old travel pillows. She puts her pans in, fills all the spaces with the beanbags and puts the lid on - total cost about £20! She is land based though and can easily store the cool box.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Test report 4 (sea trial):

Now this experiment was really weird.

It was prompted by this post:

Originally Posted by bornyesterday

......can't remember if I read it, saw it on TV or invented it... I remember thinking a sixty second boiled egg might be possible as long as I didn't start shaking it for 15 seconds or so.

I can see lots of value managing to cook hard boiled eggs during passages just by boiling a couple of cups of water in a kettle. Eggs make an easy, nutritious, filling snack and they also serve as good hand warmers before being eaten .

On a short passage today with moderate seas in open water, I popped three eggs in a single layer in the base of my cold thermos using a soup spoon, filled the thermos up with boiling water and sealed it up.

Sixty seconds sounded a mite optimistic so I gave it 20 minutes, quickly pulled one egg out using a soup spoon and resealed the thermos. The white was runny. Really runny. What was strange though was the yolk was cooked solid . Reasonably hard boiled I would have called it. I have never seen an egg behave this way .

I gave it 10 minutes more and pulled the second egg out (30 min total). I could at least shell it this time, but it was still a really sloppy white. See the photo in the next post.

The water was cooling at this stage, particularly having opened the thermos twice, so I gave the third egg another half an hour (making the total an hour).

A near perfect hard boiled egg. Remember it was opened twice along the way letting heat escape, but hotter (or longer) cooking would not have been detrimental (confirmed by my hubbie who had half the last egg). I think about an hour would have been right had the thermos not been opened and all the eggs left in the entire time. I will repeat this and check. I doubt the timing is very critical and giving it a bit longer is better than having runny whites.

So, to summarise:

THERMOS HARD BOILED EGGS

For 3 medium sized eggs that are left in the entire cooking time with boiling water added to fill, at about 22°C air and initial egg temperature give it an hour in a 710ml thermos (not preheated or wrapped after being sealed). It would be longer for a smaller thermos or more eggs or colder conditions or if the eggs came straight from the fridge.

It is a great method for cooking hard boiled eggs easily on passages as there is no need to have a pot of water boiling away for 10 minutes with all the inherent problems. It is a very easy method too if you want hard boiled eggs at anchor, saving gas and avoiding steam and heating of the cabin.

This was only one trial, but it is not looking good if you want soft boiled eggs (my preference if I am having them for breakfast with soldiers at anchor ).

The egg was too fresh to shell easily (not the fault of the method), but the consistency of the white was good after an hour in the thermos:

[Seaworthy Lass]

This was the odd result with a runny white and cooked yolk after only half an hour in the thermos:

[bornyesterday]

3 cold eggs in a Thermos is probably enough to cool the added boiling water to somewhere close to minimum cooking temperature.

I think if the eggs were brought to the boil first - you would pour first the boiling water and then the eggs into the flask from your saucepan before putting the lid on the flask.

You could of course use your electric-egg-kettle instead. I have the Mark II version with the stainless mesh rack inside it to keep the eggs away from the element.

The Mark I wasn't a complete success... don't ask.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by bornyesterday

You could of course use your electric-egg-kettle instead. I have the Mark II version with the stainless mesh rack inside it to keep the eggs away from the element.

The Mark I wasn't a complete success... don't ask.

My galley would need to be stretched by not one but at least two metres before I could dedicate any space to storing an electric egg kettle . And at the same time I suspect my solar array would need a little boost.

PS OK, curiosity has the better of me. I'm asking . What happened to Mark I?

[Prairie Chicken]

Off the thermos cooking topic, but staying with minimal use of cooking gas--put eggs in pot of water. Bring to boil. Turn off heat & let eggs sit in the pot of water, covered, for 17 minutes. Perfect hard-boiled eggs! I've used this method for decades.

[bornyesterday]

If the eggs sit directly on the element the shells burst with the heat. The yolks and whites get burned on to the element. Big mess.

Makes your coffee taste funny for months

Yes, still single. What makes you ask?


A more serious thought occurs. Isn't salmonella sometimes found in eggs - and if so might not cooking them at lower temperature increase any risk?

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by bornyesterday

A more serious thought occurs. Isn't salmonella sometimes found in eggs - and if so might not cooking them at lower temperature increase any risk?

Life is fraught with risk for anyone consuming soft boiled eggs and homemade mayonnaise and eggnog as well if the eggs are not pasteurised .

A little info about salmonella bacteria from Wiki:
"perishes after being heated to 55 °C (131 °F) for 90 min, or to 60 °C (140 °F) for 12 min. To protect against Salmonella infection, heating food for at least ten minutes at 75 °C (167 °F) is recommended, so the centre of the food reaches this temperature."

As a matter of interest, next time I will measure the temp of the water at the end of an hour. That is if I survive eating this last batch of eggs . I guess after an hour in the thermos the centre of the eggs would have reached the final water temp.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Wotname

Use to cook oats, rice, pasta etc in a wide mouth "thermos" in a previous lifetime but never considered it a culinary art. It was simply a easy way to provide hot food in bad weather on a small boat (30').

This is obviously a skill that was lost through the ages .
I am a bit dubious about how well pasta would come out (al dente perfection being the aim ), but I am already hooked on cooking quinoa, oats and barley this way.

Test report 5:
Barley generally needs about 30-40 minutes of simmering to be cooked on the stovetop, so this simple method is a real winner .

BARLEY AND WILD RICE

¾ cup pearl barley
¼ cup wild rice
2 cups boiling water
710 ml (24 oz) wide mouthed thermos, not preheated

- Tip the grains into the cold thermos
- Pour in boiling water and seal
- Tuck under a blanket

I left this six hours, just because I know it would need a while to cook in a thermos that had not been preheated, and I forgot to check it earlier .
The barley was perfect.
The wild rice was perfect in texture (still slightly chewy as it should be), but it looked overcooked in appearance. No matter in this case, as I will pour a ginger and orange dressing over it and add walnuts, capsicum, sultanas and chickpeas to make a cold salad for dinner tonight and the individual wild rice grains will not fall under scrutiny .

This technique really is perfect for quinoa, oats and barley.
Only a kettle is boiled. No need to have water slopping about in pans. And no need to then transfer the pot with hot liquid to an insulated container like the Wonderbag. Or have the liquid swooshing around in there while on passage or in a rocky anchorage, possibly not wonderfully secured. I am hooked .

Cooked barley and wild rice. Not much to look at yet, but it will be once the ginger and orange dressing and the other goodies are added:

Edited to add: 1.5 hours was plenty of time to cook the barley well next time I made this.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

This is obviously a skill that was lost through the ages .
I am a bit dubious about how well pasta would come out (al dente perfection being the aim ), ...............

The term "pasta" includes 2 minute noodles ya know

I don't remember the details but we used put pasta shells and such like in the thermos and some time later eat with whatever we could find in a hurry - say diced tomato (can), capers, anchovies and some chilli. As stated, not a culinary experience but a welcome change chocolate and other sweets when the weather was up.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Wotname

The term "pasta" includes 2 minute noodles ya know

LOL, I have read about those . Haven't been game to try them .

Baked beans feature as emergency food here on board. Even cold, they can seem like gourmet food when hungry and tired.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

LOL, I have read about those . Haven't been game to try them .

Baked beans feature as emergency food here on board. Even cold, they can seem like gourmet food when hungry and tired.

While not exactly "thermos" cooking; I have been known to activate a hand warmer (the "click" style), place against unopened BB tin and wrap a dry tea towel, hand towel or even rags around it. Wait 30 or so minutes and hey presto, warm(ish) gourmet dinner.

No as quick as 2 min noodles but a heck of a lot easier.

This off course is more a young man's dish