Thermos Cooking

[Seaworthy Lass]

Report one year down the track:

After a while I gave up experimenting with thermos cooking. Failures included rice, pasta, and lentils. These were either undercooked or overcooked or the texture not right. Eggs were hit and miss too.

I have also given up using it to cook foods that need to be partially cooked before going into the thermos. If I am putting on a pot to do this, it is easier to just insulate the pot to allow cooking to finish, without taking the food out and putting it in a thermos. I simply wrap my pressure cooker (used as a pot often as well) in a couple of blankets. Better insulation can be achieved by using a Wonderbag (see NornaBiron's posts #15 & 17) or a home made version (see Sparrowhawk1's post #32). Sometimes bringing the pot to pressure and simply leaving it to sit unopened for an hour or two is enough to cook most things. No need for expensive thermal cookers.

Having said that, the thermos is absolutely brilliant for cooking oat porridge (no difficult to clean pot to wash up either), quinoa and grains like barley and hard wheat. It beats any other method hands down.

All of these have one simple recipe:
1 cup rolled oats (not the 'quick' ones)/quinoa/grains (I rinse the quinoa and grains first)
2 cups boiling water (no need to measure, I just fill a 710 ml thermos almost full)

Oats only need about 45 minutes. Before serving I add about half a cup or a bit more of milk and stir briskly to give a smoother, creamy texture. Then I serve this with dried and fresh fruit and nuts and sugar or honey. Half a teaspoon of cinnamon added with the boiling water is a good addition.

For the quinoa and grains I leave it an hour or two, drain the excess water and spread on a paper towel lined tray to dry out the excess moisture. These are then used in a host of recipes (it can be as simple as adding a tin of tuna and corn and some sweet chilli sauce for a very quick, nutrituous hot meal). No harm leaving any of these several hours in the thermos.

Dead easy, fuss and mess free. Simple to do while sailing as only the kettle needs to be boiled.

The thermos has also been handy for keeping soup or casseroles hot during day passages. It is really comforting in winter to wrap your hands around a hot mug of something more substantial than coffee or tea.

So after a year of use, I am giving the wide mouthed thermos a five star rating as a useful galley item . Many thanks Blue Crab for introducing me to this method of cooking and for the laughs on this thread and to everyone for their contributions .

SWL

Oat porridge:

[Blue Crab]

I usually eat it right out of the thermos too. It's the minimalist slacker in me.

[NornaBiron]

I've just bought myself a new 710ml Thermos flask and thought I'd retry the eggs experiment. After a couple of dodgy starts I seem to have cracked it.

Today I put 5 room temperature eggs into the flask, filled it with boiling water, sealed and left for 5 minutes. Then I drained the water (which was at 66 degrees C) and refilled it with boiling water. After about one hour the water temp was 77 degrees and all five of the eggs were perfectly hard boiled.

A little more faff than just filling the flask once but much less risk of spillage and use of gas than boilin in a pan on the stove.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by NornaBiron

I've just bought myself a new 710ml Thermos flask and thought I'd retry the eggs experiment. After a couple of dodgy starts I seem to have cracked it.

Today I put 5 room temperature eggs into the flask, filled it with boiling water, sealed and left for 5 minutes. Then I drained the water (which was at 66 degrees C) and refilled it with boiling water. After about one hour the water temp was 77 degrees and all five of the eggs were perfectly hard boiled.

A little more faff than just filling the flask once but much less risk of spillage and use of gas than boilin in a pan on the stove.

Thanks for the tip. Useful to know, as ten minutes of standard boiling for hard eggs produces heaps of unwanted steam as well.

SWL

[Blue Crab]

It's so hot here right now I just put the eggs in a bucket of sea water, and set them on deck. As the steam rises, I use it to get the wrinkles out of my tux for a night ashore. Double duty! Actually triple because it also cleans out my bucket which is also used to bucket and chuckit. Waste not, want not.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

It's so hot here right now I just put the eggs in a bucket of sea water, and set them on deck. As the steam rises, I use it to get the wrinkles out of my tux for a night ashore. Double duty! Actually triple because it also cleans out my bucket which is also used to bucket and chuckit. Waste not, want not.

Quadruple duty. The thought of you in a tux makes this lassie go all weak at the knees .

SWL

[Blue Crab]

Aw shucks, Lassie. The real me sits here grungy, trying to get excited about maintenance. And the dink is full of water. And the awning ain't going up by itself! Jes sayin'.