Thermos Cooking

[XERTYX]

Ok so I've wanted to try this for a while now. I almost pulled the trigger the other day on a 1 gallon stainless double wall insulated water jug. They also had a 1/2 gallon model. You could buy both of them, or even 2 of the 1 gallon models for less than the price of a 3qt stanley camp crock which was my preferred choice to experiment with. 

Both of them have a large mouth that my hand will fit inside for cleaning but the plastic top concerns me if I fill with boiling liquid. It's not designed for cooking but rather keeping a gallon of coffee warm or cold.

My concerns are the lid, and the volume of water I'd need to boil to prewarm the 1 gallon model for cooking. Also id need to make 1 gallon batches of everything. 

So I think next time I'm in the store I'm gonna buy the half gallon one and try cooking with it. Also I wonder about using it to keep ice. The 1 gallon I think I could also use as a cooler though so I'm torn. A $29 mini yeti style cooler that i could also use to cook food in is very attractive to me.

The half gallon was $18 and the gallon was $29. Its a new addition they just sorta snuck in there as best I can tell.

I want to make some curries and maybe homemade marinara sauce this way. Any tips/tricks?

 

[highdesertranger]

LOL, are you arguing with yourself? highdesertranger

 

[cyndi]

I don't think the plastic thermos will work. As a matter of fact, thermos cooking only works well with a high grade stainless steel thermos

The search feature will produce several discussions on the subject.

 

[XERTYX]

Yes I first heard of it on here in another thread. These are completely double wall vacuum stainless steel but the lid is plastic. It doesnt look as high quality plastic as the stanley camp crock uses.

Yeah I guess I was arguing with myself. Haha

 

[highdesertranger]

hahahahaha, highdesertranger

 

[eDJ_]

Not sure how you are going to cook in thermos utensils ?  If that is your goal.

If it is to be soups, stews, or sauces I could see storing what is left over from cooking but to
warm or heat this food stored in a thermos container it would seem to require an immersible 
heater. (those come in 12 vdc & 115 vac but still I think they are more for heating water or 
very thin liquids)

With the wide mouth it would be easy enough to drop one of these into the thermos.

 

[XERTYX]

Very true about immersion heaters. From what I understand anyway. Basically you fill it with boiling water to preheat it then heat your curry, soup, stew, sauce, etc on a stove to boiling temp. Then dump the preheat water and fill with the food and seal. It slow cooks for hours. Rather than simmer on a stove top for hours and hours you can let it slow cook in a thermos for hours. Like a ghetto ass hobo crockpot.

 

[eDJ_]

Yes,  OK I see now.   You're using the residual heat to finish cooking in the insulated thermos. 

If you could find some scraps of that 2" blue foam insulation around construction sites that you 
could build a box out of that the thermos would fit into it may help that residual cooking.  It can
be put together with toothpicks so it can be taken apart and stowed using less room when traveling.

It would super insulate the thermos and extend the hot storage....or cold storage time when in camp.
If you were to travel you could tie rubber bands together and use them like bungee straps with paper clips
to hold the ends together.   (just take a large paper clip and bend the outer wire outward a little.  Insert one end 
of the band into it and move it to the bottom.  Then hook the other end of the clip to the other end of the 
rubber band.  Works like a little light weight bungee cord use two of these around the sides of the foam box and
set the this down on the end cap which sits on two more rubber bands.  Place the thermos into this and place the 
top cap on and secure the rubber bands.    It should be secure to travel)

 

[Firtree]

There is much info on ‘thermos cooking’. Asians and others use to use less pricy cooking fuel. Usually you bring your food to high heat on the stove in a special pan then place the heated bucket of food in the matching insulated container.

Link talks about using such a system on a boat. This model is no longer made but there are similar ones. Read the reviews to find the best ones.

https://theboatgalley.com/thermos-nissan-thermal-cooker/

 

[XERTYX]

Exactly. This is residual heat cooking. Like if you fired a crockpot up to high until boil then switched off. While it was inside a vacuum chamber. Or as close to that as possible.

If I still have the link I'll share it for a resource specifically geared towards marine living with minimal resource usage.

 

[XERTYX]

https://theboatgalley.com/thermos-cooking/

A pretty straight forward guide I found RIGHT HERE. On CRVL forums.

 

[maki2]

I got a good quality one from a thrift store a while back. But what I found is that a small pressure cooker, the 2 liter size works out to be more efficient for my needs. As you said you need a larger volume of food, it does not work for smaller batches. That is an issue because I also don't have space for a large portable fridge.

However it was an interesting experiment to find out what worked best for a solo traveler. If I was cooking for a family then the stainless steel thermos cooker would have been a nice option. But in the long run it will take just as much fuel to use that as it does to make the same meal in a pressure cooker.

 

[XERTYX]

I have thought about pressure cookers but they give me the willies. Always have. Our small town 4th of July parade had antique steam engines, and I learned early on that they were dangerous and potentially explosive. Also I thought once that a pressure cooker without the weight and with the seal removed it wouldnt get too high pressure if you let it steam off a moment. Nope.

The link I posted so far has been been the best source of practical long term slow cooking recommendations and considerations. The only other marginally useful information I've found is that zatarains $1 boxed red beans and rice makes 2 batches in I think a 16oz food jar. Just add boiling water and shelf stable sausage if desired shake and allow to sit for around 4 hours. This was also pre warmed by filling to capacity with boiling water.

So I've summized that a smaller cooking vessel is best so I'll be buying the half gallon model and testing it.

The larger one while having more capacity also has 2X or more the surface area. So cooling is more efficient. Not good.

I'd like to have both. The 1 gallon if I'm feeding an army. The 64oz if I'm feeding me with leftovers (sometimes). The larger one if it did get cooler more quickly would necessitate pouring the slow cooking below temp stew (think bacteria) into a pan and heating to a boil again before returning to the thermos to cook further.