Low-impact cooking - introduction
“Simply by starting to cook again, you declare your independence from the culture of fast food. As soon as you cook, you start thinking about ingredients. You start thinking about plants and animals and not the microwave. And you will find that your diet, just by that one simple act, is greatly improved.” – Michael Pollan
Topic introduction coming soon.
The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily lowimpact.org's
4 Comments
I think a good addition to this section would be to include electric pressure cookers like the Instant Pot. I have solar panels and a battery so cooking beans and lentils, rice and pasta for example in half the time using electricity has brought savings in time and money.
I’ve heard that using a pot skirt can save 10 or 20% in fuel, but if this were true surely there would be one on every cooker. They can’t be very difficult or expensive to make. Some facts and guidance would be an interesting addition to this section
I’m looking forward to seeing this page develop.
I live alone and have a second hand two ring caravan cooker with grill and oven. I feel happier cooking for myself in the small oven as it’s a smaller space to heat and therefore uses less butane.
Outside, I frequently use a forged rocket stove for cooking. The fact that it works better with twigs and sticks makes it ideal for using dry prunings, clippings and dead wood that litter the ground in wooded areas and under hedges.
Another method of cooking is in a wide mouth thermos flask. Boiled potatoes is the most usual. I fill the thermos with potato cut into small pieces, top it up with water. Transfer the whole contents to a pan and bring it to the boil. Meanwhile warm the thermos with a little hot water ( this then goes to make an infusion or to help with the washing up) . When the contents of the pan are boiling, I discard the warming water and tip the contents of the pan back into the thermos. Screw on the lid, not too tight else it is almost impossible to remove later, and then get on with the day. The potatoes or other vegetables are ready in about an hour or so. But still hot several hours later. Without using any additional heat.
We use a Wonderbag (a non-electric, insulated bag) for almost all cooking. Except for the time it takes to bring the dish to a boil, it does most of the “cooking”, continue to cook the dish for up to 8 hours just like a slow cooker. (Mother Earth News has plans for building a haybox cooker, or one could copy the Wonderbag design.)
We also use a solar oven, although it does require turning periodically to face the sun to maintain hot temperatures.