Tracey Smith: Low-carbon cooking is one of the latest buzz-phrases being banded around in the media, but what does it actually mean and can it save you money, or is just another passing eco-fad?
It refers to methods of cooking with greatly reduced greenhouse gas emissions produced from the energy used to cook it.
Easily digestible examples of this include using a slow cooker, a pressure cooker, a microwave although there is still great debate over whether the nutritional value of the food is compromised, also stir frying which offers a quick and healthy solution to getting hot food on your plate.
There are also a handful of rather more quirky ideas, some of which have been used overseas for many years with great success, but they are slowly making headway here in the UK.
These include the solar oven and the haybox.
The former is a very interesting device that you can either construct yourself or buy ready to use. It’s generally rectangular in shape and approximately the size of a wine crate, it’s often matt black on the inside and has a tight fitting hinged glass lid that you open to place a casserole dish full of raw ingredients inside the box. You then close the lid and erect a reflective metallic collar that sits around the lip of the unit. This harnesses abundant free energy by capturing the powerful rays of the sun and directing them inside the box.
Cooking times are generally 1 1/2 to 2 times that of conventional methods and are ideal for cooking grains, beans, soups, or baking breads, muffins, vegetables and casseroles.
With clear, sunny conditions, temperatures can reach a staggering 360 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit while the unit is empty and preheating. The temperature drops when the hatch is opened and food is placed inside the chamber, but the temperature soon creeps back up again and remains high enough to roast chicken and other meats.
If you think this concept seems incredulous, just think about the overpowering heat stored in a car that’s been sitting idle in the midday sun.
This method of cooking helps retain natural flavours. The slow, even rise in temperatures give the complex carbohydrates time to break down into simple sugars allowing subtle natural flavours to emerge. Sun-baked foods stay moist, the internal juices remain throughout, resulting in a superior moist taste with reduced shrinkage; otherwise known as fabulous frugal food.
I asked Cathy and Bryan Jackson who retail a popular selling oven called the Solar Chef for their thoughts. Cathy told me the end results were mouthwatering and even more of a joy to eat because they’d been cooked with a zero-cost for utilities. She explained, ‘Cooking times may take a little longer depending upon the period of uninterrupted sunshine. Other factors that affect it are the quality of the sunlight at the time of day you are cooking in, the types and quantities of the food being cooked and how often the oven is being refocused in the direction of direct sunlight.’
‘Dark, thin-walled pots with lids work best. Dark pots change the light from the sun into heat energy and lids are important because they hold steam in the pot. If a lid is not used the steam will dissipate much of the heat into the box. Shiny aluminium pots and pans cause light to be reflected out thereby reducing the oven’s temperature. Glass casserole dishes with lids also work well. For baking cakes, breads, cookies and pies, dark cookie sheets and baking tins work very well,’
It sounds like it takes a bit of getting used to and it clearly needs some forethought based on the weather presented to you on the day you want to use the oven, but if you’re passionate about capturing the abundant free gifts we’re surrounded by, it could be a sound investment for the endless days of summer and perhaps even the odd winter’s day too. The solar oven has been used in seriously sub-zero temperatures in Antarctica and used to melt the ice. Perhaps a sunny December day in the UK might produce something slightly more edible and exciting.
The haybox works on a similar principle and isn’t reliant upon the sun, but it does need a kick-start to get things going. Its essentially a very well insulated small box just like the solar oven, but it’s padded out with hay, straw, sheep’s wool or other insulating materials. According to the Lost Valley Community and Educational Centre near Oregon in the US who have good experience of this style of cooking, if you’re making a casserole for example, ‘The food needs to be brought to boiling point by a conventional stove, simmered for a few minutes depending on the particle size (5 minutes for rice or other grains, 15 minutes for large dry beans or whole potatoes), then put into the centre of the haybox to continue cooking. It’s then placed in a hole in the ground or wrapped and bound tightly in something like a sleeping bag and left to cook gently.
Since the insulated cooker prevents most of the heat in the food from escaping into the environment, no additional energy is needed to complete the cooking process. The hayboxed food normally cooks within one to two times the normal stove top cooking time. It can be left in the haybox until ready to serve and stays hot for hours. Timing is much less important than in stove top cooking: stick a pot of rice, beans, or stew in at lunch time and it will be ready when you are and be steaming hot at dinner time.’
Apparently, the haybox saves between 20% and 80% of the energy normally needed to cook food.
This is clearly a great idea for a camping holiday but I wonder how practically it would translate into everyday use in a regular working household. The hole in the ground option might lose its novelty once you were back in the groove of 9-5, but the sleeping bag might be a welcome sight to come home to after a long day at the office.
For further information and more outside cooking ideas, see:
www.SolarChef.eu
Tags: Antarctic, Cathy and Brian Johnson, haybox, kelly kettle, kotlich, low-carbon cooking, outdoor cooking, pressure cooker, slow cooker, solar chef, solar oven, Tracey Smith, wok
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