Cooking over open fire is like burning money
Cooking over open fire is like burning money

People that live in undeveloped areas who have none or very little Fuel, Electricity, Water, Food, are highly creative. They struggle and try to get along with any means they can find for the day.

Some of their smallest ideas - sometimes very simple tricks or methods that save water and/or energy - could easily be transfered, applied to kitchens with modern in developed nations. Even the tiniest percentage of reduction of electricity, gas and water will make a visible change in the monthly/yearly utility bills, and can make your economy and lifestyle slightly better and relaxed.[1] So in order to help you reduce your costs, make you learn, adapt to new, simple habits, this project will help you prepare - in good time before electricity price will rise more - with some suggested, simple, easy-to-use methods to help you Cooking much more efficiently.

Goals and purpose of this project

Short-term goals

  • start spreading information about possibilities and simplicity with updated and improved Cooking methods.
  • attempt to create understanding about what we have that others might not have.
  • start to change minor routines and behavior among people to make them think about their own use and waste.
  • create understanding that many small amounts in many million homes will add up to a landslide.
  • make people realize that any little second of saving electricity will be of help and will result in slightly lower bills from the power company.
  • promoting the Nega-watts-thinking of "A watt saved is a watt earned".

The larger perspective

  • inspire many people to feel good about saving so they become eager to try to experiment to find many more energy-saving cooking methods.
  • inspire others to start similar efficiency-projects within other areas of their homes and lives.
  • make people notice and reduce wasting and to save more electricity, time, water, energy.
  • educate people how to shop smarter, cook more at home and to eat healthier.
  • influence the idea of a small personal change among a growing group of individuals.
  • make people think about solidarity with other living people, and towards people in future generations.
  • reduce the amount of large and expensive appliances that is routinely installed into newly-built homes.



Illustration on how to turn old pot into heat-retentive gasket/collar How to apply gaskets/collars to modern stove

Illustrations on how some people build gaskets/collars to retain heat closest around the cooking pot. This works well over both open fire & modern electric stoves. Do not attempt to use this on a gas stove!


Appliances & Equipment

Most advice in this project concerns mostly regular standard electrical equipment that is frequent in most households. There will be no instructions or suggestions on methods that suggest you to build something or to purchase anything expensive.

Primarily because these methods aim to be as easy/simple to use as possible, so that anyone can understand them and turn them into a habit and use them all year around. Secondly because some individuals could get inspiration from these efficient methods, and possibly discover other simple and clever methods in different areas around the house, that is a source of waste of electricity, water, paper, time or something else. The illustrative sketch above is only meant as an inspiration from undeveloped regions, on how you too can try to preserve the heat where you want it, and not let it slip away into thin air.

Every home have got some standard appliances like a fridge/freezer and an oven/stove with 3-4 hotplates on top.[2]

A microwave-oven and electric water kettle are very useful to heat and boil small amounts of food or water quickly. You could even benefit from having 2 different sizes on kettles, one for occasions when you just want to have one or two cups of tea or instant coffee, and another one bigger for boiling larger amounts of water. The time needed and electricity used to boil in a kettle or a saucepan depends on the ratio between how much water to air it is inside the kettle.

Never boil too much water than your current needs. However, if you have got a clean and empty thermos flask, you could fill it up with that extra hot water and the thermos can keep it hot for several hours. If you normally would drink a cup of instant coffee a while later, you would not need to boil any new water for that.

Never save and reuse water that you have boiled any type of food in!

See more electricity saving advice in Electric appliances

You will need two to three different sized sauce pans with lids. The lid should fit as tight as possible to avoid any heat and steam leaking out/being wasted. Use as small pan or pot as possible for your cooking needs. Small amount of water and large amount of air under the lid will be inefficient. Exactly the same as explained with the kettle. Make sure you cover the item you intend to cook with water, but not with excessive amounts of water.

One or two different sized frying pans is also good to have. Some large frying pans come with lids, which can come in handy in other cooking, even if you normally use a frying pan for cooking stuff that don't need a lid.[3]

Use only pans that is perfectly flat bottomed and thickbottomed. You want as tight contact as possible between the pan and the hotplate. It is resulting in shorter time to heat up, shorter cooking times and less waste of heat. And the combined mass of the hotplate and the bottom of the pan retains larger amounts of heat, so you could normally turn off the plate at least 2 minutes before your cooking is done.[4]

Always match the size of the pan to the size of the hotplate, if you can see any part of the hotplate outside the edge of the pan you will waste a lot of heat and possibly burn your hands on the handle. If you use a much larger pan than the hotplate, you will only get efficient heat in the middle of the pan and slightly less around the edges which means longer cooking time. Some large, cheap models of frying pans can get its bottom warped/curved so it stands and jiggles slightly on the hot plate, if so stop using it for cooking, it means you are wasting a lot of heat and money in the gaps.

Maintenance

Try to keep all your appliances clean, both outside and inside. You are more likely to cook at home regularly if they look clean and fresh to use. The equipment will get a slightly longer life-span and you will not need to replace them as often. So you will save money.

For more advice on easy electricity saving, see Electric appliances

Cooking methods explained

Here you will be able to find some examples on food preparation that you can study and try to use, to learn about some updated, improved, smarter and energysaving cooking methods that is similar to Towel cooking. Below is a few recipe examples. Try to apply these simple techniques and this knowledge in your kitchen. Try to make a habit out of using them regularly, they are simple in order to make you use them all the time, and to prevent you from going back to your old inefficent methods.

Try to make a personal inventory over a trial period of 2-3 weeks or 1-2 months, so you can see clearer how often you defrost and cook frozen food, what types of carbohydrates you eat and how often (potatoes, pasta, rice and so on), how often you consume meat and so on. Noone will want to force you to stop eating what you like to eat. Noone will force you into becoming vegetarian or vegan.But it is wise to sometimes make an inventory to make it more clear about what you eat, in the same way as you can make an economic budget, to list everything in a simpler way of what types of food, how often and how expensive it is that you consume.

And try to think of it all as an inventory over cooking-time and cleaning-up-time too. Try to analyse your cooking methods and try to make other recipes more efficient. And please feel free to contribute to this page if you come up with something, if that method or recipe is: easy to use and will save either cooking time, electricity, water or cleaning-up-time (and will require no custombuilt, specialty or modified equipment)

A good rule of thumb of energy-efficient cooking is to choose fresh ingredients in the shop. They will require least amount of preparation and cooking time compared to frozen food and ready-made-dinners.

Changing gradually

Perhaps you can immediately pick one or two days per month where you replace your most time- and energy-consuming food into another type of similar food that is faster to prepare and will cost less to buy and in electricity-use. You can take one or two days per week when you replace your favorite source of carbohydrate that demand the longest cooking time. Great examples of smart and fast-prepared carbohydrates are cous-cous and bulgur and they are explained in the recipe section below.

You can start it slowly, and after you get used to these ways of thinking and living, gradually increase the number of days per month you change your diet. Positive sideeffects of this is that if you for instance eat potatoes only once or twice per week, you will enjoy the taste of it much more. After that you can perhaps pick one or two days per month to change your meat/beef into another type of meat like chicken, turkey or pork. Or change a "poultry-day" and turn it into a salad day.

Because when you notice that these small alterations is starting to reduce your electrical bill and grocery bills you will probably be interested in increasing the number of days that you cook and eat more efficiently. Hopefully anyone can change gradually into only 3-4 "meat-eating-days" per week. And there is a very high correlation between cooking-time, energy-use and healthier food.

Recipes

Eggs, boiled

When you will boil eggs, think about how many eggs you want right away, and how many you might want for the next two days. Boiled eggs keep fresh in any normal fridge for at least 2-3 days. So by boiling a couple of extra eggs each time wont be any extra energy used, in fact it will keep you from having to boil eggs every day. This could reduce your energy use for boiling eggs with up to 50%.

Start with pouring fresh cold water in the electric kettle and start it. Remember to use as exact amounts of water as needed, for anything you will boil. Filling a kettle or pan with any extra cold water will only make the cooking time longer and waste more electricity.

Pick out a good sized saucepan that will fit the number of eggs you want to cook in one layer, it should have a tight fitting and undamaged lid. Do not fill icecold water in this pan, because you will only cool down the metal bottom and sides. Pour little bit of cool-lukewarm water in the bottom and place all your eggs gently in the pan, place it on a hotplate that is the same size of the bottom of the pan and turn on maximum heat.

When the water in the kettle boils, pour in that hot water slowly and carefully in the pan. Sometimes it helps if you tilt the saucepan slightly towards you, so the eggs will roll to your side and you can pour the hot water at the other side of the pan without making the eggshells crack or break with the sudden heat.

Place the lid on the pan! Start a timer![5]

Gradually lower the heat on the plate one notch at the time, to keep an even boil, it should never need to boil too hard. If you have turned down a bit too much, and the boiling will reduce to a stop, you could turn it up one notch for a minute, to get it start bubbling evenly again.

There is a lot of heat getting built up and stored in the combined mass of the hotplate and the bottom of the pan if the contact between them is as flat and perfect as possible. So turn off the stove 3 minutes before your eggs are ready![6]

Oatmeal porridge

Oats is a great source of carbohydrates and energy in the morning. It is traditionally quite fast to prepare. Normally there are recipes and instructions on the bag or box of oats, which recommend you to boil in a saucepan on the stove for at least 3 minutes up to 8! Here is a method that will eliminate the need to wash and clean the pan. It will boil your oats completely with the use of an electric kettle, and directly in the dish or bowl that you will eat it from.

Boil 2-3 small cups of water in the electric kettle. (if you will need hot water for boiling eggs or a cup of tea or instant coffe, boil that amount of water at the same time)

Take a ceramic deep dish or soup-plate that will contain at least one large serving of porridge. Place it onto a hotplate, without turning it on! Find a lid that fits nice and tight over the rim of the dish.

Pour 1 cup of oats (or 1,5 to 2 cups if you are hungry) in the dish/plate, add a pinch of salt.

Pour the boiling water from the kettle onto the oats. You need little more than one and a half cup of water to each cup of oats. Cover the bowl quickly with the lid! You can really use anything clean to cover with, as long as it fits above the rims of the dish and retains the most of the steam, but not becoming moist and soggy so it collapses down and touches your food, when the steam cooks inside.

After 2 minutes you lift the lid, it might drop some water from the lid, so keep it above the porridge bowl to avoid a mess. Stir around a little with an eating spoon in the porridge and quickly put the lid back on top! Wait for 2 more minutes and it should be ready to eat. Put your favourite toppings on it and eat![7]

Some examples on very tasty and healthy toppings are grated/shredded coconut, cinnamonpowder, applesauce, crushed hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, dehydrated fruits like apricots or raisins. Experiment and mix! If you can come up with plenty of versions, you will not ever get bored with your efficient oats in the morning.

After you have eaten your oats pour cool water onto the dish and leave it standing with some water to dissolve all residue. This will be very easy to wash up later, and will not require much detergents or work.

Cous-cous & Bulgur

Bulgur bag
Bulgur bag

These are two types of processed wheat, popular in middle-eastern and northern african cuisine. They are available in packages of different fine/large grains, and it is a healthy and energyefficient source of carbohydrates. The cooking time needed are extremely short, and a perfect substitute for any types of carbohydrates that require long cookingtime. It can be slight difference with some different manufacturers type and grainsize of the cous-cous and bulgur, but this is a general explanation of how to prepare it. You will have perfected the method and the exact amount of water needed after only 3-4 times of trying it.


Boil water in the electric kettle. You will need 2 cups of hot water for every cup of raw couscous you want to make.

Place a glass bowl, large ceramic deep dish or soup-plate onto a hotplate without turning it on! (make sure that the bowl is recommended for use in microwave-oven and similar)

Pour one cup of couscous or bulgur per person into the bowl, add one pinch of salt per serving. Pour the hot water into the bowl, two cups of water per cup of raw couscous. Cover the bowl with a lid (and/or a towel). It should be airtight, and wrapping any textile towel around the rim of the bowl helps on retaining the heat. See also Towel cooking

Leave the bowl on the hotplate for 2-3 minutes, it will cook/steam evenly without any use of electricity from the oven. Remove the lid, stir around in it little with a fork and sprinkle in your choice of spices and/or some olive oil or salad oil and then quickly put the lid back on. For 2-3 more minutes cooking/steaming. Bulgur takes sometimes one or two extra minutes to become ready.

When all the water, steam and oil is soaked up, it is ready. Stir around in it little more, place the bowl on the dining table, remove the lid at the last minute.[8]

Tips & Tricks to save electricity

Refrigerators & Deep freezers are appliances that consume a large share of the total electricity cost in private homes. You rely on them to keep your food cold and they are on 24 hours per day, every day of the year. And it is expensive to replace them and purchase the newest energy-efficient models.

Every time you open the doors of your fridge or freezer you will release some cool air into the room, and make the fridge/freezer little bit warmer inside, and its compressor will need to start working to cool it back down again. So avoid keeping the doors open!

If you are applying advice in this article and changing your eating habits slightly so you primarily shop and eat fresh products and tinned goods, the need for having a freezer is gradually reduced. Some people can even get to the point where they can empty the freezer completely, turn it off, and get to use that free space for storing pans and other kitchen utensils. And next time you need to buy new fridge/freezer you can reduce your size needs of the interior volume of the freezer.

For many more electricity saving advice in your kitchen see Electric appliances

Notes

  1. There can be some people in industrialized nations in the north and west that sometimes seem to be taking for granted that the energy, electricity, water and food is relatively abundant, available, cheap and affordable to waste. As the prices on oil, diesel and gasoline rises, so will most likely the price on coal and electricity, and possibly the tax and fees for the utility companies and their emissions.
  2. If you have a gas stove some methods in this article will not apply to your hotplates, instead see Towel cooking
  3. You could even hold a big lid in one hand as a shield, for example: if you are frying bacon or pouring out hot water in the sink. This helps protecting your clothes.
  4. Unless you are going to cook something else on that hotplate immediately after.
  5. Always use a timer when cooking, it will prevent you from guessing and estimating the time. This guessing often leads to cooking 2-3 extra minutes: "just to be safe". And that is always unneccessary!
  6. That means for those that prefer 6-7-minute-eggs, the total time you use electricity on the stove is only 3-4 minutes + the 20-40 seconds it took to pre-boil water in the kettle.
  7. If the oats is not cooked entirely you can add a spoonful of water, stir around and put the lid back on for an extra minute on the hotplate. Or if you are now in a hurry you can add a spoonful of water, stir around and place the dish in the microwave and cook on low to medum setting for 5-15 seconds.
  8. Tasty examples on spice combinations and recipes for different warm or cold couscous-salads will appear here later


Further information, description and discussion, concerning how and why this project was started, and what areas it will be limited to and why, see: Talk:Updated_cooking_methods_in_modern_kitchens


See Also

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