Hay box cooking

[Moondog55]

Not sure how many people bother but I was looking for a way to save fuel and time this coming winter
Scrounged some cardboard boxes and a bit of fibreglass insulation/ and aluminium clad building board 25mm thick for the bottom
I wanted to be able to cook red beans without standing there stirring for 3 hours and to do so while I am out skiing. It got me to thinking that while big the efficiency makes them worthwhile and apart from pot cosies how many others use a hay box when out and about
Not counting the modern vacuum iterations but genuine home made heavily insulated slow cookers?
Mine has 50mm of fibreglass in the walls and 50mm of foam in the base and about 70mm combined it the top foam and polyester
If I boil the beans for 4 minutes on the propane they should still be warm and fully cooked when get back to camp at the end of the day and all I need to do then is bring up to serving temperature
I'll do the same for my breakfast porridge but in a small flask not the billy, that way I can eat it on the track after my stomach wakes up
On the same track I just added extra insulation to the base of the insulated soft bag I use to keep my hot water thermos's in

Attachments

Just a couple of cardboard boxes and some tape contain the fibreglass

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1 liter billy

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Room for some extra woollen blanket of fleece here

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Box was free of course, fibreglass left over from the renovations

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[Giddy_up]

I haven't heard of this before Moondog. I guess it's just slow hot hydration and is a very efficient use of the energy used to bring any food to temperature.

Will you run some tests to check the presumed outcomes?


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[Moondog55]

Tests will be done in the field so to speak
Cooks by residual heat and the hay box merely slows down heat loss
Just like using a pot cosy when cooking in the bush. Most important thing is to have it boiling hot when it goes in, not forgetting that red kidney beans need that 5 minutes on a rolling boil first
Steel cut oats need long slow cooking and it's nice to wake up with breakfast ready to go.
I have a small 400ml stainless vacuum flask somewhere, bring oats and water to the boil, pour into flask, put flask in hay box and 8 hours later they should be cooked and still warm enough to eat

[Tortoise]

I knew some people off the grid who used one all the time, but I can't remember the design. Pretty sure it had thicker insulation, though.

[Moondog55]

Usually it's recommended to have 100mm of insulation; 150mm if using straw, and more is obviously better but 50mm will hold the heat for long enough for my purposes.
The old design is usually an airtight wooden box with a hinged lid

[Moondog55]

I have some foam building board here which is too damaged to use on the house; rather than send it to landfill I'll tape it to the outside of the cardboard; 10mm of extruded polystyrene will add another R1.1

[Bogong Moth]

I do this when car camping all the time. Or, for bringing food to potluck dinners when you're out and about all day. Keep it in the back of the car all insulated and tidy, and is good to go by the end of the day.

Haven't ever thought about its application in a more 'wilderness' setting though! You've now got me thinking.

[Orion]

What about a pressure cooker? Pre-soaked beans cook in minutes. Kind of a heavy appliance though.

[Moondog55]

They work too, but you can use both in conjunction, 5 minutes at pressure plus time in the box should work
Mind you I've never tried that combo myself
Pressure cookers are often part of base camp equipment, rice and lentils can take half of forever at 4000metres otherwise, even at Bogong summit and Kosi rice and lentils take longer, the 1500m at Falls is slower but not so much as to make a huge difference maybe an extra 5 minutes in total

[Orion]

I think they'd be finished after 5 minutes.

I know it's mostly a way to cook at high altitude but if you have a base camp and can carry the thing in it could be useful. I keep thinking of getting one for home use.

Another approach would be to cook all of the beans ahead of time and dehydrate them. Dehydrated cooked beans rehydrate very fast and taste good. But it is a lot of time to prepare them in advance like that.

[Moondog55]

Rice and lentils perhaps but beans need 30 minutes minimum in a pressure cooker, but that is a lot quicker than 3 to 4 hours plus over nite soaking
I'm talking about red beans cannelini don't take that long

[Orion]

Really? I've never used a pressure cooker. I was just going on what the manufacturer of the Presto pressure cooker recommended:



Or do you mean beans that haven't been pre-soaked?
.

[Moondog55]

Oh I see Yes the Presto is higher pressure than the ones I am used to but read the notes about altitude in connection with those times as well.
How-ever 3 minutes is not enough time even given the high temperatures and pressure to the neutralise the toxic chemicals in Red beans' especially red kidney beans and I believe the quick soak method shouldn't be used for red kidney beans as it increases the toxicity unless put to cook immediately
These need a minimum of 5 minutes at 100C [ a rolling boil] undercooked red beans are toxic although peoples reaction to the toxins do vary
The 30 minutes is based on my experience commercial cooking at 4000m

[Orion]

Altitude? I assumed you were going to be cooking somewhere in Australia. Even perched on that little platform on Kozzie wouldn't add more than a couple of minutes to the estimates in that table.

That's interesting about the lectin in beans, especially kidney beans. I didn't know.
But 5 minutes sounds pretty fast to me.

Anyway, it was just a thought. The hay box would be a lot easier to transport.

[Moondog55]

5 minutes is fast but it is important
I used to have a really good small English pressure cooker that was small enough for bushwalking I lost that in a previous life tho
Actually 1500m at Falls is just high enough for the effects to be there even if marginal and at Kosi and around I remember basmati rice taking a full half hour to cook when camped at Blue Lake rather than 12 minutes