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Reply to: FIFO can racks for the pantry Posted 1 week ago

We can’t keep up with routine maintenance around this place, much less take on new projects! LOL! I’m sure there’s a better product out there somewhere, but darned if I could find it.

Reply to: FIFO can racks for the pantry Posted 1 week ago

Yes, earthquake protection. I don’t think the tiedown straps would work well with “loose” cans like this, but for boxes, buckets and tubs, I think they’re great. They can be adjusted to be very tight. For the can racks, I think a 1×4 as a “lip” across the front of the shelf may be better at holding back a “flood” of cans…or maybe a 1×4 and a strap. It’s always something. Here the link to the racks. They don’t look like much but they shouldn’t take much of a beating. Also, they are built to stack.

FIFO can racks for the pantry

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Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted 1 week ago

I’m trying to up my hay box game, having purchased four soapstone fire bricks to use as “radiators”, like the old fireless cookers. Between the bricks and buying assorted vessels, I’d have been better off searching for an original complete fireless cooker. Still have to buy the ceramic wool for insulation, but the project is on hold for the summer. The biggest drawback is the amount of fuel required to heat the bricks. (The radiators make the cooker suitable for roasting and baking). I think the project is a bust. Ideas welcome.

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted 2 months ago

Forager, We’ve tried to critically examine the potential for energy savings with the haybox, but there are other considerations as well. One is preheating of most cooking utensils, not the least of which is the oven (electric in my case). If I wanted to bake that batch of cornbread in the oven, I would first have to preheat the oven to 400 degrees, which one might think of as 20 minutes of almost wasted energy while the oven does nothing but preheat. The pan of cornbread itself would take about 25 minutes to bake. To preheat the water on the stovetop took about 10 minutes, with an additional 10 minutes to boil the food before placing in the box. So overall, the corn bread took 20 minutes to come to a boil on a stovetop element, versus almost an hour of running an oven element. If I wanted to cook something that required LONG cooking times, like dry beans, I would only have the expenditure of heating the beans and boiling them briefly before shutting off the energy source and placing the pot in the box. But energy savings is not the point, so much as having an excellent cooking device that can be used indoors in a grid down situation, whereas some campstoves, etc. are not safe to use indoors. Additionally, the water can be boiled over sources of heat, like a woodstove, that are performing the function of warming the dwelling. Additionally, it doesn’t emit any odors that would attract unwanted guests. Cooking an additional dish in the boiling water container was a common practice. But you also have the advantage, with clean double boiler water, of having your wash water, for dishes or body, at a very toasty temperature after the energy was expended to heat the water to cook the food. If you want to cook meat and potatoes/veggies in one pot, you would cook the meat for a few hours, take the pot out of the box, add veggies, return to boil (which would expend very little energy) and put back in the box.

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted 3 months ago

LOL! I’m actually not a big fan of cornbread, but I’m enjoying gathering proof that quickbreads can be made without an oven, as long as you don’t absolutely need a crust. The use of the cans as molds isn’t my novel idea. Traditional steamed puddings and breads have probably been made in cans as long as cans have been made! (The famous traditional Christmas “Figgy Pudding” is steamed in a covered mold this way). You actually need that mass of boiling water to cook the food in the box, so it may not be practical to warm it in the oven while boiling the water on the stovetop. What I’ve read is that some dishes might be improved/finished by going in an oven after cooking in the box.

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted 3 months ago

Today’s haybox project: Corn bread. Batter placed in parchment lined Bush’s Baked Beans cans (fit my cooking pots). Two cans held batter for 9″ round pan recipe. Covered with aluminum foil and rubber band (could have domed the foil a bit). Boiled gently on stove 10 minutes, placed in haybox for 3 hours. Timing was guesswork. Taste test: Needs butter and honey!

Reply to: What’s worth canning? Posted 3 months ago

I tend to prioritize canning protein (meat), and tomatoes, and “meals in a jar” type things (stew, spaghetti sauce). I dehydrate more veggies than I can, but there’s a learning curve when it comes to using dehydrated veggies. My story may change when this year’s garden comes in! Otherwise, I would prioritize those veggies that are of the highest value on your menu, and those that “can well”, like corn, potatoes, green beans and beets. I think frozen spinach would be better than canned spinach, and I’d say the same for frozen peas. Some veggies turn to mush in the freezer. Experience will tell you which veggies you feel are worth the effort. Enjoy your new experience!

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted 3 months ago

I recently bought a good sized double boiler to try in the haybox. The upper pot is 3 quarts and the lower pot is 4 quarts. I wanted it so I could have more thermal mass to hold in the heat, so I could try being more creative with smaller quantities of food. The haybox is a specialized boiling/braising/simmering cooking tool. I don’t think things like casseroles were too common in 1913. Yesterday I cooked a stuffed flank steak smothered in a spicy tomato sauce in the haybox. After six hours, the meat roll had an internal temp of 165 degrees F. So the extra four quarts of boiling water made a big difference. It all tasted good and the sauce was excellent over rice. I still want to try steaming some bread in the cooker, maybe make something like a casserole in the double boiler. After that I’ll probably put the experiment aside until I can begin a major redesign that will include ceramic wool insulation and soapstone firebricks, so I can use it for roasting and baking.

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Apr 11, 2022 Posted 3 months ago

I think a lot of the western wildfire problem is being way oversold as climate change, when it can actually be traced to millions of acres of beetle-killed timber, which is almost certainly a result of forest mismanagement. Driving over the crest of the Cascade Range can be a heartbreaking experience. Mother Nature is cleaning up our trainwreck by burning it down and starting over. Also, a lot of human property loss is the direct result of more and more people moving into dense forest areas. These are people who expect to be saved by services that don’t exist near them. Sound familiar? People that live in the middle of a kindling box should probably not be surprised to find themselves in the middle of a wildfire, yet they are. I think that a lot of natural systems, such as water cycles, were almost irreparably broken 150-200 years ago by the voracious overgrazing of western rangeland that is so fragile it was never able to recover. A relative of mine keeps blaming the California drought on government and environmentalists without considering that California is a desert to begin with, that supports a groaning overload of humanity on stolen water. He has a miniscule understanding of water cycles and blames the “desertification” occurring there on shutting off the water to agriculture and leaving the ground unplowed. Everybody blames cows for everything, but I believe that returning a few million acres to grassland and managed grazing could go a long way to restoring water cycles and ending droughts. But of course everyone’s following the red herring. I agree the PNW has its warts, and I honestly think that having a little homestead here is becoming an unattainable dream for many. We’ve considered moving away from the Willamette Valley many times, and now, in retrospect, we are VERY glad we didn’t cave to that impulse.

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted 3 months ago

This is very much appreciated. I can see where a person could develop a real enthusiasm for the method, much like the Dutch oven – it’s just so novel. I have gotten a bit stumped at the fact that the basic thermal cooker seems limited to boiling or steaming, whereas the DO can also fry, roast and bake. Of course the DO is limited to outdoor use. I’ve been going deeper, investigating the use of the soapstone radiators that were used with the more versatile originals. So far I’ve invested in a double boiler to provide more heat for smaller quantities, sourced soapstone firebricks, and am considering a non-combustible insulating blanket called Kaowool for a more versatile DIY cooker. Vintage cookbooks provide a great platform for learning and getting tips, but they have a somewhat limited appeal to modern tastebuds, so contemporary books are a great resource!

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted 3 months ago

I can scarcely believe it…corned beef, cabbage and potatoes cooked to perfection in a box full of hay. I’ll leave you all alone now until I try a steamed pudding and some steamed bread.

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted 3 months ago

I used the haybox with a cast iron kettle full of canned and dehydrated items to make a kind of stew yesterday. The contents rehydrated perfectly, and the kettle was about 12 degrees hotter, after an hour longer cooking time than the previous experiment.

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted 3 months ago

JW, some of the really cool looking antique cookers had “radiators”; disks of soapstone that were heated and placed in the cooker, one below and one on top. You could then bake or roast in the cooker. Iron plates, possibly fire bricks could be used too. These cookers though, were non-combustible. As a possible insulator I remember a ceramic fiber blanket called Kaowool that was used to insulate ceramic shells used in precision metal casting where I worked. This stuff is available online, not terribly expensive, withstands temperatures of over 2000 degrees. There are so many possibilities

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted 3 months ago

Gideon, Since the beans are hard, dense little units, I went ahead and boiled them for 10 minutes before putting them in the box. It wouldn’t have hurt them to go another hour, but they were very nice after eight. I looked up the safe temperature parameters and it looks like 41-135 deg. F is the danger zone (for four hours), but if the food falls below 135, I believe it’s safe to return it to a boil briefly before serving. I watched an excellent video this morning where the person cooked three items in three different cookers simultaneously. One was a home made unit, one was an amazing original fireless cooker, and the third was a modern Thermos brand thermal cooker. The home made unit also cooked the food to 144 deg upon removal, one was used for baking steamed bread in tin cans, and the modern vacuum unit yielded food at 170 degrees when finished! Those things are going for almost $200 on eBay though, and I don’t think you could be as creative with it. I had to try another dish today, sort of a dehydrated/canned food mashup, as I’m really looking forward to seeing how it rehydrates foods.

Reply to: Philosophies for good mental health Posted April 4, 2022

Pops, I just want to say that I find your posts consistently inspiring, articulate, well informed, level headed, sometimes amusing, always interesting. Always enjoyable reading!

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted April 4, 2022

First pot of beans was a success. After eight hours, the beans came out of the pot at 144 degrees F, well within the safety zone. From here it gets more complicated. I’m going to try corned beef tomorrow.

Reply to: Philosophies for good mental health Posted April 3, 2022

Read Josh Centers’ outstanding blog post “Cultivating a Survival Mindset […]” https://theprepared.com/blog/cultivating-a-survival-mindset-the-stockdale-paradox-stoicism-and-the-importance-of-partying-on/

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted April 2, 2022

Forager, you come from sturdy stock! Jennywren, while laboriously screenshotting the old book in case I lost my bookmark somehow, it occurred to me I could buy a copy online somewhere. I bought one on Amazon. LOL! It’s in print. Along with some other books on thermal cooking.

Reply to: Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals Posted April 2, 2022

I think the biggest advantage to the old style is that you can scrounge just about everything and build one for free, or nearly so. But new tech is usually more efficient! And less bulky, for sure. One of the points stressed in the booklet is that if you open the box prematurely to peek, you going to have to put the kettle on to boil again, before closing the box back up. So, with the expenditure of a little more fuel, you could probably return the kettle to the box, to warm for another meal. All sorts of tempting experiments!

FIFO can racks for the pantry

FIFO can racks for the pantry

Cooking in a haybox – a fuel efficient way to slow-cook your meals

Learning to bake without an oven – some suggestions

“Micro-Prepping” for a visually challenged partner

Sanitizing the rain tank

“Tamper resistant” door lock

DIY 12V shower

Dutch oven cooking

‘Ten Acres Enough’ – A book on self sufficiency

Storing emergency cash in a car safe