Long weekends are a time to relax and a time to reflect. This memorial day weekend take time out to reflect back on those who have served our country and paid the ultimate price. It’s their sacrifice that allows us to be able to enjoy peaceful weekends in the woods.
Long weekend camping at Fort Toulouse/Fort Jackson park in Wetumpka Alabama.
What is thermal cooking? Well it’s like a slow cooker, but it does not use electricity at all and all the magic happens inside the insulated pot. The short and sweet of it is that food is heated to boiling for a period of time 5, 10, 15 minutes and then put into an insulated structure. The interior covered pot will retain all the heat and the food will slowly continue cooking for several hours.
This cooking concept is not new. While doing some research I found a newspaper article from the late 1890’s describing the same method. I also found a drawing in the book Experiment Station Work, XLI from 1907. If interested in reading the article it can be found over on the Internet Archive.
Well my cooker is not made from wood but the concept is the same. I was able to duplicate the method using a lidded pot and a cooler. Considering the cooler took up so much counter space and the hot pot warped the plastic on the inside of the cooler I finally decided to purchase a small crock pot sized thermal cooker.
It’s very simple to use and there is no worry from leaving an electric appliance plugged in all day. Continue reading