Dream-pot Portable Thermal Cooker

[Lorin Cupples]

Weuse the shuttle chef, it is the one with the full insulation like thermos'. It is great, we cook up something in the mornings when we are travelling for the day and when we arrive dinner is ready. OUrs came with the insulation bag so it is easy to transport in the tug. We use it at home a lot even though neither of us work. I wish we had one when all our family was at home and we were both working, it would have saved so much time.

Makes great curries and the best fluffy rice. Lamb shanks, red wine casserole yum. I have made bread once and need to do a bit more practice and I have made cakes.

Shirley

Hi, looking to purchase a thermal cooker for our big adventure next year and wanting to purche while I am still working and have the cash. I have an electric pressure cooking which I love but am looking to purchase a tghermal cooker. Any feedback as there seems to be a few available. cheers and happy vanning, Ann

The Dream-Pot is a thermal cooker. This means that it is highly insulated and allows food to continue to cook (or to be kept cold) for extended periods of time without the need for external heating. Depending on the size, your Dream-Pot will have either one or two internal metal saucepans, these are used to start the cooking process, and then transferred into the thermal capsule with the lid closed. Your food will continue too cook itself without risk of overcooking, burning or drying out.

Would need a heat source. On previous camping trips, I have used a burner screwed on top of a gas cylinder, so that would do the job. Saving 88% of the gas on each use, makes it an attractive proposition.

While reading reports on thermal cookers, I came across mention of the temperature "danger zone", which is 5degC to 63degC. If using a thermal cooker, the temperature must not drop to 63degC or below, to avoid food poisoning. The Wikipedia has info on this:

We use to use an ordinary pressure-cooker and a straw filled box back in the '70's. The pressure cooker had the pressure-cap off while on the stove until boiling, cap was on then until time to open up, hot still after about 4hrs.

Meanwhile, sift the flour and rub the butter through with your fingertips. Create a well and add the beaten egg and milk, and gently combine. Then, roll the mix into lots of dumplings about half the size of a golf ball.

Add 2L of boiled water from the kettle to the inner pot of the Dreampot, add the small pot with the dumplings and apples above the water, put on the lid, and seal up the thermal cooker. Give it 30 to 60 minutes, and serve it to the billy lids with ice cream.

When we moved aboard full-time, the crock pot had to go for the space it took up and because of using electrical power. The Thermos sizes you wrote about were smaller than what I wanted. When I read about this thermal cooker, I did some research and found that these are used frequently in other parts of the world, but here in the States, it seems our kitchen appliances MUST be electric to be good. At the time I purchased mine, it was not available in the US. I had to order it from Canada, and it came complete with instructions and cookbook in an Asian language. Now it is available on Amazon (link below).

When I bought mine, there were other sizes available, but I chose 4+ quarts because that was the size crock pot I had used. I could always cook less in the larger pot, but I wanted the option of the larger amount. It fit perfectly in a cubby because it is tall and thin rather than short and stout like the crock pot.

I have been practicing brown rice cooking in a thermos for the past week or so. Only the first batch I made came out cooked, actually mushy, with excess water. I have tried several different proportions, rice to water, to no avail. The major difference between the first batch and all the subsequent, besides proportions, was I laid the thermos on the side for the first batch. The rice is always warm and crunchy with a layer of water on top when I check after letting sit for around 8 hours. I boil water, place in thermos for 5 minutes, return water to boil, place rice in heated thermos and add boiling water. Any suggestions? Does the type/brad of brown rice matter?

I think the best part about this is while on a trip, we tend to be on opposite meal schedules. One of us is eating breakfast while the other is eating dinner (because of watch schedules). With this, we can make soup and stew etc. and have it stay warm for the next person. And as you pointed out, great for pot lucks.

We make our own wonder bag as we need it by wrapping up the saucepan in a towel and then a big duvet. It works just as well, we have wrapped something at lunch time and it is cooked and roasting hot by dinner!

We bought one last year and love it. It fits in our galley sink while we are under way. we use it to make chili or soup to enjoy on long passages. At home I cook beans in it. Still experiencing with it.

I am a first time sailboat owner and am trying to know the pro and cons of thermal cooker vs. a pressure cooker. We will be sailing from Pensacola to Abaco. Long term we will be staying on our boat for 1-2 months at a time in Bahamas. Do you have any suggestions on where to start? Pressure cooker or thermal cooker first, or should I get both? Many thanks!

I'm always on the lookout for methods of alternative cooking, so I was quite intrigued when I learned about the haybox cooker. I was also surprised that this new-to-me idea is actually a very old method of cooking! Haybox cookers (also spelled hay box) are sometimes referred to as wonder boxes, fireless cookers, or thermal cookers. They cook food by using retained heat. In other words, the food is partially cooked first, then allowed to finish cooking in an insulated container.

Early haybox cookers were wooden boxes which used hay as insulation. People still use hay, but wool fleece is popular too. The box itself can be anything from wood to a thermal bag. They tend to be susceptible to moisture build-up, so probably the only thing that wouldn't last long would be cardboard. Dan made my haybox from an old travel cooler and leftover foam board from our pantry insulation project.

If you're interested in more, there are tons of websites and videos on haybox cookers, all easy to find with a simple search. There's also a free cook book by Margaret J. Mitchell, entitled The Fireless Cook Book. It was originally published in 1913, but is now public domain and available for download at the Internet Archive. Amazon has an inexpensive paperback option, which I recently ordered, along with a more recent publication, Fireless Cookers Haybox Cookers & Retained Heat Cookers by George Eccleston. I ordered it too and will give you a review of both books soon.

This is the classic camping stove. My brothers, back in the thirties, would make breakfast oatmeal overnight this way, so they had breakfast first thing in the morning, hot and ready to eat. I think it was in my girl guide handbook, too, in the fifties.

Wow! We use a specific cooler to rest the smoked meat we make, and it keeps cooking on the inside, but I have never heard of finishing the cooking of something off. Fascinating! What an awesome thing to research! You are so great at coming up with useful information and projects for us to try! Well Done!!!... or half done...HaHa!

I've seen many variations of this old barn raiser technique of cooking. Including using pillows sewn together to make a surrounding insulating barrier.

Your system raises some concerns for me. Have you considered the off gassing of the materials in the insulation aka foam, fire retardant chemicals used to meet code, and the vapor barrier over time and heat. These gasses are very toxic. Not to knock a brilliant idea, but safety first.

I'll keep building my boxes with heavily matted wool (Think a fleeced, 3" thick mat of wool (Bot, I was mad when I did it and it wasn't my intention) and other natural products. I'm actually making a crockpot Thanksgiving dinner in mine. I'm using my Coleman oven on my wood stove heater to start it off.

Once again, Leigh, an opportune post.

Rosalea, it was just a matter of using what we had available rather than buying materials. Always the best way, IMO!

Jo, great use for a matted fleece! Yup, there are many variations. And nope, I'm not worried about off-gassing for this particular product (but I won't speak to other brands of similar products).

We did something similar to this at Girl Scout camp one year. We dug a hole about 4 feet down (I wasn't on the digging crew so I don't remember how deep) and started the stew on the fire in a cast iron dutch oven. I think that they put some coals around the oven and put it in there. Filled in the hole and left it for a few hours doing other campy things. When we came back and dug up our dinner, it was all ready. :D

You could probably keep the Haybox in your kitchen (or summer kitchen) to cook up dinner. I can see that being really handy in the summer.

Very interesting Leigh. I use a version of this for making yogurt: Heat and then cool the milk in the crock pot, add the starter, then put a towel over the lid and wrap the outer shell with a blanket, and let it sit for 12-16 hours. Works like a charm every time - I am surprised how much heat is retained.

TB, yogurt, yes! I've done that too, but with a small cooler instead of a crock pot. I like your crock pot idea. Maybe I should try something similar for my kefir. My kitchen has reached autumn temperatures and not as warm as it used to be. Why didn't I think of that? Thanks!

Our EcoPot comes with 12 volt so that if we want to heat it up in the car we can (we have never used this feature). Cooking with a thermal cooker is easy. Start the process off and cook what you want for say 20 mins, then lock it into the thermal cases and bags and come back at dinner time. Its all done and still warm enough to eat.

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