by desertmoose » Wed Nov 12, 2014 9:18 am
Slow, you are thinking of a solar cooker.
A thermal cooker is different. Here's a snip from Steve's post in this thread.
Thermal cookers are similar (yet very different) to a cooking in a crock pot because no electricity, nor occasional stirring, is needed. The cookers outer vacuum insulation prolongs the slow cooking effect for hours once the food is sufficiently heated up. You "cook" (heat) your meal for only about ten to twenty minutes, then turn off the gas burner/heat source - adding no more heat, and your food/meal will continue to slow cook and stay hot (because of the vacuum insulation surrounding it) for four or more hours so you can have an active day outdoors, or traveling, and then enjoy a no fuss fully cooked hot meal hours later. Many recipes are available for thermal cooking. The cookers would be useful in areas with open fire restrictions...which may limit the use of dutch ovens. They seem to be popular with Australian campers.
What Is A Thermal Cooker?
Basically, a thermal cooker is a very big vacuum flask that can cook and keep warm for hours without using power. Like the Thermos, the layer of vacuum insulation in a thermal cooker helps to retain the heat in the food for many hours. The heat cooks the food slowly in the same way as a slow cooker. The thermal cooker is also popularly known as Magic Cooker.
The best thing about a thermal cooker is that it continues the cooking process without using any electricity or gas. Slow cookers consume a lot of power and tend to dry up some of the liquid in the food. Sometimes food gets burnt at the bottom of the slow cooker pot if it is left to cook for too long without being stirred.
Problems like these are not encountered in thermal cooking as the food will never dry up or get burnt. Once the food is inside the thermal cooker, there is no need to keep checking or stirring the pot. Most meat will turn out tender, moist and cooked to perfection, while the vegetables and potatoes retain their shape and texture. No wonder, the thermal cooker is called a magic cooker.
