Thermal vacuum cooker?

[S. Heisley]

The secret to these thermal cookers may be in that, once you've cooked the meat or what ever for 20 minutes, it's pretty much done and all you're doing in the TC is tenderizing and mingling flavors...don't know.... I think that cooked meat stays good much better and longer at the lower temperatures than raw meat would. (As far as baked goods made in a TC? I have no idea....)

Many of us cook our meats before we go camping so that they will last longer; and also, to not use as much fuel. 20 minutes of propane can be a considerable amount. My thought is that we might need to do some experimenting or asking, should any of us decide to purchase one of these. If the meat was cooked ahead, it seems like one would not need to cook for the 20 minutes; but rather, simply bring the cooked meat, stew, whatever to a boiling or reasonably high temperature and then dump it in the TC. If that is true, we might be able to save additional time and fuel in the campsite, with certain recipes. It probably just depends on what you are making in it.

[Esteban]

YouTube, demonstrating recipes cooked in a thermal cooker to pique your appetite and curiosity:

Eva's Apricot chicken

BBQ Red Wine Rib Rack in a Thermos Shuttle Chef

Meat Stew made in a Thermal Cooker with meat pre-cooked a la Sharon

Fish Cooked on the Beach in a Thermos Shuttle Chef

Unlucky Fisherman's Stew made in a Thermal Cooker

The Posh Pescatarian: Turks & Caicos Conch Chowder

Shuttle Chef- Spaghetti Boglonese

Duncan Elliot, AKA Flying Chef chocolate pudding

Shuttle Chef- Omlette in a bag

Hokey Pokey Noodles made in a Thermal Cooker

THERMAL PORTABLE COOKER BREAD ROLLS "baking" breads. Needs two pots. The small one for the bread. The large one is filled with boiling water to help retain heat in the thermal cooker.

After watching thermal cooker recipe videos they are increasing looking like very versatile cookware. I've learned that they should be used nearly full to retain heat for the longest time. Liquids in the ingredients and/or water (in a 2nd pot) are very good for heat retention. I'm leaning toward a thermal cooker that can hold two pots. Some thermal cookers are insulated by a vacuum in the outer pot and other, less expensive, thermal cookers are more often foam insulated which do not retain heat as long. Also larger capacity thermal cookers when full retain heat longer than smaller cookers with less capacity.

Steve - a thermal cooker newbie (meaning I don't have one or any experience using one).

[S. Heisley]

Wow! You've been doing your research!

PS. I caught the cute add:

Meat Stew made in a Thermal Cooker with meat pre-cooked a la Sharon

[Esteban]

:shock: Wow! You've been doing your research!

PS. I caught the cute add:

Meat Stew made in a Thermal Cooker with meat pre-cooked a la Sharon

[S. Heisley]

The carrot cake makes quite a statement about how well the Thermal Cooker cooks/bakes but that stew had some weird ingredients in it.

I've been thinking some more on the Thermal Cooker.... You could possibly make a meal before leaving on a long drive and have dinner ready in the TC when you got to your camping destination or you might picnic at a rest stop along the way! However, I'm wondering how tight the seal is and if the contents would spill out of the TC if the TC tipped over during the drive? (That might depend upon the way a particular make and model is closed/locked.) Also, if you had two pots inside; say, one with a stew and one with a dessert, if it tipped would the stew ruin the dessert?

Still, the Thermal Cooker has excellent possibilities.....

[Esteban]

The days are getting longer again. I'm beginning to think about about summer camping. Today I ordered a Saratoga Jacks 4.5 liter thermal cooker. store.saratogajacks.com It's the smaller sized one to make meals for "three to five people." I called Saratoga Jacks and talked to Jack. We had a nice conversation. Jack said many ATVers use his cookers and they stand up well to the abuse. I was told that after bringing your food to a boil the cookers lose about 4 degrees per hour when they are fully filled.

It has two inner cooking pots which I think I will like better than other brands of thermal cookers with just one, bigger, inner pot. I did not buy the 7 liter cooker because it seems oversize to regularly cook meals for one or two people. To best retain heat the cookers need to be filled to capacity with food or hot water.

There is a Pinterest page filled with recipes by Jack's wife, Amy. On their family vacations they use a thermal cooker every day and save hundreds of dollars compared to eating in restaurants. pinterest.com/saratoga jacks thermal-cooking

Mine should arrive within a week. Once it's here I'll try some of Amy's recipes and share my experiences. Its winter, so a beef stew is probably the first meal I will make. I am intrigued to read you can make (bake) fruit crisps too. So many tempting recipes to try! I look forward to easily prepared, delicious, meals that can stay hot for hours.




I'm going to practice cooking in the thermal cooker at home this winter. Want to practice making different recipes and kinds of meals. By spring or summer I can take the thermal cooker with me to go camping. Or maybe in my car for a busy day of errands, or work, away from home. I have a Camp Chef propane stove/oven and I think the thermal cooker will give me many good options for meal preparation once I begin teardrop camping.

[JuneBug]

Also saw a cooker that uses the same principle (boil five minutes, then passively cook in insulated container), but was basically some type of insulated bag that goes around the pot. This particular device was invented for people in developing countries where cooking fuel is expensive, scarce or both. Reviews for it were positive. I'm going to move forward with getting some type of cooker in the next week or so.

There is a Pinterest page with lots of recipes by Jack's wife, Amy. They use the cooker every day on their family vacations and save hundreds of dollars compared to eating in restaurants: pinterest.com/saratoga jacks thermal-cooking
Pinned! Thanks for that great link.

[S. Heisley]

I thought of an advantage of the Thermal Cooker over the Dutch Oven, one that Esteban alluded to: less clean up.
With the DO, you are using burning charcoal. This leaves ashes/soot on the top and bottom of the DO.
The TC wouldn't have that problem. Things are pre-cooked/heated on the stovetop in the same pans that fit inside the TC to finish baking/stewing.

Then, there's another obvious one: DOs weigh more.

I'll be looking forward to your personal take and review, when you get and use your own, Steve.

[Esteban]

In Australia, a woman named Joanne, asked : "Thermal cooker...which one to get" in the caravanersforum.com.

Christine answered:

Re: Thermal cooker... which one to get
Sat Sep 03, 2011
Jo,
I too live in SA and decided to get a thermal cooker for a few reasons. The reasons why they are a terrific item to have in either your caravan or home kitchen is:

1. They use very little energy to cook food (you start the meal on the stove top and it finishes cooking in the insulated container)
2. They are convenient - you can have the meal prepared for the pot the night before, pop it in the pot and have a nice cooked casserole/curry/soup etc when you pull up at night. Imagine not having any tedious cooking to do when you are tired after a day's tripping around or travelling! You can have a pot of curry in the bottom and rice in the top and both are ready when you are.
3.They are easy to clean up. I Just wipe the pot out with a paper towel, and wash quickly with a little soapy water.

It is a wonderful gadget and I would not be without it. I use it as much when at home as when travelling. Great for entertaining as I can put the curry and rice on in the morning and it is ready to serve when people come to dinner.
Chris

Lynne shared this:

Re: Thermal cooker... which one to get

Postby JohnandLynne » Sat Sep 03, 2011 8:03 pm
We have been very happy with the Eco Pot which we bought as a good deal at a caravan show. You do not need it to cook all day - we often put on a soup or stew at lunch time and it is ready for tea In fact we find it more use when we are camping because we are not great at preparing a meal while we are packing up in the morning! We tend to cook a big pot of soup or stew the day before we travel and then have plenty left over in the fridge for when we stop the next day. Whichever way you go a thermal pot is a good investment because it saves gas and allows you to very easily prepare lots of economical meals. Corned beef and pea soup to die for! Also the two pots can be used on the stove at any time as saucepans which is handy. I have also found it very handy when taking a cooked dish to a party at home - the thermal pot keeps it hot and at a safe temperarure and it is all ready to serve so the hostess doesn't have to reheat it. It would also keep cold food safely cold for a pinic. Makes a good ice bucket too! Ours sits under the bed in its carry bag and is no trouble to carry in the van! Lynne

[jonw]

I just bought the 5.5L model from SaratogaJacks and will experiment with it over the winter at home.

Also thinking it will by easier, cleaner, lighter, and more efficient than camping with a DO, although
perhaps not as flexible.

Will report back later...

[Esteban]

I just bought the 5.5L model from SaratogaJacks and will experiment with it over the winter at home.

Also thinking it will by easier, cleaner, lighter, and more efficient than camping with a DO, although
perhaps not as flexible.

Will report back later...

Maybe JonW and I have started a trend by buying the SaratogaJacks 5.5 liter thermal cookers for home and camping. It seems to me to be the right size for a single person or a couple. Big enough to cook for two and to have leftovers for another meal. The information at Amazon.com says it weighs 8 pounds. Much lighter than a 10" or 12" Dutch Oven. There are two cooking pots with this cooker. One is 5.5L and the other one is 2L. The 2L one fits inside (on top of) the 5.5L pot.

It will be very different than cooking with charcoal and a Dutch Oven. I can quickly heat the cook pots on my propane stove when I camp. Then put them inside the insulated outer pot and go about my day (or night) until meal time hours later. I'm anticipating it will be more of an "everyday" cooker than my Dutch Ovens which I think I'll continue using on special occasions.

Here is the Amazon.com link for the 5.5L SaratogaJacks thermal cooker and reviews for it: amazon.com/Saratoga-Jacks-Thermal-Cooker-Deluxe
and Lodge Dutch Ovens for comparisons sake: Lodge Dutch Ovens

Amazon says the shipping weight of a 12" Lodge DO is 21 pounds. That is about 2-1/2 times heavier than the 5.5L thermal cooker. The Amazon reviews and Q&As will answer many/most of your likely questions. People seem to be well satisfied. SaretogaJacks cost about half the price of many other, slightly more efficient, thermal cookers. That's more than good enough for me to try one out.

One answer to a question on Amazon wrote:

Just went and measured it. It's about 11 inches tall (the whole thing not just the pot) and 10 inches wide. How many people? I guess that depends on what you are making. I fairly regularly make a lentil stew and we generally have enough for 2 meals for myself and my girlfriend. If you just use the bigger pot and not the inner small one certainly you could feed 4-6 people I think, depends on what you are eating I suppose. It's almost 6 quarts if that helps.
Measurement of the actual pots are 8 inch diameter by about 6 1/2 tall for the big one, and the inner is like 7 1/2 by 3 inches tall. With the pots together they are basically the identical volume for each part you can actually cook in EG the bigger pot has about a 3 inch deep by 8 inch diameter space still available. The more full it is to begin with the better, in fact if you were to use it to cook a smaller meal I'd suggest you put boiling water in the top pot to take up space and add heat.

The size seems compact enough to easily fit/store in a teardrop galley.

[S. Heisley]

The Saratoga Jack TC appears to be the only one with a full 5 star rating, too.

[desertmoose]

I'm a bit late posting this... been hectic already this year.
My son and his wife gave me the Saratoga Jacks TC for Christmas.

I tried it out a few days later. Made a venison stew.

Started with cubing a couple of pounds of venison. Browned it in olive oil in the bottom of the big SJ pot right on the burner of the kitchen stove.
Cut 4 taters into chunks, tossed them in, added a couple of handfuls of carrot pieces, a couple of cloves of sliced garlic,and one onion cut into small chunks.
A few healthy grinds of black pepper and salt were all the seasoning.

Filled the remainder of the pot with water, and brought it to a boil. Kept boiling for about 10 minutes since the meat was just a bit on the still frozen side when I started.

(TJ says to make sure all ingredients are at room temp when starting)

One thing to watch for is I had to really keep an eye on it to keep it from boiling over. Wanted it full for cooking, but was too full for boiling. Probably will need to keep the water level low enough to not slop over while heating next time, then top off with boiling water from a different pot when sealing up.

Added a bit of corn starch, sealed it up and let it sit for about 6 hours. (I didn't use the small pot this time, everything was in the big one)

When I opened it, the meat and veggies were done to perfection. Tender, but not mushy. Everything was too hot to eat, so we had to let it cool a bit. I didn't measure the temperature though.

A couple of observations. I needed a LOT more food, and less water. It was more like a soup than a stew.

The flavor was real good.

That pot holds a lot of food. we had stew for several days.

I did remove the meat and veggies for the liquid on the second day and cook the liquid down to less than half. also added some flour to thicken it into a gravy.

Next time, I'll try cooking the food in the small pot, with boiling water only in the big pot for the thermal inertia.

Sam

[Esteban]

Thanks so much for your review Sam. Which size SartogaJacks thermal cooker do you have? The 7 liter or the 5.5 liter? Your review is building my excitement to begin using the 5.5L TC I ordered which should arrive in a few days.

In Amy's (Jack's wife) Pinterest recipes page she says to start the boil with your food ingredients covered by water (or another liquid). Boil for a couple minutes. If needed, add a thickener like corn starch, flour, a packaged stew seasoning, etc., stir and heat for a few more minutes. Then cover the pot(s) and place them in the outer insulated shell to continue slow cooking. (I am paraphrasing her instructions).

I have read people saying you need to change how you cook, a little, from how you previously cooked in an electric crock pot. Generally with a thermal cooker you need to reduce the water or other liquid content in a recipe a little because it does not lose liquids to evaporation. On the other hand electric powered slow cookers can steam away liquids which sometimes burns your food.

[jonw]

That pot holds a lot of food. we had stew for several days.
Sam

I hear ya Sam. I suspect the 5.5L size will be great for potlucks but may be too large for 2 person meals, but I didn't see any that were smaller than 4.5L (other products that were less well-rated on Amazon).

They say it's more efficient if the pot is full - less air to lose heat to. One of the things I plan on experimenting with. Also using the little pot for things like rice to take up space inside the larger pot.

As for the boiling over issue, I think the trick is to turn your stove down so it is just boiling one it reaches a boil, which is another way to conserve fuel.

Maybe we should have a thermal cooker cook-off or cooking class at next summers IRG 5.0?

Jon W

P.S. - If you order one directly from http://www.saratogajacks.com use the code: chefbrad at checkout to get 10% off (if it is still good...).