“The best food to start the day is fresh fruit or a good low heated whole grain. This should be a cereal in its wholesome state (with life in it). It can be prepared in a thermos bottle: Take a thermos bottle, fill in the early afternoon or evening one-third full of grain, then finish filling the thermos bottle with boiling water. Turn the thermos over two or three times to mix the grain and water. The next morning the grain is ready for consumption.”

The blog is the thermal cooker thermal cooking weblog at http://thermalcooker.wordpress.com/category/thermal-cooking/ you may also be interested in http://www.thermalmagic.com/ which has a number of thermal cookers and thermoses that would work.

One example I use when showing the efficiency of using a thermal cooker is cooking a pot of chili beans. To do it without a thermal cooker you would place a big pot filled with water and beans on the stove and let it simmer for about 3-4 hours. Using a thermal cooker, you soak the beans for 16-24 hours, pour off the water and rinse add more water and bring the water and beans to a boil and then let it heat through at a simmer for about 25-30 minutes. Place the boiling hot water and beans into the vacuum thermal cooker and let it sit for 3-4 hours the whole time it’s cooking in it’s own heat. Comparing the two methods, you are using ~35 minutes of fuel/power with the thermal cooker vs 3-4 hours using the stove or slow cooker/crock pot. That’s an 85%-90% savings in fuel and/or power use.

Clean up is also much easier using a thermal cooker because the pot that holds the food is a separate easy to clean pot.

@ LaDonna – I really like the Thermos Sportsman brand thermos sold at Wal-Mart, Target, Ace Hardware and a few other places. It has a much wider opening and it’s a lot easier to get the food out – especially things like quinoa or millet. It’s not available online yet, but Thermos says it’s a newer model that’s still arriving at different stores. Costs about $20 at Wal-Mart. It’s also easier to clean.

@ Becky – I use a long handled cleaning brush I found at Target. Works great on all of my thermoses except for the 61 oz jumbo Thermos. Going to need to find something with a longer handle for that.

@ Jonathan – the energy savings isn’t really a big selling point to thermos cooking. Yes, it is more efficient, but you’re really only talking a few pennies either way. To me, it’s more about being efficient with your time. You don’t have to stand at a stove watching and stirring your food. It’s ready when you are and you can leave the rest in the thermos where it will stay hot.

I’d also say that using a thermos to cook would come in handy in an emergency situation where your energy options might be limited.

In the prime oatmeal & soup season (winter), there’s no energy gain from this vs. my gas stovetop.

Here’s why: as a resident of a cold climate who heats the house with gas, I’m already converting lots and lots of gas into heat. Heating stuff on my stove (with the same gas that would be burning in my furnace) converts that gas into heat AND food at the same time. Since the thermostat is in the kitchen, the furnace runs less in balance, keeping the electric fan turned off. By running the stove, you’re harvesting utility from an existing energy stream.

For electric stoves and microwave users who heat with gas, there’s some energy savings from this.

Where this makes sense, is in the summer, when you’re paying (in energy use) to COOL the house. Any reduction in overall heat output has double savings: less gas out, less A/C running to compensate.

JoAnne – Thanks for the information!

La Donna – Great question! A little patience and a fork, spoon, or pair of chopsticks should do the trick.