Hay Box type cooking

[Urbanbeetler]

Has anyone tried this? There are some quite expensive but beautiful and efficient looking ‘Wonderbags’ for sale which are basically padded bags for you to put part-cooks food inside casserole dishes- the idea being that they carry on cooking for hours using their stored heat.

I’d love to hear if you bought one, or any similar product, as to whether is was worth it.

They are meant to be good for camping as well as a way of saving fuel.

I am trying an experiment today. I got a polystyrene foam box from the fishmonger (he gave it to me for free) and have packed into it an Irish stew - stewing lamb, onions, potatoes, carrots, celery, stock. I browned the meat and veg in a lidded cast iron casserole and added the stock, simmered for 15 minutes, then I padded it into the polystyrene box with newspapers and old fleece throws. I piled a couple of heavy items on top. I will come back this evening and tell you if it was edible.

Ok - I’m going to put an indate in case any lurker is interested!

I opened the ‘haybox’ at about 3.30pm. It smells great and the veg is lovely. There is a very good savoury gravy. The meat is a cheap cut of lamb on the bone and not yet ‘falling off’ the bone enough to be perfect. So I have brought it back to the boil in the job, let it simmer for about 8 minutes and put it back in the haybox.

I will update later.

In the job = on the hob. Sorry.

I’m curious! In fact I was just talking to my mum about this yesterday. I saw how they used to use hay boxes in the war and wondered if there was a current equivalent (my hay source is non-existent!)

It seems such a good idea- perfect for hiking or camping- you could start a big soup or casserole and have it all ready at the end of the day with no power needed! Also good if gas/electric prices hike up - but you’d have to use them a lot to make back the £50 they cost. The home made one with the fish box seems to be pretty good so far. One of those insulated picnic box things would probably work too, but you’d have to make sure the hot casserole dish didn’t touch the sides straight from the stove.

I think it could work well for lentil and pulse dishes. I wondered if it would be safe to use with chicken. And I want to try my home made one with shredded paper or actual straw. The fleeces got a bit damp with condensation.

Yes - keep us posted - I love quirky threads like this I've never tried a hay box myself, but have read about or seen them on the telly.

Chunks of chicken might work, not such big pieces for cooking through then. Sounds like a quirky idea.

So I read that if the food is left at between 60 and 140 degrees for an hour or more, you need to fast boil it at the end before eating it. So a food thermometer might be a good idea so I can see what temperature it is when it comes out.

Good idea about the smaller pieces of chicken.

So it was nice! Meat was quite tender and the potatoes hadn’t disintegrated even though it was ‘cooking’ a long time. We had it with buttered soda bread and it was properly comfort-food. I’m going to try something else next time.

What I learnt - the extra liquid you add to a casserole isn’t needed as it doesn’t evaporate, so you need to put it in the haybox the consistency you would like to eat it. Ours was a bit heavy on the gravy because I didn’t think about this.

I’m going to get a ham bone and some yellow split peas and make pease pudding next time. I shall report back.

That sounds like a good meal. An idea well worth investigating.

Thanks, agree it was worth it.

Phwaor that looks like a proper good stew I’m salivating

What about a slow cooked chilli? I've been told that letting it cook slowly over a long time will give a better flavour than my normal quick cook in 30 mins type.

That sounds like it could work.

I wish I could pass a bowl over to you Raven!

yes i always make my chilli a day before we eat it,but so many dishes taste better if left for a day or to imo

I remember a hay box on guide camp. I'm not sure what was cooked in it though.

I've been looking around the web, and there are several sites promoting the hay box style of cooking, and it looks like many slow cooker recipes would adapt well.

Me too. My dh has been sneakily copying links to the wonderbag - I think he is so relieved he has actually found something I’d like for Christmas. I have visions of winter walks ending in picnic chillis.

I wonder if it would work with meatballs?

I think I'll give this a try. Once I get the house sorted, it being a bomb site right now having moved a couple of days ago.

We still make & cook with hayboxes in Girlguiding - last one I did I was a Ranger: foil-lined cardboard box filled with hay; little nest in the middle for our pot; & a hay pillow (made from foil) to sit on top (you close the flaps of the box down too).

We re-used it, too. Hay you can get from pet-shops fairly easily, I think.

Good luck experimenting - it’s certainly nice to come back from a hike/day off adventuring somewhere & not need to cook...

I like the lid idea. And glad to know they are still in use.

I’ve heard of the box being buried so the top of it is at ground level as well.

It’s a great way of saving on fuel if you’re cooking on a campfire I imagine.

I've been doing this in our motorhome for a few years now. I prep everything, get it really hot all the way through on the stove then put the lidded pot, wrapped in towels, inside a tight fitting box lined with newspaper and more towels. Be sure there are no air gaps and the outside of the box doesn't feel warm (which means heat is escaping). 6-8 hours later after a full day out on our travels we have a piping hot meal cooked to perfection.

I came across mention of haybox cookery in an old cookbook, and had a go.

I used a cardboard box lined with an old woollen blanket, and filled with shredded newspaper or hay. Hay worked better, I felt. I didn't make a padded lid, as the instructions suggested, but folded the blanket over the pot and filled the rest of the space with a pillow. Then I folded the cardboard flaps over and weighted them down with something.

I made vegetable stews, rice pudding and porridge in my haybox. They all worked very well, once I'd learned to really stuff the box hard. Loose stuffing doesn't insulate as well as tight stuffing.

It was a bit of a faff, but I think you could get used to it and become quite efficient at it. It's a bit like using a slow cooker.

A little more research tells me this was common in Victorians times. Sometimes used to have hot food for hunting parties, so having hot food outdoors some distance from the main house.