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.

Has anyone got one of the wonderbags? Been looking at these for when we’re away in the caravan.

I used to cook pasta, couscous and the like in a thermos when I was a student. Same principle.

We used haybox cooking at camps as children. Need to make sure it’s hot enough going in. It’s much like a slow cooker or warming oven on an Aga but not needing fuel.
Neighbours might think you’re odd collecting your casserole from the garden though.

I have a wonderbag - a prepper splashout. Hay box cooking is a great idea but my inability to access hay tipped me to the wonderbag. I've tried it once for a soup and it did the job well.
Anything which allows a slow stewing process but save on fuel is fine by me.
I experimented to good effect with a cheapo camping sun oven. Didn't even need to bring it to a boil first. Obviously there is a small flaw in using a sun oven - the absence of sun lol. I might experiment in the winter with it on a non- rainy day for a laugh.

I like that every purchase of a wonderbag means a contribution to one for someone who has to cook on an open fire. Let’s face it, almost certainly another woman.

I wouldn’t go outside to use a haybox if I were using it from home Cherry unless it was buried I suppose!

You don't have to use hay as the insulation, stuff like wool would be good, and possibly cleaner 😁

An old duvet cut into strips could be one way of using an item that might otherwise finish up in landfill, since no one likes a bobbled duvet.

Something I learnt yesterday is that if you’re using a synthetic fibres cloth (the fleece), you need to make sure you insulate it from the piping hot cast iron casserole dish or it will melt slightly! Wrapping the casserole dish in a linen tea towel first helped.

Regarding transporting the haybox on a hike/ camping - does anyone know of a casserole dish with clips of some sort to ensure it doesn’t spill during transit? I guess you could use string but that’s fiddly and the food would cool down while you were trying to tie the lid without getting burnt.

Wool is a good idea. Shredded paper might work too. The wonderbag uses tiny beads of polyurethane I think, but sewn into the fabric of course.

You don't need yo worry about tying down the casserole lid. Tie down the haybox lid and the pressure from it should do the job.

Don't cut up a quilt for insulation! The stuffing will go everywhere, and contaminate the food. Do you have a paper shredder? If so, use the shreddings. If not, shred newspaper and ball it up. You need a lot. Stuff so tightly that the pot leaves a clear pot-shaped hole when uou remove it.

I have one of these (you can get the same sort of thing cheaper on Amazon)/what I do is brown the onions and meat in it add the veg and put it on to cook on about the lowest setting for about 40mins. then I turn it off , unplug it and wrap it in several beach towels abotu 5that i keep for the purpose . Just over the top and tucked around and leave it over night .. The next morning I take off the towels , bring it up to to heat again ( still the lowest setting for about about 5 mins ) , then unplug and wrap in beach towels again and go off to work . when I get home its perfect.. turn it up to heat again and eat ..

Using one of thee means its easy to cook it all in heat up and serve from..

I have done this for ages now.. cook all sorts of casseroles , joints , chicken etc in it we've not died yet !

Hi I have one of these thermal cookers
mrdscookware.co.uk
Which is really a very large thermos flask. It is great for soups and stews. I find dried pulses need some cooking before hand but meat comes out very tender and veg not as soggy as the electric slow cooker. It is good for camping but quite heavy.

Looks like the same principle

Yes, and much more convenient. I could have done with one of those up to a few years ago, when we did a lot of family camping trips, and dh ran marathons. Probably wouldn't get that much use out of one now, especially as I have a slow cooker.

The veg was infinitely nicer in the hay box - no sloppiness. I did apple porridge in it overnight and woke to a nice breakfast.

I mean - nicer than my slow cooker

Ok so- I have just put in a veg hotpot with a couple of pieces of smoked sausage for flavour. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, baby corn, red pepper, chilli, garlic, onion and chicken stock.

This time I packed my polystyrene fish box with crumpled newspaper, cardboard lined and tea towels all around packing it in instead of the fleeces. It feels packed tighter and the lid is a better fit.

I will be back to report.

Oh and tomato purée

Am - genuinely - glad you’re still experimenting & having fun with this.

We did one properly PROPERLY old-fashioned cooking session one Ranger camp as a change from trangias - tripods either side of a fire to support a metal pole from which we hung our stew-pot; we toasted bread by the fire (using sticks we took bark off with penknives); & baked apples for pudding. (Attracted LOTS of attention from Brownies staying in the Brownie House by where we were camping. Thoughtful of their Leaders to set them loose on us, too, who DOESN’T want a wee mob of unknown 7-10yos bobbing about them as they play with fire?)

My Brownies cooked their lunch on a woodfire (that they’d built & lit) back in September. Well, minimal help with the cooking - some stirring each - as they were needed for making salad & assembling s’mores & so on. But they’re starting to learn. I actually much prefer cooking on wood to using gas stoves or trangias, but that might be an expression of my history geekdom. Certainly quicker&easier to use stoves - & where I am in Inner London wooding = a bit of a challenge - but food cooked over a fire at camp is just the best

Campfire cooking is fun, but wouldn’t go down well here in Zone 2!

More failures than hits this week. Tough beef stew was yuk. Bigos was bland. The vege stew thing I wrote about was nice though.

What was yuk about the beef stew?

Tough meat - it didn’t tenderise adequately. I had to use the over after all. Live and learn! I think my haybox isn’t really as insulated as it should be.