Thread: cutting back

Originally Posted by Matt69

One good trick I've tried for frugal cooking is to use a 'Sabbath hay-box'. It's simply a cardboard box, lined on all sides with good insulating material - I used 1/2" polystyrene sheets. You heat up a stew or casserole to a rolling boil on the stove, then put it in the box. Fill up any air-space with an old fleece, put another sheet of polystyrene on top, and close the box. The stew will continue to cook for hours if the insulation is done properly, it won't boil dry or burn, and you use no more fuel.

sounds more like a recipe for food poisoning. once that stew gets down below 140 degrees, and stays there for 4 hours, it's garbage, not linguini. i'd be real careful with this method. the money you save on cooking fuel will be more than offset by the trip to the er to have an iv started to rehydrate the temple that is your body from all the puking and diarrhea.

Here's a link to the above mentioned cooking box;

cooking on the cheap - Bushcraftliving.com Discussion Forum

No idea how safe it is, back in the day people were probably made of sterner stuff. Plus one on the manifold cooking, there's a whole cook book dedicated to it. I had a friend that ran heavy machinery and did this year round on 12 hour shifts eating like a king once he got the hang of it.

Originally Posted by Noisykids

sounds more like a recipe for food poisoning. once that stew gets down below 140 degrees, and stays there for 4 hours, it's garbage, not linguini. i'd be real careful with this method. the money you save on cooking fuel will be more than offset by the trip to the er to have an iv started to rehydrate the temple that is your body from all the puking and diarrhea.

Perhaps I should have spelled it out in greater detail. The insulation greatly slows down the cooling process, and if done well, the food stays too hot for bacteria to grow for 6-8 hours at least. I cook in the morning and eat it for supper. Any left-overs go in the fridge. You don't want to leave food in there until it has cooled right down, because then it will have spent a long time at the optimum temperature for bacteria to grow (body temperature). It's not meant for long-term storage, and once you've cooked the food (as I say, 6-8 hrs is good) you don't then put it back in the insulated box.

Hey West Virginia,

On the growing your own tobacco thought.... as you know, I live in tobacco country and have access to, pretty much, all the raw leaf I could want (mostly VA bright). I don't know how to cure or, sweat it, though. If you have the knowledge or, know someone who does, we might be able to tackle this. It might be a fun, and money saving, pursuit. Blending has been a casual pursuit for a loong time. This might be a logical extension of that. PM me with your thoughts.

Back in the dog days of summer we used to fry eggs on the sidewalk.

I've always thought there should be a law, every house should have a big meter mounted in the main room showing the consumption of electricity and gas in real time and the cost just like when you fill the car with gas at the station. Maybe then people like my wife who walk around the house turning lights on and forgetting to turn them off might act differently.

No kidding, I work nights and when I get home every light in the house is on and everyone is asleep. Everything here is electric, no gas and I have a load controller keeping my on peak demand down and we have an electric plan with the utility company that limits our usage during peak demand hours and timers on the water heater.

I bet when my college age kids are paying their own bills the lights will be off.

Originally Posted by Link8382

Interesting! I had a friend who drove commercial trucks over the road and would put cans of stew/soup on top of the engine while he was driving. He would stop 20, 30 mins later and have a hot lunch.

seems like a good way to get chemical poisoning from the layers inside the can. Isn't that how the hobos used to get killed?

I am now cutting back on the electric bill. I turn the AC off during the day, now that it is cooler, open the windows. This saves me about $60.00 to $80.00 a month. This savings allows me to buy "1" more hone a month, usually a barber's hone. The savings on my electric bill last month allowed me to buy my PHIG from Woodcraft.

ALso, what is your point with going from gas to wood? Economy, or carbon footprint? If it is economy, then you have to lay out the time spent getting wood versus making money doing something else, or the cost of getting the wood... Gas, time, price to cut.. Howmany cords it takes to get you though the months. Or if it is carbon footprint then wood is not necessarily the way to go either. If it is fo rhte "simplier" way of life, then.... That is why they made propane... To make life simplier..

not a matter of carbon footprint, and we use wood to heat our house so why not get to uses from it at once especially thos time of year

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