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Barilla passive cooker

barilla.com

171–180 of 528 posts

Re: Barilla passive cooker

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To perhaps state the obvious, I use mine mainly for coffee. And the occasional tea cup.

Honestly it seems more likely for an American household to have a Keurig machine (or hell, even multiple Keurigs) than to have any kind of kettle.

You're on target here. I have become the dumping ground for misbehaving keurigs from family and have managed to make most of them work or frankenstein parts between them. I hate the machines and wish this never happened. I was happy with a french press. Curse my urge to not waste things.

Re: Barilla passive cooker

#172
> *water boiling phase excluded

Why is the part of the process that consumes the most energy arbitrarily excluded from this, am I missing something or are they just being dishonest so that they can include a bigger number in their marketing?

Re: Barilla passive cooker

#174
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better way to save energy is to use an electric kettle to get the water up to boiling. This is about three times as energy-efficient as a gas hob. Combined with passive cooking it could save real money… Technology Connections on YouTube has a good video about how electric kettles are the superior way to boil water: https://youtu.be/_yMMTVVJI4c

> This is about three times as energy-efficient as a gas hob. I sincerely doubt this figure in cases where electricity is generated from fossil fuels in the first place. For example, I lived in the Netherlands where 80% of electricity is still produced by fossil fuels, mostly in gas-fired power plants. As I understand it, generating electricity from gas has an efficiency of only about 50%. That means you lose a lot o…

> In the winter, the gas stove will be more efficient since all the heat that doesn't go into your food, heats up the room (heating is typically also based on gas in the Netherlands, so this is basically free energy).

The efficiency loss of the electric kettle also gets converted into heat that heats up your home, energy doesn't just disappear.

Re: Barilla passive cooker

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sure? Germany is a (shit) coffee country and everybody has had electric kettles since the 90s.

Lots of Americans drink kind of shit coffee as well, they just largely drink it from drip coffee makers. Alternative brewing methods like french press, aero press, pour over, etc. is starting to become more popular but is definitely still not a predominant way of doing it. And even then, the really bougie people will just have an instant boiler tap in their kitchen instead of taking up counter space with something th…

In my experience drip coffee in a halfway decent machine from halfway decent beans is miles better than most/all instant. Just because drip coffee is convenient doesn't necessarily mean it's bad.

The beans you use are more important than the brewing method - if you use a giant tub of stale Folgers it probably won't be great. But grind you own decent beans and a drip machine can be fantastic.

Re: Barilla passive cooker

#176
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better way to save energy is to use an electric kettle to get the water up to boiling. This is about three times as energy-efficient as a gas hob. Combined with passive cooking it could save real money… Technology Connections on YouTube has a good video about how electric kettles are the superior way to boil water: https://youtu.be/_yMMTVVJI4c

> This is about three times as energy-efficient as a gas hob. I sincerely doubt this figure in cases where electricity is generated from fossil fuels in the first place. For example, I lived in the Netherlands where 80% of electricity is still produced by fossil fuels, mostly in gas-fired power plants. As I understand it, generating electricity from gas has an efficiency of only about 50%. That means you lose a lot o…

Damn, 40 per kWh electricity.

My last energy bill (including taxes and fees) is showing $0.124 per kWh electricity, and $0.62 per cubic meter of gas.

Re: Barilla passive cooker

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans largely don't use electric kettles because Americans largely don't drink tea at home and thus don't use kettles as often as the rest of the world. Most households I know don't even own a kettle. Not a stovetop one, not an electric one. If you were to ask most Americans why they don't have an electric kettle at home they won't say "because I only have 120V outlets in the kitchen." They'll say it is because t…

But that's partially because 1100W kettles are less _useful_. I'm mostly a coffee drinker, and use a bean to cup machine for that. But I still use my kettle a good bit, because it's quicker to boil the kettle and then pour into the pan and bring back to the boil than bringing cold water to the boil in the pan. I've got a 3kW kettle, though, if I had a 1100W one I wouldn't do that because it _wouldn't_ be quicker.

Unless you have some sort of thunder-wok burner the 110V kettle is still way faster than the stove.

Source: have a 110V kettle and a gas cooktop with very large burners, still use the aforementioned trick.

Re: Barilla passive cooker

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans don't really do electric kettles, largely on account of using 110V mains, which limits power to around 1100W, making it a lot slower than ~2000W electric kettles in the 200+V world.

Americans largely don't use electric kettles because Americans largely don't drink tea at home and thus don't use kettles as often as the rest of the world. Most households I know don't even own a kettle. Not a stovetop one, not an electric one. If you were to ask most Americans why they don't have an electric kettle at home they won't say "because I only have 120V outlets in the kitchen." They'll say it is because t…

Once introduced, it's hard to downplay the usefulness of an electric kettle.

Re: Barilla passive cooker

#179
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should work fine. I only cold soak these days. Saves a lot of weight and is actually faster (my food is “cooking” while I hike, so it’s ready immediately after I stop for the day.

Other things you can use this on than pasta? Are there recipes for this kind of low-effort camping meals somewhere online?

There are many things you can do this way, the terminology “cold soak” used in the parent comment is a good starting point, there are lots of resources online with ideas and techniques for cold soak backpacking meals: https://sectionhiker.com/cold-soak-no-cook-backpacking-meals...

I am an avid backpacker and have heard a lot of folks talking positively about this, but haven’t given it a try myself just yet.

Re: Barilla passive cooker

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To perhaps state the obvious, I use mine mainly for coffee. And the occasional tea cup.

Honestly it seems more likely for an American household to have a Keurig machine (or hell, even multiple Keurigs) than to have any kind of kettle.

A Keurig machine is just an electric kettle with an electric pump inside of it.
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