Barilla passive cooker
barilla.com
Barilla passive cooker
1–10 of 528 posts
Re: Barilla passive cooker
#2Backpackers have been using this technique to save fuel - I've got a cozy for my cookpot.
I also remember seeing this on one of the Victorian Farm shows - it was something like a pot roast brought to a boil in the morning, then put in a well insulated container to sit for the day.
Edit: Whoa, I just clicked through to "The Product" section, and it's an open source design using an Arduino. Super cool!
Re: Barilla passive cooker
#3> When the water boils, pour in your pasta.
Why even wait for the water to boil? I always pour my pasta into the cold water right from the start, and it doesn't seem to make any difference.
Re: Barilla passive cooker
#4Not really "passive" cooking as you're just not actively pumping heat into already boiling water and just cooking pasta in steadily cooling water.
You can actually soften pasta and many other similar foods by just leaving them in room temperature water for a much longer period. Some backpackers do this to reduce weight and it's been the only way I've ever prepared food while backpacking. Admittedly, cold noodles, oatmeal, rice, etc. is a lot more appetizing if you're many miles from the nearest civilization and have worked up a huge hunger from hiking.
Re: Barilla passive cooker
#5Not sure what's so special. I would assume everybody knows that most of the energy during cooking is wasted:
1. By the water evaporating
2. By the hot gasses escaping without actually heating up anything
3. With the water poured away after cooking
Which is why I:
1. Put a lid on the pot whenever I can. Once it boils it usually is enough to reduce the burner to absolute minimum to keep the simmer unless I am adding large amounts of ingredients.
2. I use induction whenever I can.
3. I try to avoid wasting water. I use minimum amount of water necessary to boil pasta (you really don't need as much as you think you do). I also steam rather than boil vegetables like potatoes or carrots -- you get away with half of a cup to a cup of water at the bottom. Steaming does take a bit more time but I think it is still more efficient than poring huge amount of water into the pot.
I am still waiting for a real Dewar pot that would have double sided sides and also double sided lid. Probably would require precision heating (possibly with integrated heating element in the base as well as integrated temperature sensor).
Re: Barilla passive cooker
#6> When the water boils, pour in your pasta. Why even wait for the water to boil? I always pour my pasta into the cold water right from the start, and it doesn't seem to make any difference.
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Re: Barilla passive cooker
#7> When the water boils, pour in your pasta. Why even wait for the water to boil? I always pour my pasta into the cold water right from the start, and it doesn't seem to make any difference.
Wouldn’t that increase the time it takes to get a boil going? Doesn’t that increase the thermal load (or whatever the appropriate term is)?
Re: Barilla passive cooker
#8> When the water boils, pour in your pasta. Why even wait for the water to boil? I always pour my pasta into the cold water right from the start, and it doesn't seem to make any difference.
Different stoves take different amount of time to boil water. Kinda hard to follow the timing directions on the box if you start with cold water.
Re: Barilla passive cooker
#9> When the water boils, pour in your pasta. Why even wait for the water to boil? I always pour my pasta into the cold water right from the start, and it doesn't seem to make any difference.
I suspect that makes it harder to get the timing right, because how long the water takes to heat up varies a lot more than how much it cools down in the first ~10 minutes after turning off the burner.
Re: Barilla passive cooker
#10> When the water boils, pour in your pasta. Why even wait for the water to boil? I always pour my pasta into the cold water right from the start, and it doesn't seem to make any difference.
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