[Stoves] Very small stoves and reheating food

[Paul Anderson]

Stovers,

The need for very small stoves has at least three justifications. And 
both relate to small fire for small cooking tasks.

1.  In the developing societies, are there examples of people who 
re-heat left-over food?   I know of none.   The situation relates to the 
lack of ways to safely save cooked food until later meals. Refrigerators 
are generally not available.   But maybe in cold climates, some people 
can save food for several hours or even for a day.

2.  In developing societies, what are the SMALL (and short duration) 
cooking tasks?    We seldom mention a one or two person household. Many 
"singles" and elderly live with their family  members, so maybe there 
simply not many small households.   And maybe the foods lend themselves 
to being cooked in large-ish pots.   AND the people eat all that is 
prepared.    OR worse, any excess food gets thrown to the dogs, pigs, 
chickens, etc.

3.  In affluent societies, re-heating left-overs and/or single or 
two-person households are common, so small cooking with biomass could be 
useful.

Who can cite examples of SMALL cooking?   Especially for developing 
societies.    How about :

a.  a quick couple of cooked eggs
b.  hot water for tea or coffee for a few people
c.  preparing special food for babies
d.  the need to re-heat the food when someone arrives well after mealtime
e.  other>>>>>>>>>>   please give examples

Note:   The above relates to the current practices of cooking, which 
include the following for developing societies:

A).  If a family has a small smoldering fire for many many hours 
(wasting fuel while making smoke), there already is a "small fire", but 
not a very good one.

B).  If the family is so poor (or without access to fuels), they simply 
cannot have a fire except once a day because they do not have a stove 
that makes a good small fire.

C).   Other practices.......    please give examples.

*************** So, why am I asking?? **********
Because of my recent interest in Boy Scout individual cooking AND 
because at my house we do re-heat leaf-overs for just my wife and I, I 
am seeing some valid reasons to have some very small stoves.   For 
example, tonight I used a special small TLUD natural draft stove to 
re-heat some lentils (almost a soup).   I used 130 grams of wood 
(pellets, but wood chips would have done the job) to heat a small (5 
inch diameter) pot for 10 minutes, and still had 12 more minutes of 
fire.   So I will try soon to do a similar task with 65 grams of fuel.

TLUD micro-gasifiers are especially well suited for these small cooking 
tasks.

1))   They can be started quite quickly, so there is no delay waiting 
for the fire to build.

2))  They can almost self-extinguish, with reduction down to only a 
small amount of glowing charcoal.   (20% of 130 g is only 26 g of char 
that is not a major loss if left to burn to ash, but I actually saved 
it.   And I hope to use only half the fuel (and char) next time.

3))  By the way, my little TLUD is essentially "tincanium" and could be 
easily made wherever tin cans are found (including in Haiti where 
Food-Aid cooking oil comes in tins appropriate for the outer cylinder of 
the small TLUD.

Any comments will be appreciated.

Paul

-- 
Paul S. Anderson, PhD  aka "Dr TLUD"
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu   Skype: paultlud  Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website:  www.drtlud.com