[Stoves] Very small stoves and reheating food
Joyce Lockard
rj.lockard at frontier.com
Sun Oct 21 17:19:00 CDT 2012
I lived in a tropical country and had an employer-provided fridge and
freezer but no electricity for about six months. (I did store food supplies
in both, as they kept insects out of the cornflakes etc.) Since I was
working as well as my husband, I got into the habit of buying meat in the
market on the way home from work and making a meat and vegetable dish that
would be enough for two meals (usually a kind of stew because the meat from
the market was pretty tough). We would take out what we wanted for our
supper and then I would boil up the rest of it up again, leaving the lid on
the pot and letting it sit 24 hours before we reheated and consumed the
second half. The idea that food kept at room temperature will go bad
quickly is widely believed by people who have never had the experience of
coping with lack of refrigeration, but it can be done safely even when the
temperatures are in the 80s overnight.
I believe many people living in the tropics cook enough rice or sweet
potatoes or cassava for the evening meal so there will be left-overs for a
cold breakfast. They would likely welcome a small device that would offer a
quick way to reheat the food so breakfast could be warm. However, in the
poorest communities there may not be alcohol for sale for fuel, and a single
burner kerosene stove and the fuel may be beyond their means.
I know that in some communities in a country where I spent about three
months, some husbands spend their evenings drinking with their male friends.
When they go home, drunk, and find their supper cold, they may abuse the
wife physically as well as verbally. A CHEAP alcohol stove would be a great
help for those wives (IF alcohol for fuel were available). There is another
appropriate technology alternative (not my idea): use a "hay box" or
"basket" to keep the cooked food warm. Make a storage container (wooden box
or woven basket or even a carton) with the sides and bottom consisting of
walls insulated with thick pads or bags of straw or dry grass. Put a pot of
hot food into the central space and cover it with another insulating bag of
straw or grass. That kind of hay box can keep a hot pot of food warm for
hours. But I must say that I never saw any women actually using one.
Joyce Lockard
rj.lockard at frontier.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Christina Espinosa [mailto:c_espinosa1 at u.pacific.edu]
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2012 12:59 PM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Very small stoves and reheating food
Reheating food is very common in Guatemala. Familes always have something
that needs a short cooking time (coffee, reheating tortillas, eggs, or
generally reheating food). Many families that even have a fridge leave food
out and reheat it the next couple of days such as refried beans, etc.
I have lived in Guatemala the last two years.
Christina Espinosa
Sent from my iPad
On Oct 19, 2012, at 10:38 PM, Paul Anderson < <mailto:psanders at ilstu.edu>
psanders at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> 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: <mailto:psanders at ilstu.edu> psanders at ilstu.edu Skype: paultlud
Phone: +1-309-452-7072
> Website: <http://www.drtlud.com> www.drtlud.com
>
>
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