Easy. Light. Fast. This is how we would describe a thermos or vacuum bottle. Thermos bottles are built with tough stainless steel vacuum insulation to hold coffee, tea, soup, juice, or hot water and keep them hot or cold for several hours. Some thermos maintains temperature for atleast 6 hours. But if you are on longer trips, it would be best to choose one that can keep it warm up to 24 Hours.
But aside from keeping liquid inside the thermos, you can also cook in it. This can actually save you more time instead of preparing food in a crock pot or stove and guaranteed you will have hot food to eat when you take a break in the middle of exploring the wilderness and you're miles away from your campsite.
How Thermos Cooking Works
The vacuum insulation prevents heat from dissipating and basically traps it right inside the thermos' inner container. Over time, this trapped heat can sufficiently cook the food items stored inside the thermos.
Efficient thermos cooking starts with pre-heating the inside of the bottle. Boil water in a regular or electric kettle and then pour it inside the thermos. After 10 minutes or so, you can dump the hot water, and then you can put the ingredients you want to cook inside. Then top it up with more boiling water.
You'll be able to tell if the food in your thermos is cooked by shaking the bottle. If your food sloshes about inside your thermos, it's not yet ready (unless, of course, it's soup). Remember that ingredients such as meat and hard vegetables will still need to be pre-cooked over the stove.
Below are two recipes so you can easily make with thermos cooking:
Recipe 1: Chicken Macaroni Soup
Serves: 2 to 3
Preparation time: 10 minutes (including pre-cooking)
Thermos Cooking time: Minimum of 15 minutes
Ingredients:
4 cups boiling water
1 cup chicken breast, cut to bite-sized pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small white onion, chopped
1 cup macaroni
1/2 cup cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup carrots, chopped finely
1 tsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
1. Preheat your thermos with boiling water. Dump the water out after 10 minutes.
2. While preheating your thermos, heat the olive oil in a skillet.
3. Sauté the chicken breast until brown.
4. Add the garlic and onion, cook until onion is transparent.
5. Put the sautéed chicken, garlic and onions and the macaroni in the empty and preheated thermos bottle.
6. Pour in the freshly boiled water.
7. Add the vegetables and the salt and pepper.
8. Cover the thermos tightly.
Recipe 2: Beef Chili
Serves: 2 to 3
Preparation time: 15 minutes (including pre-cooking)
Thermos Cooking time: Minimum of 15 minutes
Ingredients:
1 lb ground lean beef
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup green bell pepper, diced
1 can tomato sauce
1 can beans (your choice of red or white kidney beans, black beans or pinto beans)
2 tsp. cumin powder
2 tsp. chili powder
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
1. Preheat your thermos with boiling water. Dump the water out after 10 minutes.
2. While you're preheating your thermos, brown the ground beef in a pan.
3. Add the garlic, the onions and the green bell pepper; cook until the onions are transparent.
4. Add the tomato sauce and allow the mixture to boil.
5. Put the beans and the contents of the pan in the empty, preheated thermos.
6. Mix in the cumin powder, chili powder, salt and pepper.
7. Cover the thermos tightly.
Recipe source and photo: CampingRoadTrip