Slow cooker Vs Haybox....

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Slow cooker Vs Haybox....

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Clara

Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 268
Location: the green green grass of wales

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 10 1:56 pm Post subject: Slow cooker Vs Haybox....

....anyone care to offer an opinion? I was thinking of asking the Freecycle universe for a slow cooker as it seems Iï¿½ll be going out to work and needing something wholesome for me and the kids when we get in. However having talked to someone it seems that there isnï¿½t really much difference between that and a haybox (except that a slow cooker uses more energy). On a few occasions I used a coolbox/hotwater bottle/sleeping bag combo as a makeshift haybox and that worked well enough.

Is a slowcooker more reliable? Does anyone make a haybox that looks nice!!

TIA Clara

darkbrowneggs

Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 663
Location: Worcestershire

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 10 2:25 pm Post subject:

Hi - I think they are very easy to make. I got interested in Hay Box Cooking at the age of 10 when it was mentioned in a children's book I was reading, and a few years ago I purchased a copy of Haybox Cookery by Eleanor Sinclair Rohde published 1939. Apparently haybox cookery became popular in the 1st World War when women needed to work but provide a hot meal for the family when they got home.

It says you just need a stout draft free wooden box, and you line it with cushions stuffed with hay.

I now have the ubiquitous "Aga" so it doesnt seem worthwhile making one, but if I hadn't I certainly would.

all the best
Susan

www.darkbrowneggs.info

lottie

Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 5059
Location: ceredigion

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 10 4:14 pm Post subject:

You have to cook stuff until hot with a haybox--- Using a slow cooker although some stuff may be better pre-browned etc you can just turn a slowcooker on[putting hot stock or water in if you want or not] or set a timer plug depending on recipe--I wouldn't be without mine--actually I've got 2 sizes. I'm sure some people like hayboxes but I think they are less convenient for someone getting self and kids through the door in a morning. I still use mine alot even though I'm at home mostly now.

Clara

Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 268
Location: the green green grass of wales

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 10 4:30 pm Post subject:

darkbrowneggs wrote:

Hi - I think they are very easy to make.
It says you just need a stout draft free wooden box, and you line it with cushions stuffed with hay.
www.darkbrowneggs.info

Yeah I used my homemadeversion before which is basically cool box stuffed with old sleeping bag and stick a hotwater bottle under the pot for good measure (also summer method for making yoghurt) and thatï¿½s great, but just wondered if there was a countertop version - there is they cost too much Iï¿½ve subsequently found out.

The person i spoke to seemed to think you had to bring everything up to boiling BEFORE putting it into the slow cooker as well, but a couple of people have since said the opposite. Does that work for pulses?

Duckhead

Joined: 24 Oct 2009
Posts: 2069
Location: Up the hill, Italy

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 10 4:32 pm Post subject:
A good friend swears by his slow cooker, he puts meat, veggies and stock in, goes to work and comes home to stew. How does it work though that the meat falls to tender pieces, yet the veg still have a nice bite to them? Beats me.

JohnB

Joined: 09 Jul 2005
Posts: 685
Location: Beautiful sunny West Wales!

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 10 4:50 pm Post subject:
I've got a slow cooker, but no hay box yet. It's always seemed to me that the energy used by a slow cooker must be mainly an expensive substitute for insulation. One day, I'll make a hay box and do a comparison!

toggle

Joined: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 11622
Location: truro

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 10 6:01 pm Post subject:

Clara wrote:

The person i spoke to seemed to think you had to bring everything up to boiling BEFORE putting it into the slow cooker as well, but a couple of people have since said the opposite. Does that work for pulses?

Some pulses do need boiling at the start of cooking. Rather than memorise what, I boil anything that needs soaking. something like lentils could go in cold.

Res

Joined: 07 Apr 2005
Posts: 1172
Location: Allotment Shed, Harlow

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 10 6:40 pm Post subject:

Clara wrote:

Crap! I have done in the past and still do occassionally do the same as sfolati's friend, chuck fresh meat, veg, tin of toms, herbs and top up with some hot water from the kettle into the slow cooker first thing in the morning and have a fabulous stew when we get home. Sometimes do it with stock instead of tin toms and chuck in some gravy granules when I get home, all depends what meat etc I put in and what I fancy that day.

I have not tried a haybox, I gather from the comments that its a bit like a giant thermos?

Duckhead

Joined: 24 Oct 2009
Posts: 2069
Location: Up the hill, Italy

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 10 7:07 pm Post subject:

Res wrote:

Clara wrote:

Thats all well and good, but can anyone tell me why the meat falls to bits but the veg stays whole?

Clara

Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 268
Location: the green green grass of wales

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 10 7:56 pm Post subject:

[quote="ResI have not tried a haybox, I gather from the comments that its a bit like a giant thermos?[/quote]

Yep, thatï¿½s exactly what modern commercial ones look like, google Thermal Cooker. Oddly enough the traditional one was a box stuffed with hay...I have a friend whose mother was born very prematurely weighing 2 or 3 pounds and was kept warm and alive in one until the dr could come in the morning (this is 1905 or something).

lottie

Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 5059
Location: ceredigion

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 10 8:39 pm Post subject:
The slow cooker reaches cooking temperatures needed for meat,before reaching those needed for vegetables--it helps if they aren't cut too big and go on the bottom of the pot with the other stuff on top as the element is at the bottom in most cookers so it's the hottest area---there used to be some where the hottest area was the sides--but I don't know if they still do those.

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