The Wonder Bag will change the way you slow-cook forever

[japple]

I ran across this on HuffPo the other day and was really intrigued.

Sometimes innovations in cooking seem like they're only for chefs, or at the very least people with the coin to drop on an immersion circulator. Rarely does something hit the market that is affordable, amazing, brand new and totally practical for the home cook. That is exactly how we'd describe the Wonderbag.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/02/wonderbag-slow-cook-video_n_4532485.html

[NYC_SKP]

1. LINK: For every unit sold in US, Amazon will donate one to a family in need in Africa.

Unfortunately, Amazon is currently out of stock.

Wonderbag: Slow Cooking Off the Grid

by Joanne Camas
on 10/11/13 at 09:00 AM



Wonderbag Sometimes the simple ideas make the most impact. Wonderbag is a simple idea -- a portable slow cooker that doesn't require electricity -- and families in Africa are benefiting from the smart design.

Once a pot of food is simmering, it can be placed in a Wonderbag, where the insulation finishes the cooking. The results? Fewer health risks from smoke and open fires in the cooking areas, less time spent gathering cooking wood or reduced expenditure on fuel, and fewer trees chopped down.

Now, for every low-cost, low-impact Wonderbag purchased in the U.S., one is donated to a family in need in Africa.

The designers believe Wonderbags have many uses Stateside, too. They stress the portability of the slow cooker, which means it's idea for picnics, camping, BBQs, and tailgating. They also suggest using a wonderbag on holidays, when stovetop space is in great demand.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2013/10/wonderbag-slow-cooking-off-the-grid.html#ixzz2prhpBzmM

[Warpy]

2. This is very old technology

and it has been used forever, enjoying a resurgence every time someone changes the packaging.

At the turn of the last century, it was called the Fireless Cooker, or just a straw box. It was just that, a box stuffed with straw with an opening in the middle to receive a standard stew or soup pot. The lid was also insulated with straw. I had the "Fireless Cooker Cookbook" chock full of everything the busy housewife in the 1890s would need to cook, all heated on the stove in the morning while the family's hot water was being heated, to be put into the box and enjoyed at suppertime, hours after the fire had gone out.

I've also read a reference to straw boxes from Elizabethan times, can't remember where, it was a long time ago.

There's also the New England baked bean supper, beans boiled on the stove while rocks were being heated. The rocks would be placed in a hole in the back yard, the bean pot on top of them, then straw and soil would follow. Either that night or even the next day, the bean pot would be excavated and the contents enjoyed. I know people there who still do it as almost a ritual once a week, the bean hole a time honored institution undoubtedly adopted from one of the tribes, probably the Wampanoags.

This technology could be made more locally and cheaper than fifty bucks if the outside were local pottery and the innards local straw. My guess is the most costly part of the whole business is the cloth.