How awesome is slow cooking?

[ebast]

There was a prominent lack of mention of @jacob's promoted stirfrying amongst what I shared of East Coast United States colonial food cultures above, but I imagine stir-frying as staple technique might have a beachhead--and would be interested if anyone ever comes across a similar cultural-historical analysis--of West Coast North America whose modern-day influence on culinary patterns can't be ignored, where while there have been some notable misses: spirulina (which the Aztec called "rock shit") and a relentless fondness for chia, I mean still, can we imagine a world without burritos and avocado toast? Is life worth living?

But I like some of these food histories because you realize how.. bad.. daily slop was (and not just because it was British!), as the account I shared had guests actually refusing to eat the food -- it is hard to imagine arriving anywhere in the developed Mondelez-distributed world and preferring to skip dinner. I mean we're not slurping spoiled milk and livestock feed for dinner, you know--and I guess I see these historical accounts as corrective digestif to my tendencies toward romantic primitivism and localism, wherein okay, fine, probably a Mediterranean diet (I mean Kloppen, not waterfront) was always vibrantly better and will always be (although I've always had a soft spot for my conception of Salish or maybe Tlingit cuisine where you're gorging off cedar-smoked salmon and huckleberries every day--if maybe you are lacking a proper bagel to put it on) but of course the modern cosmopolitan menu is more satisfying and varied and maybe worthwhile despite the vast amount of brainspace I have hence devoted to harboring opinions about Icelandic vs. Australian licorice, sourcing coffee beans over four continents, and casual culinary literacy assuming distinctiton between burrito, taquito, egg roll, spring roll, summer roll, mu shi, crepe, rotolo, dolmade, blintz or wrap (actually, can I have that brainspace back please?)-- which speaks to @jacob's point about globalization offering us the Best of All Possible Worlds, and not to Consider the Lobster too much here, but I don't want to minimize the real cost (not least in energy which I'll get to), nor the undesirable side-effects of that globalization as even Dr. Pangloss noted that with chocolate from the New World also came syphilis (sometimes in the same transaction), but more broadly as a good banh mi is a pretty perfect menage a trois of fussy French crustiness enlivened by pragmatic Vietnamese application of pentatonic Chinese philosophy, even for that pinnacle of the art of sandwichcraft, it took actual, real violence to get to that and to be quite aware to the consequence that there are people not in the world today because of it.



I mention this to bring it back to the OP's initial intent which I thought was pretty interesting, to think about the energy-intensivity of the cooking choice, and it may help to distinguish total energy from individual effort here as watching how that tracks through history might explain why it made sense to burn megajoules of tree to keep a perpetual stew going all day, which while it might make sense from a systems perspective integrating home heating, laundry drying, rendering barely-palatable foods edible, avoiding laborious fire-starting, it seems pretty wasteful to a modern eye to be cooking for hours.

I suppose that's all a inevitable result of transitioning up the energy ladder going from a world where it actually sounded reasonable to chop down a tree in your backyard with an axe to burn it for heat, sending however much of it up the stovepipe, as we have now transitioned to more efficient sources like coal and then oil, and then gas, getting more and more efficient at each source, which now themselves seem awfully inefficient as I'd hesitate to be cooking with gas, preferring instead to combust large amounts of diesel to mine polysilicon which is then subjected to burning metallurgic-grade coal in order to produce photovoltaic panels shipped by bunker fuel and gasoline to me where where they can power my induction-range cooktop except when it's cloudy. This is progress.



That in mind, I have an initially lidless crockpot I picked up on the street which looks like it is from 1978 or at least has a sticker on it suggesting the removable crock was noteworthy at the time and I use this portably, a bit like @jennypenny does to heat her greenhouse, or in my case warm up a drafty corner of the room while I write ERE posts (paired with another 110V turkey-roaster-like oven for baking use) and produce dinner at the same time, however I don't mean to bring a gun to a knife fight, but these crockpots are burning 100-150 W/hr and one of the beauties of @conwy's method is that you're only firing up the stove for 5 minutes or so, maybe 100-200W total, and well, I have to say it, why not just go pressure cooker at that point?

Is leaving a crockpot on for 6 hours any easier than flipping a pressure cooker on for 10 minutes and then forgetting about it until dinner?
(you can reheat to serve).

do think, from a culinary perspective, about what goes in before and after pressurization.

I would also consider nutritional impact as at least at one point I'd sourced actual peer-reviewed papers that nutritive content was better from pressure cooking due to shortened cooking times despite higher temperatures.

I have the crockpot, but if I'm not getting cold feet, on a daily basis I usually use the pressure cooker, like @conwy suggested with induction heating (although electric resistance coil is likely more efficient here) where I'll take 15-20 minutes (timed programmed cook for the induction cooktop so I don't forget, something roughly like that for electric coil range), which works for beans/large pulses to be drained and then seasoned, can get by probably 10m for lentils, and then honestly I usually just leave the pressure cooker on the range but if I'm feeling thorough I'll stick it in a haybox which is an old Coleman cooler.

You could drastically simplify this by just buying an Instant Pot, but my way works when the power goes out..

and I cook with gas.

or woodfire.

[guitarplayer]

I call my experiment 80% success at first pass. The lentils from the top part of the thermos were mushy as usual, the ones at the bottom where still whole but soft, slightly al dente. I should say, I had no red split lentils, only whole (though hulled).

I did 400g red lentils and 1200g boiling water, with the lentils at room temperature which lowered the temperature in the thermos

1200*100/1600 + 400*15/1600 ~= 79 [Celsius]

I am almost sure if I do the same but stick dry lentils / rice etc in my microwave for a minute or two, it will work perfectly.

Thanks @Jean.

To follow up, I applied a fix suggested by @Jean in the european ere meetup:

- Fill up the thermos with boiling water and let the Thermos heat up internally for some time (say an hour)
- Pour the water from Thermos back to kettle to reboil
- Add 400g red split lentils to the empty Thermos
- Add 1200g boiling water

This passes at 95%. It is not quite dahl (completely mushy) but the lentils are cooked through.

[guitarplayer]

My general setup for slow cooking below (this was meant to be reply in a journal but I though better put it here so it does not clutter the journal and maybe someone else can use it).

General setup (easy catch all for volumes and timings):

- 1:3 ratio legumes to water
- 1:2 ratio grains to water
- Spices, herbs and vegetables as pleased
- Set it for 5h on high (most slow cookers, this goes up to some around / above 90 C but below simmering). Many slow cooker models will have an electronic timer so this can be set for night or to start at 5am and be ready 10am, or whatever time is most suitable to you. I have a slow cooker without this function but have mechanical timers between socket and plug, very retro.

My current setup based on above:

- 400g legumes of choice, currently black beluga lentils and dry green peas. Tried black beans, red kidney beans, chickpeas, you name it.
--NOT red split lentils - no point as they need much less time. @Jean has a great technique for preparing these that I have tested and described here.
- 1200g water to account for lentils
- 300g grains of choice. I currently do 150g rye and 150g barley. I choose pot barley and not pearl barley - pot barley is more 'whole' and has more fier, at the expense of annoyingly long normal cooking time. Slow cooker can take it no problem. I am waiting for steel-cut oats to add to this.
- 600g of water to account for grains
- veggies that I currently have. Out of lack of time,you can just chuck veggies in there with no prep - they will cook fine and fibrous bits will be very easy to pick apart after cooking. For example, it is possible to put in whole unpeeled onion and it will peel very easily after cooking. With more time, chopped veggies will infuse the dish with flavour. I commonly add (one or more of - according to what I find for free in town)
-- (chopped) onions
-- (chopped) mushrooms
-- (chopped) potatoes
-- (chopped) swede
-- (chopped) parsnips
-- (chopped) carrots
-- (chopped) red / white cabbage
-- (chopped) brussel sprouts
-- (chopped) asparagus
-- (chopped) broccoli stems (florets are better separately so they don't overcook
-- (chopped) cauliflower (including stem and leaves - all can be eaten)
-- (chopped) courgettes
-- (chopped) eggplants
-- (chopped) pumpkin / squash (just chuck in the whole thing it's too much hassle to cut it up)
- herbs / spices / etc
-- I sometimes add Fenugeek seeds for cooking because they are very hard dry so they soften up
-- otherwise DW and I agreed we spice it up when cooked because we prefer different amounts. Add ons we use are a combination of
--- turmeric (or curry) - a must
--- black pepper (or curry) - a must
--- cumin
--- dried garlic
--- chilli powder
--- chilli flakes
--- smoked paprika
--- garam masala
--- dill
--- rosemary
--- oregano
--- majoram
--- coriander (seeds or powder)
--- ginger
- We don't add these, but you could add
-- salt
-- oil
-- sugar? (I know some people do do that however strange it seems to me)

When served, this can be also garnished with / served with side of (below is a lot of what we find for free around town ans some we buy also)
- seeds / nuts of choice
- raisins (I am thinking about adding raising for the cooking already, should be good)
- peanut butter
- tahini
- chutney
- sauerkraut
- pickles
- aji
- vinegar
- slice of bread
- falafel
- crisps (?! turns out they in fact sometimes go past best before in shops so we end up with crisps occasionally, hard to pass on them)
- the idea is generally that the base is a good wholefood sort of meal so it is okay-ish for the add ons to be a bit of a spoil. I am aware this goes against using no salt and no oil up above, it's a sort of checks and balances mechanism.