Sectional_view_of_a_haybox_as_drawn_by_Marguerite_Martyn_in_1906

A haybox, straw box, fireless cooker, insulation cooker, wonder oven, self-cooking apparatus, norwegian cooker or retained-heat cooker is a

cooker Cooker may refer to several types of cooking appliances and devices used for cooking foods. Cookers * AGA cooker – a heat storage stove and cooker, which works on the principle that a heavy frame made from cast iron components can absorb hea ...

that utilizes the heat of the food being cooked to complete the cooking process. Food items to be cooked are heated to

boiling point The boiling point of a substance is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of a liquid equals the pressure surrounding the liquid and the liquid changes into a vapor. The boiling point of a liquid varies depending upon the surrounding envir ...

, and then insulated. Over a period of time, the food items cook by the heat captured in the insulated container. Generally, it takes three times the normal cooking time to cook food in a haybox.

History

Hayboxes are so called because

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...

or straw were the commonly used insulators. Pots of food would be brought to a boil and then placed in a box filled with hay or straw. Additional hay or straw would be added around and on top of the pot. The inventor

Karl von Drais Karl Freiherr von Drais (full name: Karl Friedrich Christian Ludwig Freiherr Drais von Sauerbronn) (29 April 1785 – 10 December 1851) was a noble German forest official and significant inventor in the Biedermeier period. He was born and died ...

developed a novel form of haybox in the first part of the 19th century. During World War II, hayboxes were used as a way of conserving rationed cooking fuel. Campers and hikers have used variations of hayboxes for years, heating their food in the morning and then storing the heated pot in a

sleeping bag A sleeping bag is an insulated covering for a person, essentially a lightweight quilt that can be closed with a zipper or similar means to form a tube, which functions as lightweight, portable bedding in situations where a person is sleeping o ...

backpack A backpack—also called knapsack, schoolbag, rucksack, rucksac, pack, sackpack, booksack, bookbag or backsack—is, in its simplest frameless form, a fabric sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders ...

. In this way a hot meal is available for eating at the end of the day. Commercial designs based on this principle differed only in details of construction, and the kind of insulating material used. Some types were provided with

soapstone Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the zo ...

or iron plates which were heated during the preliminary cooking on the stove and then placed in the fireless cooker either over or under the cooking pot. In these types, a non-flammable insulating material was used. A successful home-made strategy was to take a box so large that the cooking pot when placed in it could be surrounded by a thick layer of non-conducting material, such as hay,

excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

or crumpled paper. A cushion was placed over the pot and a tight-fitting lid was placed over all. Versions of hayboxes that use wool as the insulator have been used as a cost-saving measure in the face of rising fuel prices caused by the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

Advantages and disadvantages

Haybox cooking can save vast amounts of

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...

, but there is a risk of

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

l growth if the food items are allowed to remain in the danger zone (41−140 °F or 5−60 °C) for one or more hours. In order to reduce the risk, food cooked in hayboxes can be reheated to boiling before eating, or a food thermometer can be used.

References

{{reflist Simple living Cooking appliances Ovens

History

Advantages and disadvantages

See also

Further reading

References