About Heat Retention Cooking

Heat Retention Cooking, or HRC, is something we use in our work here in Honduras to practically help the people and also to open up a dialog with them to share Christ and Biblical teachings.

We receive request from the states for information about HRC and so I thought a blog post detailing some of the information might help.

HRC is simply a method in which the food is heated to boiling, 212F, for a short period like 10-20 minutes, and then the pot is immediately insulated in some form to allow the food a long slow period to cook as the heat is lost over a period of hours - as in 4, 6, 8 hours or more.

HRC is actually an old form of cooking but one that is just as helpful today as it was in the yesterday of long ago.  My favorite book on the subject was written in 1908!  It is entitled "The Fireless Cooker: How to Make It, How to Use It, What to Cook" and is available free to read online on Babel Books or you could purchase a print copy from Amazon.com for around $7.00.  So, if you stumble on a website where someone is claiming to have invented this cooking method, click off the site, and just keep searching for information a little more trustworthy.  Use search words like "Fireless Cooking," "Heat Retention Cooking," "Retained Heat Cooking," "Haybox Cooking," and "Hay Sack Cooking" and HRC is on Pinterest!

There is a little publication from the Kansas Academy of Science, vol 21, Dec. 1907, entitled, "Fireless Cooking" and I especially like their conclusion:

"Finally, it may be said that in this very elementary application of science we have an amelioration of labor and expense in one of the commonest and most necessary functions of living.  The fireless cooker will not necessarily make a good cook, nor insure sumptuous viands for our tables.  Just as a celebrated painter advised his pupils to mix their colors with brains, so must the kitchen artist use mind as well as muscle."

Our favorite way to cook using HRC is actually in the cooler.  We put a piece of cardboard on the bottom to prevent melting the plastic of the cooler, place the pot inside, and then loosely pack with towels, clothing and even pillows.  We have given lessons in mountain communities simply wrapping the pot in towels, placing in a plastic trash bag, and then continue packing with other clothes, towels and pillows.

These women simply did not know what to think of the big bag we brought in and it certainly looked like a bag of trash.  So, it was no surprise that they were incredulous when we told them we were currently using it for cooking and that the pot had been in the bag for over six hours! 

When they saw the pot, felt the heat from the pot's sides, and saw the steam pour out when the lid was opened, they were experiencing and able to believe in a whole new paradigm for cooking!

 

Here we demonstrated HRC using both the plastic bag method and the cooler method at a ministry for young girls with children as a result of abuse.  We also brought our "Bolsa Marvillosa" as the people have named it or "Marvelous Bag" in English.

We actually do not use the plastic bag method any more as in one demonstration Ellen was explaining to the women that they can use extra clothes to insulate the pot and she received blank stares.  She explained it again only to have one woman say, "I don't have extra clothes in my house" and the other women were all in agreement that they didn't own extra clothing or towels.  It was a very awkward and difficult moment to get through and we explained that we were going to show them a method that they did not need to use clothing as it would have it's own insulation.  Our hearts really broke for the depth of poverty of these women but we are also encouraged by their overall joyfulness.

People in Africa have done HRC for years using baskets which they line with clothe, place the pot inside and wrap up to cook.  You can read about it on this link: Heat Retention Cooking in Africa

Ellen decided to give the african basket method a try and started with this basket.

She layered towels in the basket, brought the food to a boil for 15minutes, and then placed the pot in the basket and wrapped it up.

Four hours later everything was cooked perfectly and still piping hot at about 160F.

Cooking Instructions

Before cooking, place the pot in the bag to make the form of the pot.

Put the food in the pot and bring to boil.
10 minutes for vegetables
15 minutes for chicken, beef or pork
20 minutes for dry beans (we usually soak our beans the night before)

Immediately after boiling, put the pot with lid on, into the bag and put the top on the bag.

Leave in the bag for:
Just vegetables: 2-3 hours;
With meat: 4 hours;
Fresh Beans: 40 minutes
Dry Beans: 4 up to 9 hours

DO NOT OPEN!  DO NOT TOUCH!  Do not open the top of the bag because you will loose heat.  After the hours of cooking are completed, you can open the bag, remove the pot and open the pot.

After 6 hours of cooking in the bag, the thermometer is reading 160F which is well above the 140F food safety limit.

For people who cook with wood, meeting the felt need of cooking with less wood is significant but the bigger benefit is the reduction of indoor air pollution.  Indoor air pollution is a leading cause of acute respiratory infection, or ARI, and is a leading cause of death in developing countries.  Indoor air pollution is ranked as the 4th major health risk for developing countries by the World Health Organization and their statistics show that it contributes to 1.5 million premature or preventable deaths per year.

In general, the people in Honduras eat beans everyday and often for every meal.  The beans that they typically purchase in the market, may take four hours of boiling/simmering over a fire to cook.  Also, the people generally like soups.  This may be attributed to eating poorer cuts of meat or chicken and the slow cooking of a soup helps to soften the tough meat.  In both cases, we have found a quick and enthusiastic acceptance of HRC for these foods.  This is exciting to us because it opens such a huge door for sharing the Scriptures and building relationships with the people.

Interest in HRC and the associated Biblical lesson continues to grow.  We even have one pastor we are working with us that told us of another church that is struggling and which they believe would be greatly encouraged by having the HRC lesson!  We have also been invited to share in a church in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

I hope this has been helpful and maybe encouraged you to try HRC in your own home!!

Blessings, Matt

   

Training for Children's Ministries

We use Community Health Evangelism, or CHE, in our ministry and we recently gave the training for children's ministries using CHE to several of the Christian leaders we work with.

CHE is a wholistic, community-based development strategy that combines relevant evangelism with health education and development principles to bring about the transformation of individuals and communities.  This method seamlessly integrates evangelism, discipleship, and church planting with community health and development.

The future lies with the youth of today and so we continue to invest in children's ministries.  The CHE training for children's ministries is a uniquely different approach with a goal to empower the youth to be the ambassadors for Jesus equipped with practical life lessons and Biblical discipleship!

The learning process is participatory allowing ideas and solutions to come from those attending the training.  We give out a problem and divide the attendees into groups to discuss and write up their ideas that will then be shared with the whole group.

Here Ellen is using a story with simple pictures and then asked questions to gain group input.

Here is part two of an object lesson.  She was sharing that children are like a bag... what's the problem with this bag?

This is a simple drama teaching the concept of multiplication.  One person knows a game, rock-paper-scissors, and they teach someone else, who then teaches someone else...  

Here they are building water towers from readily available materials.  We discussed what the important concepts behind the construction of a water tower and how that relates to our training others.  Can you think of any ideas?

We actually tested the water towers and both passed!!

We often use simple skits or dramas to introduce a theme.  People can learn their lines, ad-lib, or read from a page as they are doing.

This is just to show how simple the skits are and also how much fun they injected into the training!

There is also the opportunity for people to use drawings to share concepts!

Here's a group project where they have to decide on the proper order for the cards.

We had moved to our new house and moved the training there!!  Here the dining room became the training center!

Our training included learning how to share a simple plan of salvation and to train others!

More practice in sharing basic Biblical concepts and Scriptures!!

There's always time for more café!!

We even had some dramas on sharing salvation!

Notice how the group notes are crawling across the ceiling!

Here is our whole group!

28 hours of training and I think they really would have liked to keep going... they will by applying it!  One beautiful aspect of the group was that it was a blending of folks from different churches all who happily work together in serving the Lord!

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, 

always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you 

for a reason for the hope that is in you; 

yet do it with gentleness and respect.  1Ptr 3:15