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Barilla passive cooker
- _whiteCaps_ 4y agoBackpackers have been using this technique to save fuel - I've got a cozy for my cookpot. I also remember seeing this on one of the Victorian Farm shows - it was something like a pot roast brought to a boil in the morning, then put in a well insulated container to sit for the day. Edit: Whoa, I just clicked through to "The Product" section, and it's an open source design using an Arduino. Super cool!
- dluan 4y agoI have a thermos vacuum pot, and do stews and soups with it once a week where I just bring things to a boil and leave it in the insulated thing overnight. Oxtail soup, pork spareribs, chili, biryani, hunter's stew, etc. Helps it with getting everything really nice and tender, and easier than a slowcooker.
- hammock 4y agoIt’s how pit barbecues work as well. You heat rocks on a fire and then bury the food (like a lamb) with the rocks under the ground, using the dirt as an insulator. Or, cover the rocks and food (like lobster or oysters) with wet seaweed to steam the food.
- jimmySixDOF 4y agoAlso yoghurts have been made using a jar in some insulated slow cool down method for centuries
- SamBam 4y agoI have a "Wonderbag," an insulated bag you put your pot in after bringing it to temperature. It does keep heat in for a very long time.
- vonseel 4y ago> a pot roast brought to a boil in the morning, then put in a well insulated container to sit for the day. Don't you need to worry about some sort of danger zone with regards to bacteria in meat thriving between 100-140F? My friend always leaves meat out for several hours and never gets sick, but I've just assumed he's been lucky so far.
- jasondozell 4y agoI’d assume if the lid was kept on then there’s little scope for new bacteria to enter the chamber
- Someone 4y ago> it was something like a pot roast brought to a boil in the morning, then put in a well insulated container to sit for the day. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haybox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haybox: “A haybox, straw box, fireless cooker, insulation cooker, wonder oven, self-cooking apparatus, norwegian cooker or retained-heat cooker is a cooker that utilizes the heat of the food being cooked to complete the cooking process. Food items to be cooked are heated to boiling point, 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.”
- nemo1618 4y ago> When the water boils, pour in your pasta. Why even wait for the water to boil? I always pour my pasta into the cold water right from the start, and it doesn't seem to make any difference.
- thewebcount 4y agoWouldn’t that increase the time it takes to get a boil going? Doesn’t that increase the thermal load (or whatever the appropriate term is)?
- nielsbot 4y agomaybe not? if the water and pasta are at the same temp to start with. I'm assuming heating pasta also takes less energy that heating water.
- wtallis 4y agoThe term you're looking for is heat capacity. Water has a much higher specific heat capacity (on a per unit of mass basis) than most other everyday materials, and it comprises most of the mass of a pot+water [+pasta] system being heated, so the time and energy required to boil won't be changed significantly by the presence or absence of the pasta.
- discardedrefuse 4y agoDifferent stoves take different amount of time to boil water. Kinda hard to follow the timing directions on the box if you start with cold water.
- Exmoor 4y agoNot really "passive" cooking as you're just not actively pumping heat into already boiling water and just cooking pasta in steadily cooling water. You can actually soften pasta and many other similar foods by just leaving them in room temperature water for a much longer period. Some backpackers do this to reduce weight and it's been the only way I've ever prepared food while backpacking. Admittedly, cold noodles, oatmeal, rice, etc. is a lot more appetizing if you're many miles from the nearest civilization and have worked up a huge hunger from hiking.
- qroolen 4y agoi did once, with lentils; but nothing beats cooked food, no matter if it is pre-soaked or not...
- riffraff 4y agoPasta needs to reach something like 80 degrees to "cook", if you just soak it at 35 it will not be the same result. The method described here (which has been around for centuries) instead gets you the same result as cooking in constantly boiling water, saving a lot of gas/electricity.
- sulam 4y agoCouscous is pasta and “cooks” just fine for in a cold soak. Doesn’t even take that long.
- almog 4y agoTrue but unlike most pasta, store bought couscous is usually pre-steamed/cooked. That plus its small size (large surface area) makes it perfect for cold soak.
- throw_m239339 4y agoYou don't need to cook Couscous and it is often pre-cooked in retail. In fact, that's how one prepares Taboulé. For Pasta it is absolutely not the same thing at all. Uncooked pasta isn't good for your stomach. If you don't want to cook pasta, then buy instant ramen, they are already cooked.
- twawaaay 4y agoNot sure what's so special. I would assume everybody knows that most of the energy during cooking is wasted: 1. By the water evaporating 2. By the hot gasses escaping without actually heating up anything 3. With the water poured away after cooking Which is why I: 1. Put a lid on the pot whenever I can. Once it boils it usually is enough to reduce the burner to absolute minimum to keep the simmer unless I am adding large amounts of ingredients. 2. I use induction whenever I can. 3. I try to avoid wasting water. I use minimum amount of water necessary to boil pasta (you really don't need as much as you think you do). I also steam rather than boil vegetables like potatoes or carrots -- you get away with half of a cup to a cup of water at the bottom. Steaming does take a bit more time but I think it is still more efficient than poring huge amount of water into the pot. I am still waiting for a real Dewar pot that would have double sided sides and also double sided lid. Probably would require precision heating (possibly with integrated heating element in the base as well as integrated temperature sensor).
- djur 4y agoIn the US, when it comes to Italian food, there's a lot of "you must prepare it this particular way or else Nonna will burst out of her grave and flog you with a pappardelle whip" discourse. With that in mind, it's kind of fascinating comparing the en-US and en-GB Barilla websites. The GB site emphasizes sustainability ("100% Plastic Free", a page on sustainable basil farming, this Passive Cooking thing), while the US site emphasizes the quality and authenticity of the product ("Barilla al Bronzo", "Vero Gusto", "Chef's Corner"). No corporate responsibility promotions at all.
- readthenotes1 4y agoI hope the pasta in the US is plastic free too!
- csande17 4y agoIn the US, Barilla pasta boxes (and most other brands) have a small plastic window so you can see what the pasta looks like. The UK website is promoting the fact that they recently removed those windows from the UK packaging.
- jontro 4y agoNot sure everyone agrees this is a good method Quoting from https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/can-passive-pasta-reduce-energy-bills https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/can-passive-pasta-r... "The response was swift, and it came from starred chef Antonello Colonna. The Roman cook rejected Parisi's solution, claiming that with this procedure the pasta becomes "rubbery", and impossible to serve in a high-level restaurant. Colonna considers the method a failure and proposes cooking on an open-fire grill, with pots that have fed entire generations like a cauldron. The chef claims this traditional low-temperature technique lowers electricity costs in his restaurant."
- ricardobeat 4y agoBurning wood or charcoal lowers the electricity bill? Who would have thought! Also, what is “low-temperature technique” supposed to mean? The open fire needs to maintain the water at 100C regardless. If low-temperature means lower water temp, then its the same as the passive method..
- hombre_fatal 4y agoNot worthy of a high end restaurant seems like pretty faint condemnation.
- epolanski 4y agoI mean you can try and decide for yourself how much you like it. Boiling water can't get hotter than 100C anyway, and water needs lots of energy to both heat and cool. If you cover it and turn off the heat the water inside realistically won't get much colder in ten minutes. I always used the half technique: if it says 12 minutes I boil it for 6 and then turn off the stove. Never ever got it wrong. Anyway I highly doubt the biggest pasta brand in the world would ever publicize a method that makes their product any less good.
- dnissley 4y agoInteresting there are so many different names for these types of cookers. I've always heard this referred to as a haybox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haybox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haybox
- yegle 4y agoHuh I have a thermal cooker at home that we frequently use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_cooking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_cooking Seems like they are using the same concept.
- _whiteCaps_ 4y agoOh, thank you - that led me to episode 2 of Wartime Farm on the BBC that I was thinking of.
- bravura 4y agoAccording to Kenji, you don't even need boiling water to cook pasta: https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-cook-pasta-salt-water-boiling-tips-the-food-lab https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-cook-pasta-salt-water-boi... https://www.seriouseats.com/tips-for-better-easier-pasta https://www.seriouseats.com/tips-for-better-easier-pasta "Want to get even more crazy efficient? Try soaking pasta in water as your prep your other ingredients. By the time your sauce is ready, you can just add the pasta (along with some of its soaking liquid) to the pan and, with a minute or so of cooking, your meal will be ready to go. One less pot to clean and a pretty satisfying magic trick to boot. Still skeptical? Here's the science to back it all up. The one exception here is fresh pasta—because it contains eggs, it needs to cook in boiling water to set properly."
- kibibyte 4y agoI was gonna say, Serious Eats talked about this method (starting with a boil and then cutting the heat, mentioned in the article but not in the comment) so many years ago; only that they didn't call it "passive cooking". It comes with the nice benefit that you'll never have to worry about the pot boiling over except during the first minute, and, from what I've noticed, it seems to better align with the suggested cooking times on retail packaging. I've argued with people about this and could never convince them to try it, mostly because of the "grandma did it this way" reason.
- peppertree 4y agoIt's a pretty common technique for cooking rice noodles but it never occurred to me to try it with pasta. Thanks for posting this!
- b3morales 4y agoHarold McGee himself (author of the food geek bible On Food and Cooking) also presented this idea back in 2011: https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2011/01/15/you-can-cook-pasta-in-a-small-amount-of-cold-water https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2011/01/15/you-can-cook-... > I just did the experiment of cooking a pound of pasta in just enough water for it to absorb. I thought, "While I'm at it, why don't I play with the heating as well? I'll start them in cold water and see what happens." > I found that starting in cold water means that the pasta doesn't stick to itself, which is great. Then it turns out that it heats up, it cooks just fine and you end up with pasta that is not at all sticky. The liquid is a little thick, but that's wonderful because you can make a sauce out of it.
- femto113 4y agoThe 80% less CO2 number is BS, since the claimed savings are only after "water boiling phase excluded". Guessing this is more like 10% overall, assuming you turn your stove down to a low boil after the pasta is in.
- mertd 4y agoYou can reduce the energy consumption drastically by boiling way less water than "a large pot" as every packet recommends. Just enough to cover the pasta + some evaporation margin is good enough.
- jay_kyburz 4y agoThat's why I tend to avoid spaghetti these days. A smaller pasta fits in the small pot better.
- Scoundreller 4y agojust rip it in half (runs!)
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoAngel hair will soften pretty quickly. You can fold it in half once its steeped a short while from one end.
- OJFord 4y agoJust stick one end in, wait a few seconds, push, flip it over, repeat. That said, since I discovered bucatini I don't think I have any desire ever to eat spaghetti again. (And also much more desire to eat 'long thin tubular pasta'.)
- ohiovr 4y agoI always snap the bundle in half.
- antisthenes 4y agoIs that something that even needs to be said? Does any functioning adult actually cook pasta in such a way as to use way more water than necessary?
- kibibyte 4y agoIt's pretty common. Most pasta cooking directions say to use 4-6 quarts of water for a standard 1-lb pack of dry pasta. Many Italian grandmas (I'm making a guess off n=1 person with Italian heritage who learned it this way) do it like this. Because this technique is so ingrained, it's less obvious to reduce the amount of water.
- filleokus 4y agoMy dirty little secret I've only dared to shared with my closest friends (fearing social ostracism) is that I cook by pasta by putting it in cold water and then turn the heat on. Roughly when the water starts to boil I start periodically checking the doneness of the pasta. Works just fine for me. Would never dare to it when cooking with friends however (only slightly /s). However, it would be neat with a device similar to the one in TFA, but more sophisticated. Having some internal model of pasta doneness as a function of the time in the water, and the water temperature over time.
- Scoundreller 4y agoI see this in lots of 'how to boil an egg' guides, where cooking time matters. When explaining it on the internet, the best way is to dump the egg into boiling water, and drain and cool with cold tap water after X minutes, because it removes other variables. Buuuuut, if you learn your pot and water volumes and starting water temperatures and heating rate, you can cook your egg faster by starting with cold water, and maybe even knowing when to turn off the heat once the water is hot.
- filleokus 4y agoFor eggs I've seen people use something like this [0], which I guess can be helpful if you switch pots a lot. Also trickier to test if a (boiled) egg really is boiled then with pasta. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Egg-Perfect-Timer/dp/B00004UE75?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Egg-Perfect-Timer/dp/B00004UE7...
- mattmaroon 4y agoThis assumes you’re trying to cook to an even heat internally (like a boiled egg) rather than an intentional gradient (like pasta noodles, a steak, etc.)
- archi42 4y agoStarting with cold water, the cooked mass is heated more evenly, since the heat has more time to transfer to the core. For potatoes that's the recommended way, but if you want the eggs yellow to be soft, this might make it harder. I only read this today, and I recommend anyone to just experiment and give new ideas some attempts.
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- pynchia 4y agoHey, c'mon, this is advertising and must be removed
- chadlavi 4y agoI got bad news for you about 95% of the content that gets shared on HN
- paxys 4y agoA 145 year old pasta company just published open-source 3D printing models, Arduino circuit layouts & code and a bluetooth-enabled smartphone app on its website, that too with a decent sized marketing push. All so that you can build an overengineered kitchen timer from scratch in your bedroom. This is exactly the wild future I imagined as a tech enthusiast building cheap PCs two decades ago.
- Mo3 4y agoYup. What a time to be alive.
- hakanensari 4y agoThat part is tongue in cheek. Cute and smart.
- theCrowing 4y agoIt wasn't Barillas idea. Looking at the quality and stuff used it was most likely thought up by a "Creative Technologist" in an ad agency with the sole purpose to win awards.(...and some PR but trust me it was done for the awards.)
- thfuran 4y agoI'm not exactly sure what point you're trying to make.
- blamazon 4y agoI think they're just clarifying that it was not the 145 year old pasta company that had the idea, did the engineering work, etc, which may not be lost on GP
- worewood 4y agoI'm okay with a corporation outsourcing and financing these kind of projects
- version_five 4y ago
- fatuna 4y agoPassive cooking; great idea Building electronics + app to help people measure some time? terrible solution
- unpythonic 4y agoThe claim: reduces CO₂e emissions by up to 80%* The asterisk: water boiling phase excluded When I boil pasta, I use full heat to get the water boiling, drop in the pasta, then let it come back up to a boil, then drop the temperature as low as possible to keep a slow boil going--about medium-low. Guesstimating that the boil takes about as long as the time to cook the pasta, I'd say that the pasta cooking portion only takes up about 1/3 of the energy of the total (cold pot to cooked pasta). The 80% savings only covers the pasta cooking phase, so overall, it's only saving 4/15 or 27% (roughly). If you use a lot more water, then that initial boil time further reduces your savings.
- jansan 4y agoGuesstimating that the boil takes about as long as the time to cook the pasta, You need an new stove. Edit: or a new pot
- wcarron 4y agoBringing 5+ quarts of water to a boil takes a lot of energy. Hell, it takes my jetboil 90s-120s to boil low-temp water in like...1 quart quantities. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that a large pot of water takes 8-10 minutes to bring to a rolling boil.
- CrazyStat 4y agoYou don't need to cook pasta in a lot of water. Just enough to cover the pasta is fine.
- Cupertino95014 4y agoRight. And in fact, it's better that way. There's more starch in the water, which makes it more useful when you add some to the sauce in your sauce pan. What, you don't finish your pasta by heating it with the sauce??? Hang your head in shame.
- 4y ago
- mrighele 4y agoThe most reduction in CO2 could be achieved if all the people that regularly overcook the pasta would just take it out after the amount of time written on the package. (only partially /s :-) )
- mattmaroon 4y agoYou can tell from the comments in here that most people are overcooking their pasta and don’t know it, and in the general public I’m sure it is even worse.
- keepquestioning 4y agoAny benefits of passive cooking must be offset by encouraging folks to 3d print some (non) biodegradable junk piece of plastic.
- epolanski 4y agoYou can do it without that bs gadget.
- mattmaroon 4y agoHey, it specifically says it prints it with biodegradable junk plastic! Though I think the landfill at the end is the least problematic environmental issue here
- OJFord 4y agoThat's a bizarre objection to 3D printing in the home. I don't do it for such reasons, but I assure you everything I've ever printed would have had a far worse environmental impact if I'd bought/had it made elsewhere. If I'd even been able to.
- keepquestioning 4y agoHow? For all intents and purposes PLA is not biodegradable
- OJFord 4y ago1. I haven't thrown any away anyway; 2. Fixing things that might otherwise be destined for landfill; 3. Alternative solution (where it even exists) would be a similarly plastic part manufactured overseas.
- xaduha 4y agoDon't cook on gas if you really care about that kind of stuff.
- Gigachad 4y agoI have a gas stove because it just came with my apartment, but I went and got a $70AUD ikea portable induction stove and I'm very surprised, it's significantly nicer to cook with, the heating range is both lower and higher than what my gas stove can achieve. Boiling a pot of water on the induction is so much faster than on gas. For pasta its a no brainer. Eventually I want to replace my gas stove with a full induction one but unfortunately it's quite expensive.
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- pohl 4y agoBetter still, put it in while the water is cold. Start you timer when the water reaches 180°F/80°C or so, and — when it reaches the boiling point — turn it off & cover.
- alatkins 4y agoI feel like we perhaps still have some bigger levers we can pull to reduce emissions before we meddle with our linguine.
- akira2501 4y agoYes.. I certainly appreciate that the largest pasta company in the world which is owned by a small family of billionaires bringing in billions in revenue every year gained by monopolizing markets and buying out small competitors expects me to carry it's environmental water for them.
- privacythrow23 4y agoWater is really a great thermal mass. I'm surprised it makes that much of a difference. 80% is significant. Now the important question: Can China Coal and Saudi Aramco cook their pasta like this too? https://www.activesustainability.com/climate-change/100-companies-responsible-71-ghg-emissions/ https://www.activesustainability.com/climate-change/100-comp...
- jansan 4y agoHow about not pouring the hot water down the drain immediately, but leaving it in a pot with a lid on until it is cooled down? This way the erergy that you used to heat the water can contribute to heating your kitchen.
- dctoedt 4y agoLow-energy prep of steel-cut oats for several breakfasts: 1. Boil water in an electric kettle — we have a gas stove-top but we buy wind power for electricity; it's a Texas-grid thing. 2. Pour boiling water into a pot, add oats, bring back to a boil on the gas range, then immediately turn off the gas. (I use a ratio of 1 cup of steel-cut oats to 3 cups of water.) 3. Put a lid on the pot, put the pot on a trivet, cover with a dish towel (to keep heat in), tip the pot lid a bit to open it (to let steam out). 4. Come back in an hour or so — the oats are cooked and still hot; eat some, save the rest in a container to go into the refrigerator once cool.
- yawnxyz 4y agoI boil water in a kettle, then pour it over raw oats into a glass jar (e.g. peanut butter jar) enough to "wet" everything without covering the oats. Ten minutes later and the oats are perfect
- ropable 4y agoI use an "overnight oats" method that I feel would probably be even more energy-efficient: place the required amount of rolled oats in a plastic container, pour in the required amount of milk/water, close the lid and store in the fridge overnight. In the morning, heat the mix for a couple of minutes in the microwave (you're just aiming to heat it up at this point). I wouldn't stake my life that this method is more efficient, but it feels like it should be (microwaves are a pretty efficient method of heating a small volume). Takes a bit of forward planning, though.
- oliwary 4y agoI do something similar to boil eggs: 1) Put eggs in pot, cover with water. 2) Put pot with lid on stove on full heat. 3) Wait for the water to boil, then turn off the heat. 4) Wait 6 minutes (for eggs with slightly soft interior) 5) Cover eggs with cold water, wait one minute, peel. Perfect eggs every time, and I am sure this saves a bunch of energy. They peel really well too.
- rando14775 4y agoYou can save more energy probably if you only put a little bit of water, and then steam the eggs in the pot (no need for a steamer basket, just put the eggs in the shallow water). Also, apparently, peeling is easier when the eggs are placed in hot water vs cold. Look up Kenji's egg boiling experiment stuff.
- code_duck 4y agoI go back and forth between boiling the eggs the whole time, and bringing them to a boil and letting them sit. I can't determine which works better.
- windoze 4y agoI think you can make it even faster by electric kettle to give a little assist. Maybe replace 1/2 or 1/3 with boiled water. That starts you off with half boiled water so it comes up to boil faster.
- zagrebian 4y agoThat web page doesn’t render without JavaScript.
- pricci 4y agoWe are breaking the rules talking about this, but... Am I the only one who can't see step 3 and 4? (On mobile) The carrousel won't advance
- yafbum 4y agoHere's another simple way to reduce your pasta cooking CO2 emissions: cook with nuclear electricity
- kazinator 4y agoI sometimes make rolled oats in cold milk. Just give it some 30 minutes to an hour to get soft and fluffy.
- amluto 4y agoAnd here I was imagining that the Barilla passive cooker would be a thermal cooker -- a vacuum-insulated sleeve for a pot that can hold cooking temperature for hours. Several companies make these.
- thenaturalist 4y agoThis is the epitome of what is - unfortunately - wrong with capitalism. Lofty claims of CO2 saved, while the marketing and production of a single device alone emmitted X times of cooking pasta without it. Makes me truly question if technology & capitalism, for all the massive good they have achieved so far are the solution or our doom.
- fedeb95 4y agoThis device isn't really needed. When the water boils put in the pasta and turn off the heat, with the lid on. Wait the usual amount of time. This doesn't work well with pasta that has lots of starch (barilla hasn't much).
- bufordtwain 4y agoWhy not put the pasta in from the beginning instead of waiting for it to boil?
- moron4hire 4y agoI put the pasta in the water immediately, not waiting for boil. I also don't time it. You can see and feel when pasta is cooked.
- dangom 4y agoHow big a lens does one need to focus sunlight onto a cooking pan to boil water and cook pasta without emissions?
- bb88 4y agoI've cooked a lot of pasta in my life and most pasta will be fine in usually 1/3 to 1/4th the typical amount of water, though often better with frequent stirring to prevent the pasta from sticking together (which is the reason for the large amounts of water and boiling water in the first place). If you're heating up 1.5 quarts (instead of a gallon) for pasta you're saving almost 3x the energy for the initial heating.
- manicennui 4y agoOne of the best Italian chefs in the world, known for his pasta, showing five ways to cook dried pasta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK3FC1cQPKg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK3FC1cQPKg The last method is the one described on Barilla's site. Use YT's CC feature to translate.
- killjoywashere 4y agoCould someone with more graphic design skill than I try to squeeze their "full table" down to 1 page that looks good coming from a B&W laser printer? https://www.barilla.com//-/media/images/shared/passive-cooking/download/passive-cooking-timing-guide.pdf?la=en-gb https://www.barilla.com//-/media/images/shared/passive-cooki... Here's my first attempt, but I don't have any stylish art https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OV0yfGyWSfzKrwKYGg91a7TMPX2HwV-6vHDWBfV29ZI https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OV0yfGyWSfzKrwKYGg91...
- elil17 4y agoThere are a variety of no-boil pasta methods which use much less CO2. Haven't tested them yet but plan to next time I make pasta. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=259MXuK62gU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=259MXuK62gU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJHfXKvBHTA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJHfXKvBHTA
- jamesrom 4y agoWe don't need to live our lives in low-power mode. There's another way.
- elcapitan 4y agoI honestly can't tell whether that whole page is satirical or not.
- moralestapia 4y agoI've been cooking like this for about 15 yrs or so when I discovered stainless steel and I couldn't recommend them more, if you don't have any please buy some now, they also last for a lifetime. Get some good stuff, the kind of thing that feels heavy on your hand. Stainless steel takes ages to cool down, so I usually cook vegetables in a similar fashion to this "passive cooking" technique, the taste is much better and even the colors pop up much more. Actually everything just tastes better because Aluminum does change the flavor of food for the worse, it makes it taste more "acidic", idk, when you switch to stainless you will notice the difference immediately.
- piskerpan 4y ago> Stainless steel takes ages to cool down This also means it takes ages to warm up. It’s fine as long as we’re honest about the fact that we still need to input the same amount of energy at the beginning.
- p1necone 4y ago> *water boiling phase excluded Why is the part of the process that consumes the most energy arbitrarily excluded from this, am I missing something or are they just being dishonest so that they can include a bigger number in their marketing?
- HWR_14 4y ago> am I missing something or are they just being dishonest so that they can include a bigger number in their marketing? I assume that latter. But, if I was being generous, I would say it's because the bringing to a boil is oftentimes handled by another process (e.g. electric kettle) so it's hard to compare.
- throwawaaarrgh 4y agoPut your pasta in with cold water in a skillet with just enough water to cover. By the time the water boils, the pasta is cooked. Save even more co2, cook faster.
- sergiotapia 4y agoLaughable when one flight from $CELEBRITY nukes the efforts of thousands of people for a decade.
- yawnxyz 4y agoSurprised no one's mentioned "one-pot pasta" recipes yet, where you cook veggies / sauce, and just drop raw pasta into the pot while the water is cooking off. The pasta comes out starchier since you're not throwing away the starch water, and it tastes great, but definitely "different" from a "real" Italian pasta dish. Still great though! Italians view this as sacrilege but it's great fwiw.
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_all%27assassina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_all%27assassina
- bilekas 4y agoThe idea of Passive cooking has always been interesting, but the device itself really feels like an April Fools bit. It's basically just an alarm.. That needs to be paired with a smart phone. Really ?
- za3faran 4y agoAnd how much CO2 is going to be produced manufacturing and shipping the device they're selling you? Not to mention the batteries it needs.
- achairapart 4y agoI was thinking the same, probably much more than the CO2 saved with the whole passive cooking thing... Not to mention some fine marketing bs like how it runs on 2 "environmentally friendly AAA batteries"!
- kortex 4y agoHow much of cooking protocol is to smooth over differences in heat flux? Recipes almost always seem to call for pre-heating an oven or bringing a pot to a boil before adding pasta/noodles. But temperature is temperature (when it comes to slow cooked foods, ignoring searing / maillard reactions). Are there any reasons not to just start cooking immediately while the oven/water is still coming up to temp, if I control for doneness? I cook almost exclusively by doneness anyways (internal temp and/or consistency), and it seems like for most foods, what matters most is area-under-the-curve (which is what the heat equation suggests).
- rowanG077 4y agoArea under the curve is most certainly not the only thing that is important. Heat penetration over time can be completely different depending if you start the cook from a hot pan/oven or not. Searing a steak using a gas burner or sous vide are prime examples.
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- makeitdouble 4y agoTexture will be different depending on how long it stays in the water and at what temperature you cook it. Going to the extreme could help: dumping the dry pasta in cold water and leaving it for a day would soften it while not cooking it much. The same process is happening at a way milder scale when you dump it before the boiling point.
- bagels 4y agoI've tried a related experiment: Put the pasta in the water when cold, and bring it to a boil. The texture always comes out wrong.
- nerdponx 4y agoIf you put something in a cold pan, it steams/boils itself on the outside and cooks unevenly while the pan or oven is heating up. This almost always results in bland flabby overcooked sad food. The lower the thermal conductivity of the food, the more this matters. The shorter the anticipated cooking time, the more this matters. With certain vegetables it's OK to do this, like peppers and onions, because the lower heat "warmup" phase actually helps them soften up and break down, and they are also pretty thermally conductive (lots of water, not much hard fiber). But if you do it with mushrooms you'll just get spongy wet mushrooms, and if you do it with meat you'll get sad boiled stuff instead of something juicy inside and crispy outside. In addition, some cooking techniques specifically rely on the rapid denaturing of proteins on the surface of the food, forming a kind of crust, to prevent it from fusing to the cooking surface. This is how pan-frying fish, meat, and eggs works.
- jagged-chisel 4y agoCooking* Doesn’t look to me like this is selling a new cooking device.
- tonymet 4y agoyou can save way more time and electricity by boiling in a electric pressure cooker . your pasta will be done before the time it takes to boil a cauldron of water on the stove
- piskerpan 4y agoI’m sorry, what does this device do? Is it really just an “internet of junk” kitchen timer claiming to save the planet?
- 6177c40f 4y agoI highly doubt that, even if everyone did this religiously, it would have any measurable impact on emissions, given how emissions from residential energy usage make up only a relatively small fraction of all emissions (and emissions from cooking only a small fraction of that). Am I wrong?
- housingisaright 4y agoHow you like to cook pasta aside. This is so dumb. No one is going to solve the climate crisis with not boiling the pasta while certain companies is reaponaible for basically all emissions. What is the word for this? When you try socialise problems like this to try shift blame? I’m still surprised how many people don’t know thar “climate footprint “ is invented by one of the bigger oil companies in a similar campaign.
- bradleyjg 4y agoIt’s not exactly what you are referring to but I like to call out conservation theater. Like when restaurants in California were forbidden from giving water to people unless they asked for it. As if drinking water was even a rounding error on California’s water issues.
- shepherdjerred 4y agoThat's the perfect word for it! On one hand small actions can lead to big change. On the other hand, no matter how many small actions are taken, this problem isn't going to be solved with government intervention.
- modeopfer 4y agoIs that a typo? I feel that this problem isn't going to be solved _without_ government intervention. Large groups of people have an unbelievably high inertia. But yeah, forbidding restaurants to distribute drinking water is probably not the right move.
- shepherdjerred 4y agoYup that's a typo hah.
- bradleyjg 4y agoOn one hand small actions can lead to big change. This is one of those things that we teach small children so they can feel like they are contributing but never go back and explain to teens that we were bs’ing about. These kids then grow up with a bad model of how the world works. This dynamic is pernicious. No amount of at home composting or whatever the latest peacock thing is will make a real dent.
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- ohiovr 4y agoI've always done this because I don't like pasta boiling over into my electric elements. The emssivity of stainless steel and the enormous heat capacity of even the small amount of water I use and the fact that water cannot exceed boiling temperature means spegetti is done in 10 minutes even with no power at all after boiling has been achieved. Do not waste precious oil in the water. Just stir for a minute to prevent sticking.
- namuol 4y agoBetter yet, use a large flat pan and just enough water to cover the noodles. You don’t even need to wait for the water to boil. It’s faster this way and uses less water. Kenji Lopez-Alt of The Food Lab has a few videos covering the topic. It’s a real win-win.
- Thorentis 4y agoI didn't realise that making my pasta cooking more efficient would stop China and India from polluting both the air and ocean like there's no tomorrow.
- divbzero 4y agoPassive cooking also works well for other boiled foods such as vegetables, eggs, and dumplings.
- Too 4y agoLet’s save the planet… …Here is one more single-purpose device! Filled with batteries and plastic, that does what? 2 minute timer and nothing else your generic kitchen thermometer can’t do. If you are nearby it’s obvious when things start boiling even without one.
- aszantu 4y agoI think it's a technique, not a product, u can do this on your standard electric or gas stove, turn it off earlier, let it sit a few minutes
- peeters 4y agoFor a product focused on reducing emissions, it would be nice if the environmental impact of the product was addressed in the FAQ or product page. What are the CO2 emissions of the source materials, production, and shipping the product to me? How many servings of pasta do I have to cook with it before I break even? 10? 100? 10000?
- kybernetyk 4y ago>environmentally friendly AAA batteries oh come on
- adql 4y ago* by buying our device that wasted a bunch of CO2 to produce * also it isn't actually 80% when you do the math correctly
- __fst__ 4y agoThe concept is definitely not new. Another keyword to search for is Thermal Cooking. I have a Shuttle Chef Thermal Cooker / Thermo Pot for that. It's basically an insulated pot to retain the heat. You heat up your food for a short time on the stove, then you put the pot into the insulating pot and let it rest there for some time. But you have to get the timing right, otherwise everything just ends up being mushy. See also * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_cooking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_cooking * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haybox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haybox
- Lapsa 4y agowhat da... isn't this what everybody do? why there's a website full with huge eco banners dedicated for this? :/
- bsimpson 4y agoIt's wild that they have an accessibility sidebar with a gajillion accomodations, but the carousels, which are the main content on this page, break after the second item in Chrome for Android.
- bitL 4y agoReduce CO2 by introducing a plastic smart device whose manufacturing costs a tree. I love these eco-friendly measures!
- bowsamic 4y agoI'm tired of cutting these weird corners to save energy. My wife won't even let us use the oven anymore. I don't think these things are gonna save the planet, or even save us that much money
- rasengan0 4y agoSave water and the planet Perfect passive cooking works, years tested: 500g of pasta + 1-1.2 L of water cooked in a pressure cooker under high setting for 2 mins with natural release. (edit: setup is defunct Fagor + induction cooker) It's just that simple and no water to discard except through GI tracts.
- krautsourced 4y agoI might just be getting old and cranky, but I get the feeling we're re-inventing common sense, but replace sense with technology. Can I get an app that tells me to stop letting the water run while I brush my teeth as well?
- apexalpha 4y agoMhh, I don't know. Yes, you could also do this without any technology. On the other hand, I can cook rice in a normal pot yet all of Japan uses rice cookers. So why not?
- hoseja 4y agoYes, run around anxiously in circles to make sure your carbon footprint is as low as possible so you don't have time to look at what the corporations pushing this bullcrap are doing.
- acqbu 4y agoWhy boil any water at all? You can just let the pasta soak in cold water overnight. It will be nice and soft in the morning.
- teekert 4y agoAlso works for eggs: But yeah, many wrong assumptions. Who blasts the water while it's cooking? Nobody, you boil it, add pasta, bring it back to boil, turn down the heat significantly. That's very far from 80% reduction, you only reach that without turning down the heat, in which case water splashes out of your pan constantly. Very misleading article.
- dagurp 4y agoI recommend steaming eggs. You only need to heat a little bit of water and the eggs cook more evenly
- rrwo 4y agoThis works for rice and other grains too. Another trick is that you don't need a giant pot of water, just enough to cover the pasta, especially for smaller pasta like penne/fusilli etc.
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- MezzoDelCammin 4y agoProbably the best way to save both water and energy when boiling pasta is to avoid using excess water altogether. With a bit of practice it's pretty easy to make pasta in a similar way one makes rice - let almost all the water soak into it. The trick is twofold: 1. One needs a pan that's not too shallow (i.e. the pasta needs to stack up on itself, not just barely cover the bottom of the pan) 2. The first minute or so some stirring is necessary to avoid the pasta clumping together. Works best if the recipe calls for some sauce to be applied in the end (pesto, carbonara, etc.). In that case it's best to add the sauce when there's still some residual starchy water, using it as a thickening / binding agent for the sauce.
- yreg 4y agoOP probably wanted to share the arduino based passive cooker, but it can't be deeplinked. You need to scroll a bit.
- wuxb 4y agoIt's the ideal cooker for me. I take shower only once per week and most of my gas cost went to cooking. It will save ~75% of by gas meter reading (but only ~15% on my gas bill though).
- hooby 4y agoScroll down a bit and you get white text on a bright yellow background. Seems to be the modern take on animated rainbow-color backgrounds from the geocities days...
- boh 4y agoThis is definitely going to turn the climate problem on its head.
- JustSomeNobody 4y agoNever heard it called this, but this is similar to the way my grandmother taught me to cook pasta.
- sfusato 4y agoI wasn't expecting this from an Italian pasta brand. It just feels wrong. Barilla has poor appeal among Italians for what it's worth. I prefer "La Molisana" pasta instead and I make sure I cook it the right way.
- russellbeattie 4y agoThis is the best way to hard boil eggs as well.