Friday my new Wonderbag arrived.....
I got terribly excited, and unpacked it immediately.
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| It came in an innocent looking box |
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| The Wonderbag was shrink-wrapped |
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| And came with a little cookbook |
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| The instructions are clear - first fluff up the stuffing inside of the bag! This can take quite a while. I took about 15 minutes, being of a thorough nature. And don't forget to fluff up the lid! |
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| The result was this pouch like bag - looking rather like a pet haven |
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| The bag can be washed (carefully!) or spot-cleaned, but nevertheless I took the precaution to line it with a kitchen towel - better safe than sorry! In the event there was no spillage. I also added a silicone pad, to protect the bag from the hot bottom of the pot. You can just use a folded up towel, but I like to do things properly. |
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| Then I prepared a beef and vegetable stew. Browned the beef, added the veggies, then cooked it for 15 minutes until all the ingredients of the stew were thoroughly piping hot. The Wonderbag only works if the food you put into it is hot - it works like a thermos. If you put lukewarm coffee into a thermos flask, it will not get hotter! If you put food that isn't thoroughly hot into the Wonderbag it will not cook properly. Please note that cooking in the Wonderbag does not reduce the liquid in the pot, since there is no evaporation, so you need less liquid than when cooking on the stove or in the oven. And no steamed-up house when you make bone broth, which needs to be cooked for ten hours on the stove, or 15 hours in the bag! |
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| I set the pot (with lid! onto the silicone mat inside the Wonderbag, and covered it over with the towel |
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| Then I added the Wonderbag's lid, and fastened the string until I had this neat little package. |
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| Sitting on the marble slab in the Keeping Room, looking smug. I tried to get a bit of warmth from it by hugging it, it being a cold day and all, but no chance - the insulation really works! |
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| A close-up - the Wonderbag has handles, in case you need to transport it. Some people use it to transport food for a Church Social or family gathering, where large quantities of food are required and need to be kept hot (or cold!). |
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| The ruler is 18 inches long |
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| After six hours I opened the Wonderbag! By the way, the pot looks tiny but is actually the widest one I have. Perspective can play hell with photography! |
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| Perfectly cooked stew! |
To summarise, the Wonderbag utilises an old practice of cooking food without using any energy, except at first when the pot is heated. After the pot and its contents are thoroughly hot, they are put into a heat retaining vessel - in this case, an insulated bag.
In the olden days, people used boxes filled with hay for this - the Haybox. Basically, you can use the Wonderbag like an electric slow cooker - but if your electricity cuts out, the electric slow cooker goes cold, why the Wonderbag keeps going.
I wonder whether the Wonderbag is popular among Jews - it should be quite useful for keeping the Sabbath. You just heat up the food Friday lunch time, and on the Sabbath you got a nice hot stew! You could have multiple Wonderbags, one for each meal. Perhaps one could even keep a number of small pots in one large bags? The urge to explore should be indulged!
And how did I come across this idea? I recently re-read the Wilhelm Busch Album, which is by the man most famous for his drawings about Max & Moritz, the evil little boys. In one of the stories, a bachelor visits an old friend, who invites him to dinner - and the meal has been kept warm in the feather-bed of the family - see photo below
Inspired, I started to Google, and came across the Wonderbag.
I give a link below if you want to buy one. They are made in South Africa, and for every bag the company sells they give a free one to a poor women in Africa. Using such bags can cut the fuel needs of a family by 80%, and since many women in Africa still use wood which they have to laboriously gather for cooking, these bags save them both time and money, which they can spend on other things (like school fees).
What's not to like?
The one draw back could be said to be the size of these bags (mine is the biggest one, they have smaller ones as well). I keep mine inside a spare washing up bowl and it is out of sight and not in the way. Other people use them as a sofa pillow when not in use, and pets have been know to utilise them as desirable sleeping quarters (perhaps not hygienic, but well, in a household with pets their hairs and tiny residents get into everything anyway).
https://thewonderbagshop.co.uk/
