My daughter is very excited about her slow cooker these days - she won't stop talking about it. She works and lives in the U.S. She says that it will allow her to leave the house with a pot of beans and rice stewing in her kitchen without her having to worry about fires or the food getting burned.
tle research. Here is the cooker she purchased. A Hamilton Beach 6 liter device which at 46 dollars is not a bad deal at all.
when I look at this style of cooking and the one which I grew with I believe that it was a long journey of stoves with different design and different fuels.It has been a long journey.
With civilization man learned to cook food .And since then different type of stoves were invented.
As far as my memory goes back in 1950 I have seen people using saw dust as fuel in a specially designed stove .This used to take long time to be filled with saw dust by pressing it evenly througouht the column.
Hamilton Beach slow cooker
Then there were stoves we call it chulha in India using wood as fuel.These required a technique of how the small logs of wood are placed in order to have proper supply of air otherwise the whole place will fill with smoke.To help these wood logs to burn without smoke a pipe of about 10" to 12" either of wood or of iron was used to blow air by mouth.This was useful for a smoke free flame.This pipe was an essential equipment for kitchen For cooking inside the house there were chimneys for the escape of smoke.One can find these in villages .
Coke was also used as fuel .For hard coke and soft coke the stove used are of different design.
Soft coke will make the stove ready in 10 minutes and is smoke free.But the hard coke will take atleast 25 minutes to be ready for cooking.as the fuel releases smoke initially .It is ready to use only after it is smoke free.
As these wood and coke stoves and chulhas were taking too much time to give heat these were replaced by kerosene stoves.
Two types of kerosene stoves came in existance.One with a pump fitted in it to raise the fuel .This used to make lot of noise .To avoid the noise a silencerwas the option with it.
Another one was fitted with number of wicks in a circle and were getting the supply of kerosene
from the small tank at the bottom of stove through capillary action..
With the entry of solar energy solar cooker came in use.Where sun is available most of the time it was free of cost.But cooking was a time consuming process.One has to keep a check on it .
Simultaneously the electric stoves were also in use.These are available with four stoves +an electric baking oven.This is popularly called as cooking range.
Then came the very convenient and still the most popular LPG stoves.The fuel is the liquified petroleum gas.
It is supplied in cylinders .In metropolitan cities it is being supplied through pipelines.
Then these microwaves arrived but mostly to reheat the food already cooked.Of course few dishes can be cooked in microwave oven
To reduce the cooking time pressure cookers are a great relief.
And this slow cooker seems to be the perfect combination of stove and pressure cooker.In early
seventies
combination of my first pressure cooker along with LPG stove thrilled me .Cooking could have been so easy and quicker I could never imagine.
But this slow cooker has also amazed me.
Afetr using this I have become fan of it.Without worrying about getting burnt or previous soaking of beans these can be cooked .And the best part is it does not need any monitoring.It is a boon for working woman.
Give commands and forget it.When you are back from your work the food is ready.
Thanks to advanced technology.
I am still keeping my fingers crossed for the next better option.
10/7/2018
I wrote this article few years back keeping my fingers crossed as to what next?
here it is .Last week at my sons house this new invention excited us as well relieved the lady of the house (my daughter in law) by the tedious job of making rotis daily.
this is the Rotimatic.
Rotimatic
the machine which makes roti from scratch .All one has to do is fill three cotainers with flour,water and oil.Give command about your requirements like no of rotis,thickness of rotis and the level of roasting of your preferance.After initial warming time of six minutes it delivers one roti per minute.Is not it great?
Again a new innovation is there.This is called Instapot. This is faster than slow cooker.
This cooks instantly whatever grains are there like Kabuli Chana a ,rajama ,chick peas which requires prior soaking .This cooks without soaking .The time requires not more than 30 minutes to 45 minutes
depending upon the beans .
