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Cooking with the eco-stove, how does it actually work?

For some years now I have pledged my heart to energy-efficient cooking with the slow cooker, but now my interest has also been aroused by the Eco stove. Who of you already knows this stew and has cooked with it before? I recently made a number of dishes in the Eco stove and I would like to tell you more about the use of the substance and the way of cooking.

Table of Contents

Cooking with the eco-stove, tasty, easy and sustainable!

A while ago I received the Eco stove, together with the accompanying cookbook 'Slowly Tasty'. Stubborn as I am, I first made my own dish in the Ecostew before I started working with the recipe book.

From hay-box to Eco-stove

Slow cooking was not invented by our generation. In fact, it's finally coming back. Almost gone. We are slowly beginning to realize that ready-made or just very-quick-ready are not the healthiest options. And certainly not the tastiest, if you ask me. In the past, people took much more time to prepare their food. To be fair, they also had a bit more time for it! But nowadays there are still plenty of options to prepare your food slowly. And now a very sustainable option has been added:the Eco stove.

Want to learn how to cook? Check the cooking course by the Cooking University for more information .

You buy the Eco stove here

You can actually compare the Ecostove with the hay box from the past, which, filled with straw, ensured further stewing of the food. Now there is a more modern variant for the enthusiast. No need for straw and also no duvet to make rice pudding - as my parents used to do for example.

The Eco stove is made of linen and filled with sheep's wool, which makes this stove extra insulating. At the bottom is a cork 'shelf' so that your pan simply remains upright and yet is also insulated at the bottom.

You can open the oven completely to put the pan in it. Then you close the stove by placing the 'valve' on top of your pan and closing it with the cord all around. And then you have to 'wait' for your food to be cooked!

Cooking with-the-eco-stove takes some practice

There is no arguing about this. The stew may be a green alternative to the slow cooker, but I think it is a bit more difficult to cook. It is a bit of a search for the right way of preparing your dishes. The possibilities are endless. From meat and fish to vegetables, and from pasta to stews. You can even prepare yogurt in it. Do you find pasta sauce or stew even better the second day? You can already achieve that with just one afternoon of simmering in the Eco Stove. And you don't even have to wait that long. Vegetables are ready in 1 hour, and your stew is on the table after 3 hours.

You start by preparing your food on the fire. When your food is warm enough, put the pan in the Eco-stove and let your mash continue to cook in the stove. Below you will find a table for how long you should cook and approximately how long your food should be in the oven:

Type of food Cooking minutes Stew for minutes Stew10180-360Fish530-60Vegetables130-60White rice330-45Potatoes130-45

What I especially had to get used to is that you cannot use the Eco stove all day for your food and then immediately be able to eat it at the table. Your food will be cooked, but if you leave it in the Eco stove for hours, you will still suffer from heat loss and (depending on your dish) you may have to warm your food through before you can serve it .

That is a big difference with the slow cooker, since it keeps your food warm with the keep warm setting. It is therefore not an option to put your food on the Eco stove in the morning before you start working and then be able to eat it straight away at the end of the day.

Advantages and disadvantages of the eco-stove

I assess the 'advantages and disadvantages' that I see compared to slow cooking with a crockpot because both devices have the same purpose, namely to stew and cook your food while you no longer have to be there yourself.

The advantages of this-stove

  • I see an advantage for people who are stressed about leaving a plug in the socket while they are out the door. The Eco stove does not need a plug † While your food is cooking, you can easily go out for an errand or a cup of coffee at the neighbor.
  • Your food no longer burns
  • You are doing very environmentally friendly, provided you no longer have to warm up before sitting at the table
  • Especially the vegetables still have a nice bite , that is less in the slow cooker

Disadvantages of the eco-stove

  • No active keep warm function, but a passive one... the stove continues to lose heat slowly.
  • If you first wok your vegetables, you will then have to transfer the vegetables to a saucepan because a wok will not fit in the Eco-stove. However, the other pan has not been heated through on the fire, which makes cooking food a bit more difficult.
  • You cannot add boiling water from the Quooker to vegetables and then continue cooking in the oven, your food must always be on the fire first.

What is the Eco-stove really useful for?

  • It seems ideal to take to the campsite. This way you can prepare your food and then let it cook until you want to sit at the table.
  • Very handy to use, for example, during a picnic if you want to take warm food with you to serve a little later.
  • Nice to use next to the slow cooker, so that you can prepare different separate recipes at the same time. Such as stewed pears and hash.

What does the stove cost?

The Ecostew is for sale on Ecostew.nl and costs €89.00. You can order the slow delicious cookbook for € 24.50.