Very interesting cookware scientifically.

The vessel is double layered separating by a vacuum space. Vacuum eliminates all heat lost by thermal conduction. Further heat retention is by the shiny stainless steel material reflecting most of the infrared heat radiation. As a result heat is kept to continue to cook the food without additional fire.

However, at $200, the interest on the money compounded , it will take a few hundred years for you to recover the investment.

Grainlady here has a much cheaper method. I will let her tell you about it.

dcarch

dcarch, Peter says he spent $10 for it, not $200, so it's going to be a relatively inexpensive method.

I don't know anything about the one Peter bought, I tried that "pasta in the thermos" method when the girls were still in Girl Scouts and it didn't work worth a rip, hopefully this is better. And yes, I have a good Stanley work thermos, keeps coffee scalding hot for 6 hours but it doesn't cook pasta well, or rice. The rice never did get done and the pasta just got mushy. It does make oatmeal really well, but it's a devil to get out of that Thermos afterward since mine didn't have a wide mouth!

Annie

I tried some spaghettini . Put the inner pot on the stove till it reached a boil, dropped in the spaghettini put the lid on and placed it into the outer pot for 7 minutes. It worked. I'll try some vegetable soup in it in a few days with bigger chunks of potato and carrots etc and let it sit for a couple of hours and see if they get cooked thru. It would take a long time though to recoup the cost of this thing in gas or electric savings me thinks. An electric crockpot doesn't use a lot of electricity in the first place. but I think this would be useful for things like soups etc where you can just forget about watching them simmer etc. That is if it works.

What a deal!!!!! I love thermal cooking and have a Tiger Thermal Cooker, but I also "cook" in my Stanley Thermos Bottle - a la Girl Scouts that Annie described (beans, grains, etc.). I also have a bunch of homemade Wonder Ovens (aka Wonderbox) I can use with heavy stock pots/Dutch Ovens and get the same results. You'll find a lot of information and recipes at the link below.

This is an upgrade from old technology (haybox) and it's use is more common in Asia, Australia and the UK as a way to save on cooking fuel.

If you can find a copy of the 1913 book "The Fireless Cook Book" A Manual Cooking by Retained Heat - by "Gone With the Wind" author Margaret Jones Mitchell, you will be amazed by all the possibilities.

I've made yeast breads in my Wonder Oven. It's actually a steamed bread, but bread nonetheless. The first time I tried it I used a tall pineapple juice can, but have invested in several sizes of stainless steel containers from a restaurant supply store (the juice cans quickly rust), so that's another possibility for your Zo Thermal Pot.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Thermal Cooking

That's an interesting website,, thanks for pointing it out. Here's a pic of the thing

and open

pk, it would also be good for summertime, if you wanted to cook pasta for salad or some such thing and you wouldn't have to heat up the kitchen at all. Plus, if the cover is tight, you could set it out of the way and not have your crockpot take up counter space.

If it works well, that is. At any rate, you got a heckuva deal.

Annie

I have never done it, but it should work just as well.

Use it to keep ice cream frozen outside of the freezer.

dcarch

Yep, you can keep cold stuff cold, as dcarch pointed out, just as well as using it for cooking.

I've cooked soup, beans, grains, potatoes, turkey and chicken thighs, a whole chicken, small pork tenderloin, small rump roast..... You can also use it to transport hot/cold foods to safely hold the temperature for serving later.

The thermal pot works best if you can fill it at least 1/2 to 3/4 full. If you only have a small amount you need cooked, place it in tall stainless steel container (see link below) and add hot water to fill the void around the smaller container. Bring to a simmer for the correct amount of time before placing in the thermal pot.

You can place meat you want to "roast" into a plastic oven bag, and place that into the cooking pot and fill the pot with water. Bring the water to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes (depending on how large the cut of meat is), and then place in the thermal cooker. Leave the meat to cook for 3-5 hours.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Stainless steel container