Cache Lake Country

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I don't know who invented fireless cookers, but they have been used for a long, long time, especially in the Scandinavian countries, where they were usually insulated with hay or straw and called "hay boxes." A fireless cooker is simple and inexpensive to make, for any kind of box that is tight or even a keg or a barrel will do. The important thing is plenty of good insulation to hold the heat in, and you can find the right kind wherever you are. I used well-dried sphagnum moss, but sawdust would have been all right. In addition to straw or hay, crushed paper, wool, ground cork, excelsior, or cotton batting are all good for insulation. Many of the materials made to keep houses warm, especially mineral wool and fluffy asbestos, would also do well as insulation for a fireless cooker.

The first step in building a cooker is to decide on the pot or pail you plan to use regularly, for on its size depends the kind of box you will need. Make certain the pot has straight sides so it will slip in and out of its compartment easily, and it must have a tight-fitting cover. Enamelware, aluminum, or stainless steel utensils are all fine for the purpose. The best type of pot is one which is about as wide as it is tall, for you don't want any more surface to radiate heat than you can help.

A fireless cooker does a much better job if you use a preheated round, flat stone, the diameter of the pot and about an inch thick, at the bottom of the cooking hole. Sometimes you can find a soft stone that can be chipped to size, but I cast one an inch and a half thick by mixing a little cement with sand and pouring it into a circular cardboard mold. I made a little hollow in the middle and set in a loop of wire so it could be lowered into place with a hook.

Once you have your pot you will know how big a box is needed, for the cooking well that holds the pot must be surrounded by at least four inches of insulating material, top, sides, and bottom. Before doing anything else, line the bottom and sides of the box with heavy paper, and then fill the bottom with four or five inches of insulating material. Next place the pot on top of the heating stone on the insulation in the center of the box and pack insulation evenly and not too tightly around the pot until it comes up to the rim and no more. Then work the pot around carefully until the hole is slightly larger, so it will slide out easily. Now slip in a cylindrical liner of cardboard to form a smooth wall for the cooking compartment.

When the insulating material has been packed to the top of the pot, cover it with heavy building paper or cardboard with the edges turned down and pasted to the sides of the box, the edge around the cooking hole turned down and glued to the cardboard liner. Then you make a cloth cushion four inches deep to fit the top of the box and stuff it with four inches of insulating material, for this top pad is very important. The last step is to make a hinged lid for the box that presses down snugly on the top insulating pad. Make a hook to hold it down, for the tighter the cooker the better it will work. If you want to make two cooking compartments make a partition in the middle and have a separate top insulating cushion for each side.

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