Well, technically, I suppose I made a polyisocyanuratebox, but that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
A haybox is just an insulated box with a cavity in it the same size as your pot. You bring a pot of food up to boiling, then you turn the heat off and put the pot in the haybox. The insulation keeps the heat in and the food continues to cook.
I have in mind to build a solar oven soon and get totally off gas for cooking, but I’ve got a long list of projects and I’m not sure when I’ll get to it. A haybox I could build in an hour, and that would cut my propane use dramatically starting now, instead of whenever I get around to the more involved solar oven project.
I had some polyiso scrap left over from the tiny studio build, so this cost me $0.
The first test today was brown rice and lentils. Normally I’d simmer this for half and hour. Instead, I brought it up to boiling, then put it into the haybox.
Also: coffee. Don’t forget the coffee.
A half hour later I checked in on it: 180F, and not quite done. I goosed it back up to 204F or so (that’s as hot as liquid water gets up here) and put it back in the box for another 15 minutes. Perfect.
It, uh, tastes better than it looks.