NNEMA

11/26/2006
Pressure cookers and the Pearly Gates.

When it becomes obvious to more of us that our fossil supplies are limited, and lessening, the hounds will be loosed.
The quick profit hounds will do their magic monetary mumbo-jumbo, and squeeze out the easy unearned pickings from whatever arenas they can find.
Just as they do today.
And at the cost of real growth, sustainable growth, generational growth.
But this is not to just badmouth the greedy. There will always be the greedy.
Those who say that the ones with the most toys win, will continue to believe that.
I just hope that at the end of their lives, or in moments of lucidity, they conclude that perhaps there is more to life.
That perhaps a good life is one of the realization of the joy of building a better world.
Of being truly social, compassionate, and cooperatively helpful.
It has been suggested that the root cause of greed is fear.
Fear of death, fear of being cold, hungry, whatever.
Why would anyone need a 15,000 square foot house? Or have a need to display ostentatious consumption?
Who knows?
It is possible/probable that in the end we will all be judged for our deeds.
Judged not only by our Father in heaven, but even possibly by our peers, and even by ourselves.
I hope that I can stand at that place of judgement and give myself a passing grade.
The pressure cooker of mortality often warps our decisions.
Enough psuedo moralizing...

Speaking of pressure cookers, this is another handy NNEMA tool that we should have in our arsenals.
Wasn't that a subtle slide into cookware?
Pressure cookers (stainless steel, NOT aluminum) are pretty handy things. They will cook not only as regular pans, but when pressurized cook very quickly, and with minimal fuel.
They will also supposedly double as stills. My dad at one time put a bunch of cheap wine into a pressure cooker to make Grappa. Unfortunately, the pressure cooker blew up, taking out the kitchen ceiling, and soon after we moved.
So this is not to be recommended unless you know what you are doing.
For other uses, they cook like a champ.
Soybeans, for example, which nobody seems to cook long enough, will take just over an hour. Normally they take many hours. And the problem with soybeans is that unless they are cooked well enough, they're not fit to eat. They should be soft enough so that you can squish them between your tongue and the roof of your mouth.
While soybeans can be tasty and very nutritious, they should not be eaten if they are at all crunchy. Ick.
Perhaps this is why they're not wildly popular.
Here's the basic recipe:
2 cups soybeans in 4 cups water. Put on burner until pressure builds and then turn off the burner. When the cooker loses pressure, (15 minutes or so) then turn on the burner again until re-pressurized. Repeat this for about an hour and 15 minutes. If you soak your beans overnight, they will take a few minutes less to cook.
Soybeans mixed with rice and a little soysauce are a filling meal.
Some people keep their cooker on low the whole time, but as long as it is pressurized, it is still cooking. I like to save fuel which is why I use this technique.
It takes awhile to get the hang of how long to cook certain foods. A full pot of potatoes takes about15-25 minutes. The nice thing about these cookers, is that when the pressure is gone, you can easily open the top and check your food. If it's not done, just bring it to heat again and wait until it cooks more.
A friend makes real chicken soup on his. He freezes the old chicken carcasses and puts them in the cooker until the bones are soft and this makes the very best real chicken soup. When was the last time you had real soup? Yum.
We have a one-meter parabolic mirror, which puts out probably about 750 watts of heat in full sunlight. One of these days it might be fun to try using the pressure cooker with. The outside of the cooker will probably need to be painted black for best heat gain, but there's nearly free cooking.
A blackened cooker will probably work well in a standard box solar cooker, too. They can get up to 350 degrees or more, which is certainly adequate to cook with a pressure cooker.
When finished, wash it well, and then rub some oil on the little rubber sealing ring on the lid. Make sure the vent hole is clear and not clogged.

So what does this all have to do with NNEMA?
It is sustainability, lessening our use of fuels, and conservation.
And it's fun and healthy.
Don't see why pressure cooking on an open fire is out of the question.
Put one of these into your survival kit list. Who knows, might come in real handy at some future time.
Even if we all decided to save energy by using these, and change all our lightbulbs to fluorescents, and lower our thermostats, we still will face the end of cheap oil. It still will happen. We are too addicted to our pleasures, and will not change in time.
But at least we can as individuals lessen our impact, eat healthier, save energy, and possibly help put off that day of reckoning for just a few hours or days longer.