Refrigerators and freezers, on 24/7, are among the most energy-intensive items in your kitchen. Older fridge-freezers can cost up to £ 500 a year, although a new one can cost a tenth of that according to the Center for Sustainable Energy. But the CSE points out that not regularly defrosting your freezer can add £ 150 a year to your bill, and keeping it full is more efficient, too. Thawing food in the refrigerator is not only safer for the food, it keeps the temperature inside low, so the motor has to work less hard. Likewise, let hot dishes cool before putting them in the refrigerator or you will increase the temperature and the fuel used. Plus, it’s not really efficient – whatever they do on Bake Off, the fastest way to cool a cake is in front of an electric fan or through an open window, not in the freezer.
Be in the oven
If you have a double oven, use the smallest as much as possible, as it will take less energy to heat and maintain the temperature. Try to cook at least two dishes at the same time, but be aware that the extra steam created can slow down browning and crispness. Avoid opening the door to take a look at the cooking food – the oven will have to work harder and use more fuel to replace the escaping heat.
Rethinking preheating
Newer ovens heat up much faster than older stoves, saving fuel. Recipes often call for the oven to be preheated early in the process (yes, I’m guilty of giving instructions like this), but if your oven gets up to temperature quickly, don’t turn it on later. Aside from dishes that need a quick hot flash, like baking, bread, cakes, and cookies, you can often get by without preheating the oven at all. Finally, you can turn off the oven five to 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time and let the dish finish cooking in the residual heat (see below).
Check your seals
Loose door seals let heat into refrigerators and freezers and out of ovens, meaning they have to use extra energy to maintain their temperature. To check that yours are as effective as possible, close a folded piece of paper in the door – it should be difficult to pull it out. Repeat on all four sides.
Use the correct size baking sheet for your pan
If you can see any of the electric rings or gas flames, when you look at the pan from above it heats the air in the kitchen and not the pan – so a 6 ” pan on a 20 ” ring. cm could waste 25 percent of the energy. Replace the pan with a smaller ring.
Put a lid on it
Cook with the lid on your pan whenever possible: Less heat escaping means the dial can be turned lower, saving up to 66% in fuel consumption, according to Edison, an electricity supplier American.
Don’t let go of the mic
We all love the crisp, golden finish of an oven, and foodies can be very snobbish about microwaves, but maybe it’s time to love the little turntable. Microwaves are much more energy efficient than a conventional oven by simply providing heat, so jacketed potatoes (for example) can be started in the microwave and then left in the oven for half an hour to leave the skin on. crispy. Likewise, it’s best to reheat foods with the mic, even if you end up with an explosion under the grill.
Boil only the amount of water you need in the kettle
Boiling a quart of water can use more than double the energy required to boil the minimum amount, according to Which? If you only need a cup, use the cup to measure the water in the kettle. Lime is not only annoying to find in your cup of tea, it also forces the kettle to use more power to boil, so descale as soon as you see a deposit. You don’t have to buy expensive descalers – just boil a cup of cheap white vinegar, let it cool, then pour in and rinse well.
Soak the beans – and rice
We all know you don’t need to soak dry beans. If you’re in a rush, you can just boil them longer – about 20 more minutes should be enough (some people say if you’re sensitive to beans, you might find them cooked a little less digestible this way). But soaking them overnight saves fuel, and I find that they hold their shape better that way, which means there are less split kernels.
Soaking the rice for about half an hour in cold water will reduce the cooking time by about 20% and also improve the flavor if you are using fragrant rice like basmati or jasmine as the heat destroys the compounds. delicate aromatics – so the shorter the cooking time the better.
Try the fasta pasta
It’ll put pasta purists toasty under the collar, but according to American chef Alton Brown, we’ve done the cooking wrong.
Traditionally, dry pasta is cooked in plenty of water: Anna del Conte, the dean of Italian cuisine, recommends one liter of water for 100g of dry pasta. This means that cooking dinner for four may involve bringing 4 quarts of water to a boil, which will likely take more time and fuel than cooking the pasta itself.
Brown says to use a lot less water, just 1.9 liters for 450g of pasta, then – here’s the radical part – put the pasta and cold water in a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of coarse salt, cover and bring to a boil. Then uncover, stir, lower the heat to simmer and cook for exactly 4 ½ minutes. Then drain, keeping the cooking water for the sauce and serve.
I’ve tried it and it works great for penne – you’ll have to test and adjust the cooking time for the pasta variety, as fine vermicelli (for example) will be ready sooner. I even reduced the amounts, making a single 80g serving of macaroni in 340ml water, although you didn’t want to reduce the water anymore. If all of the measurements seem like a faff, Brown also suggests just covering the pasta with water so that it is an inch above the top of the pasta, then following the directions in the same way.
The other plus is that the saved cooking water is well thickened with the starch in the pasta and shiny to loosen the sauce – some traditions are definitely worth hanging onto.
Residual heat update
The simplest form of residual heat cooking is a hay box, essentially a box filled with hay. A pot full of stew or rice, for example, is brought to a boil, covered tightly and put into the hay box before being covered with additional hay and the lid. The dish finishes cooking in its own heat. During WWII, tin-lined tea chests were used, and it is a good idea to line the box with foil and newspaper. You can use old pillows and quilts instead of hay.
