Saving Energy Cooking Guide

The kitchen uses more energy than any other area of the house. While you may be an expert cook you may also be a wasteful cook. Being efficient is part of what cooking is about, along with passion and precision! Saving energy will also save you on bills – a concern considering the rising price of heating your home.

Microwaves

Using a microwave is a good way to save energy as it sometimes uses only half of the energy a stove requires. Cooking on the outside of the plate cooks faster than the inside. The wonderful thing about microwaves is that, in summer, they do not produce any heat whatsoever!

Yet many of us use a microwave for defrosting – and while it is certainly handy for this – there are some better tricks for defrosting. If you are defrosting seafood the best way to do it is to place a bowl under the cold tap, with the seafood in it, and run a small amount of cold water over them – it only needs to be light. This will defrost squid, prawns and fish in no time whatsoever. While you may not want to do this with a ham or beef you can apply this trick to any frozen food which is packaged in plastic or vacuum-packed. This way the meat doesn’t cook while defrosting, it is kept fresh and tight (because of the cold water), and you haven’t used any electricity. Of course, if you are in an area where there is more concern about water than electricity then you should reconsider this.

Stoves and Ovens

If you happen to have an old gas stove you may still have a constant pilot light – changing to a stove with an electric ignition means you might use 40% less! Other ways to reduce your energy loss while looking is to match the pot or pan size to the size of the hob – this way there is no “energy spillage” around the edges (it also stop the handle from getting too hot!). .  On an electric hob you can turn off the heart before you have finished cooking – the hob takes a moment to cool down and will continue to cook for this time.

Opening an oven door while cooking is a hard temptation to fight – but it is expensive! Every time you open the door you lose all the heat which has been building up in there

Induction Hobs

If you are lucky enough to have induction hobs you are well ahead of the crowd in terms of energy efficiency. Induction hobs use 90% of the energy produced – compared to around 50% for conventional stoves. This is because induction cook tops work via the use of magnetic field – the cooking surface induces heat into the pot used – the pot becomes the heating filament, not the stove itself. By removing as many steps between the heat and your food as possible efficiency is increased 

Other Ways to Cook

There are two other ways to cook, one which is almost completely inefficient (but fun), and another which is efficient but cannot be used every day. The barbeque is one of mankind’s favourite ways to whittle away an afternoon – it is completely useless in terms of cooking efficiency and cost (and also you’ll eat too much!) but it is certainly fun!

The second way of cooking also requires sunshine. Sun ovens can, on the right day, be a great way to do your cooking – they can be perfect for stewing vegetables or meats. The only problem is the weather – the ovens get very hot in the sun, but there is little precision in how hot.   This may be fun to try but might not be the best thing to rely on every day!

With all this in mind you should be able to make the right choices in your kitchen.