Date: Sun, 9 May 2010 15:48:40 -0500
Reply-To: mcneely4@COX.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET>
Subject: Re: 12V Slow Cooker Tests
In-Reply-To: <58675.73746.qm@web111706.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
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I think what Alistair asked for was peer reviewed papers. Google anything, and you'll get an ear/eye full. There are large groups devoted to the idea that anything and everything that's ever been in food is bad for us. they post and publish reams of material, most of it anecdotal or made up of opinion "proving" that if we eat X we'll have headaches, bad sinuses, toe aches, and die an early death.
Most of my camping pots are aluminum. Billions of meals have been cooked in aluminum for decades. Some years ago there were some peer reviewed publications that suggested links of aluminum to the fibrilary neurological tangles in the brains of Alzheimer's victims. Later studies found those to be spurious due to poor statistical control.
My parents always warned against preparing acid foods in aluminum containers. Don't know. Will discolor. But, my mother cooked in heavy aluminum pots, including stews, soups, and sauces containing tomatoes.
Everything I cook in my Vanagon camper I cook in aluminum, except for those things prepared in iron skillets. I do cook biscuits outdoors in a dutch oven. Just returned from a trip to my favorite Ozark creek, where I caught smallmouth bass and golden redhorse suckers. Cooked both, and all accompanying dishes in aluminum.
DMc
---- Malcolm Stebbins <mwstebbins@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> google: cooking with aluminum health and you'll get an ear/eye full. try:
>
> http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/02/aluminum-and-cooking.html
> and
> http://www.ehow.com/facts_4914271_what-dangers-aluminum-cooking-utensils.html
>
> Often it is not the Aluminum, but how it combines with other artificial chemicals in our food. I'm no expert, just rying to be safe and treat my body well enough that it wont crap out on me before I'm 90!!! :-)
>
> It' not Friday, so we may get in trouble :-) for this deviation of the original post. m
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca>
>
> Malcolm if you are in the habit of eating "lintels" why do you worry about red meat and aluminium? :) alistair
>
> PS I've had a great little backpacking pressure cooker for years, (good for winter camping) I use it in the van. Its aluminium and proud of it. Maybe if some peer reviewed paper was to show adverse health effects I might stop using it, Malcolm, any such papers?
>
> On 9-May-10, at 9:56 AM, Malcolm Stebbins wrote:
>
> I'll chime in here. An alternative to the slow-cooker is a pressure cooker. Pressure cookers are not so popular in N America, but I have been using one now for about a year. Cooking time in a pressure cooker takes less time than in a pot, maybe it takes anywhere from 5 minutes for things like split peas, 15 minutes for lintels and other beans, 20 to 30 minutes for those of you have not heard that red meat is highly correlated with nasty health issues.
>
> One can mix the ingredients similarly to a slow-cooker (beans, veggies, spices, olive oil), and then put the pressure cooker over the stove burner (maybe with a flame diffuser) and in a few minutes it's all done. Many recipes on the web.
>
> They come in 2.5 liter, up to 8 liter. Also, I'll suggest that for health reasons, consider ONLY Stainless Steel and not aluminum.
>
> FWIW, I've had the Fox Hill burner top oven ( http://www.foxhill.net/ ) that was recommended by Larry Chase, but I've rarely used it.....maybe this summer. m2cw Malcolm
--
David McNeely
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