Wonder Oven, an insulated pillow, is a thermal cooker.
Last Christmas, my daughter made me a Wonder Oven, a type of thermal box. She found the directions online. It is basically a pillow, much like a bean bag chair. It has two parts – a top and a bottom. A pot fits into the middle of the bottom section, and the top covers the pot. The Wonder Oven keeps food hot for several hours, and in fact will actually cook or continue to cook food while it is keeping the food hot. Basically, you heat up the food to a cooking temperature, put it into the Wonder Oven and let it sit for several hours. Wonder Ovens are not new. The concept has been around for a long time. And there are several websites devoted to wonder ovens, hay boxes, and other types of thermal boxes, with detailed instructions for making and using them. Thermal boxes don’t have to be fancy and can be made from all kinds of materials including blankets, hay, newspapers, fur, wool, etc. Mine is filled with little pellets and I usually use it to keep the food warm until dinner time after I have taken it out of the solar oven. It is a perfect complement to my solar oven.
Wonder Oven with a pot inside. Cover with the top pillow to hold in the heat.
Have you ever used a Wonder Oven, a haybox, or other thermal cooker? How did it work out for you?
My wife and I have been using a type of “haybox” for decades. It’s made of two layers of corrugated cardboard (you can use more, either by cutting down larger boxes or pushing smaller boxes into larger ones). We use our old woollen clothing as the insulation on the inside. It really doesn’t have to be expensive. As long as it insulates well, it can be used. It takes the place of a slow cooker in our house. We heat the food through on our gas stove (it’s even older than the haybox: we’ve been using the same stove since 1982!) and then pop it into the haybox. It will remain there for as many hours as we think it needs, but if more than six or so, we take it out, reheat and return it to the haybox.
Well this is a great idea!
I’ve done a lot of reading about Thermal Pots, Hay boxes and something called the Wonder Bag which looks like your Wonder Oven.
I thought about buying a Thermal Pot, but most of the ones that I’ve seen cost upwards of $300.
The Wonder Oven would be a great summer project for the kids to make or maybe even an outdoors Hay Box. This would be the perfect solution to keeping food from the Sun Oven warm until it’s time to eat!
Thanks Merry!
I made my own wonder oven after seeing Merrys, I am impressed with it after seeing how she used it. way to go Merry
Thanks, I’m sure you will love it as much as I love mine.
You may well have a little business, here. What a great AND attractive idea. Congratulations to your daughter.
It’s nice being able to keep your food warm once it’s done cooking in the solar oven.
Yes, It is really great. Keeps food hot for a long time, and the long slow heat helps tenderize the meat. Today we cooked ribs in the solar and then put them in the wonder oven, and the meat just literally fell off the bones. Delicious.