- Green Lifestyle
Cooking with low heat.
Definitely not everything was better in the past, but the “passive cooking” method is more than 100 years old and more relevant than ever. It’s an easy principle: You use the heat of the pot, its content and the stovetop and just turn off the stove after two minutes.
Kristin Oldenburg
An Italian pasta producer has rediscovered the low heat method and has even published a cooking-guide, that defines the right cooking times for different types of pasta.
The rule of thumb is quite simple: Turn of the stove after 2 minutes of boiling and let the pasta cook one minute longer than the cooking time indicated on the box. The important detail: Put a lid on the pot, to keep in the heat.
You might already (or still) be familiar with this method from boiling rice. It also works perfectly with couscous, bulgur, or your breakfast egg (the latter probably requires some practice), or with veggies like e.g., broccoli.
The great thing about it: Passive cooking does not only save energy and thus, money. It also reduces the CO2 emissions by up to 80% (according to the pasta producer*). And that would really be huge effect.
So, how to save energy when preparing your coffee?
Simply turning off the stove, does not work here. Saving energy in this context is a bit more complex. It depends on the brewing method, the machine, your individual amount of consumption, and some other factors. When you for example prepare a manual pour over coffee or use the French press, you should use the electric kettle instead of boiling the water in a kettle on your stove. That saves much more energy. Heating up ¼ gallon of water on the stove uses about 150 watts. Heating up the same amount of water in a modern electric kettle uses about 100 watts.
A classical filter machine has an average power consumption of about 1kWh (1000 watts) (when used twice a day for about ½ hour). Capsule or pad machines have higher power: About 1500 watt, but they don’t run as long.
Before it gets too complicated, we have some simple tips for you on how to save energy:
Only prepare as much coffee as you actually drink. Turn off the hot plates – these are real power guzzlers. A thermos is definitely the better choice (and the coffee also tastes better if you keep it in here). It also has a long-term effect to not keep the coffee-machine in standby mode – pull the plug, to make sure that it is completely turned off.
Sounds like peanuts? Every bit matters (also with regard to your wallet) – that’s what we believe. And when many of us make many small steps, then we can make a big change.
More tips on coffee preparation – for example how to prepare a pour over coffee – you can find on our blog in the section “Coffeeprep” in the article “The aroma of 2 minutes 30”.
Source consumption figures: paxistipps.chip.de
*www.barilla.com/de-de/passives-kochen
