Cook Grain with Rocket Stove and a Haybox Cooker - PEP BB food.sand.grain.hay

I cooked 1 cup dry rice to = 3 cups cooked rice at the SKIP event this summer on a Rocket J Stove, and finished it in the haybox cooker. It was served for taco tuesday!

I made my fourth batch of rice, this time on my Dakota pit and in an improvised haybox.

Please note that the requirements moving forward will be clarified so that you show how the rice isn't cooked as you put it in the haybox cooker.

I cooked a pot of rice on Dakota Fire Pit and finished it in a hay-box!

I made the hay-box out of a quilt, hay, and a metal stock tank.
I used 2 cups rice, 4 cups water, 2 tbsp butter, salt and pepper. I brought the pot to a low boil over the fire, then tucked it into the hay-box for 40 minutes. The resulting rice was fluffy and had absorbed all the water.

The texture wasn't perfect, so next time I'll be sure to bring it to a high boil and only cook it for 30 minutes in the hay-box. I still need practice regulating the temperature, and managing the fuel and smoke, but this was a success!

Note/edit: the photo of the uncooked rice in the boiling buttery water was taken just as I was about to put it into the haybox, "going into the haybox" as I understood the instructions. I didn't want the lid off any longer than necessary due to dusty breezes and heat loss, so I put the lid back on, put it into the hay-box, and called my clock buddy over for the timer pic. I really hope this documentation is sufficient to show both cook time and method.

Further edit: I see now that the previous approved submission that was documented just like mine was apparently grandfathered in and no longer acceptable. 😵‍💫

 - the grain and water boiling on a rocket stove
 - your heated uncooked grain being transferred to a haybox cooker (with some sort of watch or timer)
         - must show how the grain isn't cooked yet
 - your cooked grain coming out of a haybox cooker (with some sort of watch or timer)
 - show the final product is at least two cups of grain

So I used the easy-bake-coffin at the lab for this BB

Uncooked rice & water:


Cooking the rice on the J Tube:


I had to transfer the heated rice into a smaller pot to fit in the easy-bake-coffin. I wrapped in my wool jacket to bring it over from the J-Tube to the easy-bake-coffin:


Start of cooking in the easy bake coffin:


End of cooking:


Lot of rice!:

Setting up the dakota fire pit was quite a bit more work than a traditional rock fire-ring, open campfire.  However, it took impressively less wood than boiling water over an open campfire! This tiny amount of wood is even more significant when adding in the haybox cooker element, because grain like rice would normally need to be cooked for a whole 10-15 minutes past boiling. I cooked this batch of rice for 1 minute before removing it from the fire. My camera kept fogging up to take the "obviously not cooked" picture. We gave it a good 20 minutes in my blanket-padded cooler, just to be sure it had enough time, and it cooked amazingly well, using NO more heat or energy input.  I  thought this method would just keep it warm. I had no idea it would continue to cook!

I love this idea so much, I think I will build a more permanent haybox cooker that fits my favorite pots, and use it in the house in conjunction with the stove.  

Trying this with a pocket rocket, instafire inferno. 1st battery pack for some reason didn't work with the fan.

I threw together a haybox with some cardboard and a few spare blankets. I am really excited to learn this skill!
The rocket stove fired up easier that it ever has for me, and the water boiled consistently for the entire ten minutes. That made me very happy. And the best part of it is, the riced cooked perfectly! I left it all afternoon and it was starting to cool by the time I opened it up, so in the future I should either wrap it up more or not leave it so long. But overall, I am really happy with how it turned out!

This worked surprisingly well. I cooked farro, one of my favorite grains.  I was suprised that it didn’t really take any additional time.  

I used the “easy bake coffin” at Wheaton Labs for an insulated box and added the towels. It was unplugged of course so not adding any additional heat.