Engine Bay Cooker

[RichardAllen]

I have been looking into engine bay cooking, and most ideas seem to revolve around putting ingredients into a thick foil parcel and tying it onto the exhaust.

My idea for cooking is along the lines of welding a couple of stub pipes into the outside jacket of a thermos flask and connecting it into engine's (300TDi) cooling circuit between cylinder head and heater matrix. The idea being that the hot coolant circulates through the outer jacket of the thermos, which is where the vacuum would normally be, cooking the food (casserole or similar) inside the thermos where the drink usually goes.

The thermos lid would have to be drilled to prevent pressure/steam build-up, and it would need some arrangement so that the food can be removed once cooked and the thermos cleaned, maybe by having some quick disconnect couplings or swivel hose connectors.

Is this idea as daft as my wife thinks it is (ie pretty daft) ?

Anyone done anything similar ?

All help gratefully received as normal.

Regards

Richard

[Adam001]

That would only be around 85C...not really hot enough to cook food, or is it?

[mickeyw]

I didn't think Tdis ever got that warm

Now a V8 on the other hand...

I've only ever cooked on the manifold, and it was only a pie warming job at that. I think you'd need a very long drive to cook the kind of meal you have in mind

[RichardAllen]

That would only be around 85C...not really hot enough to cook food, or is it?

Chicken is done at 75deg C, and there is a whole cuisine of slow low temp meat cooking using vacuum packing and temperature controlled water baths, so I think given long enougn time chi9cken and fish should not be too difficult. Beef and lamb can be eaten rare, so do-able but probably tough. Pork I would not try until the technique was well tested. So the cooking I am OK about.

When it comes to welding pipe onto a thermos, I am sure the idea is not new and am hoping someone has built one of these before.

Richard

[headhunter]

Some expedition travellers have been known to slow cook guinea pigs in foil on the manifold.

Useful when it's a long day on the road.

John

[heath robinson]

There was an incident of egg-frying on the cherry-red cast manifold of my mate's Crapi when we were sprogs, but it did involve driving it like a looney for a few hours to get the temperature up.

[RaDi90Hybrid]

I can't donate a guinea pig to test it, will a cat do!

On the serious side, given enough time the meat should get pretty tender, the other option is to cook it before you leave and use the 'cooker' as a slow cooker to make a really nice stew for the end of the trip.

Andy

[Mo Murphy]

What a good idea ! Go for it Richard I'm keen to see the results

Mo

[RustyNissanPrairie]

that mad scientist cooking bloke with the name like a fancy french cheese that I can't remember did it a tele show where he used an Audi's coolant system in the same manner as you describe but I think he used vac sealed bags with the food in.

dump your 300tdi-and fit a 2.5NA-the best engine LR ever made for cooking on!

http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=43751&st=20&p=419104&fromsearch=1entry419104

[Mark]

I think the main problem would be making it removable from the cooling system - you don't want to have to bleed the coolant every time you fancy a bit of chicken chasseur....

[TheRecklessEngineer]

Plumb it in parallel to the heater matrix and stick a couple of valves on it - you can then isolate it when needed.

I've been thinking along similar lines, but I've got a v8 to play with

[The Homba]

Hi guys how about a coil of copper pipe made to go inbetween the inner and outer part of the flask ? something like this you remove the bottom part of flask and sit it over the coil which would be in an upright position if you put a couple of clips on the bottom part and attach it to the chassis or somthing the flask would clip together and be held upright while it heats. once hot undo clips lift of flask . you use brake pipe and put in a cut off valve which would mean you could turn it off when not needed also if you put it in the truck it could be used as a heater too .if this doesnt make sence tell me and i will draw a picture .

hope this helps

cheers Iain