Best Thermal Cooker THERMOS RPC-4500 Shuttle Chef

I stumbled onto my Thermos thermal cooker and thermal cooking in generalwhile trying to find a good solution for making home made yogurt. I hadinitially used a plastic container with a foam outer liner to make yogurt but itsoon cracked and broke apart. The method worked well however, and I went on the hunt for amore durable alternative.That's when I found the Thermos thermal cooker.Being made from stainless steal and having a vacuum insulated outer container Ifigured it would last almost forever and today it works as well as the day Ibought some five or six years ago.

I have to admit, I was pretty clueless back then on it's other uses. Itwasn't until a camping trip where I happened to take it along because I figuredI could use the nice stainless steel innerpot to make breakfast and boil waterin it and keep the water hot for use during the day. One late evening I used itto heat water for hot chocolate, and after only a couple cups, I left the almostfull pot of water outside on the camp table until morning. The next morning Iwent back to the thermal cooker opened it up and was surprised that the waterwas still hot enough for making another cup of chocolate and proceeded to doso.My neighbor saw what I was doing and asked if that was the same water fromthe night before and I confirmed as much.He then saw the great usefulness ofthe thermal cooker immediately and was excited by what he figured it would do,especially the amount of fuel it would save when cooking off camp stoves andRV's.He wondered if I could find a thermal cooker for him and for a few of hiskids for a gift.

That got me going and started me into really looking into the abilities ofusing a thermal cooker.I scoured the internet looking for information, recipesand anything I could on thermal cookers or the like and created a blog here:http://thermalcooker.wordpress.com/category/thermal-cooking/ on all that Ifound.

When my neighbor asked me to find a few thermal cookers for him, I found thatthe Thermos model I bought was no longer being sold, so I started a search for agood replacement.I was surprised when I couldn't find another model fromanother maker that matched up to the abilities of the Thermos Thermal cooker. Ibought a few different brands of thermal cookers because at this point I had anumber of other people asking me to get them cookers if I could. I purchasedvarious models to test them out and found that either they didn't perform aswell, meaning they didn't keep the contents hot for as long as the Thermos ortheir manufacture was subpar. Most of the thermal cookers had "tinny" type innerpots that were a very thin steel instead of the heavy gauge stainless steel thatmy Thermos thermal pot used. I also found that the outer pot of these otherbrands was made of a foam core material instead of double steel with a vacuum inbetween construction. Even those that did have a vacuum insulated outer pot, theinnerpot was still not well made or they used a glass lid or other easily brokenmaterials.There were some well made thermal cookers but they had a differentdesign I found lacking. The thermal cookers would have two handles attached tothe innerpot and they would simply rest on top of the steel outerpot and the lidwould close down and try and cover the handles. The problem is, the handles wickthe heat out of the inside of the pot and radiate it outside so the foodcontents doesn't stay hot as long as the Thermos thermal cooker with the bailhandle and the innerpot that stays completely enclosed inside the outerpot.Thebail handle also locks down the lid preventing it from opening when I take itwith me in the car making it very portable. I've had another model without thelocking lid spill while traveling in the car.

I finally found a source for the best thermal cooker made and it's availablehere:http://www.getpreparedstore.com/category/30555882801/1/Thermal-Cookers.htm

A thermal cooker really is a great addition to your kitchen, trailer, RV orcamp kitchen. I've found many ways to use it and it's one of those products thatjust works and works well. There are some tricks to getting the most out of it.You do need to keep it as full as possible, in order to retain enough heat inthe cooker to cook things completely but that will very depending on what youtrying to cook.Many crock-pot or slow cooker recipes can be adapted to use ina thermal cooker so there are plenty of ready made recipes.