The final cooking method we are going to talk about is thermal cooking. What can I say about thermal cooking other than it is AWESOME!!! A few years ago when we first did our cooking without power class I had never tried thermal cooking. I saw the demonstration and bought the thermal cooker that was being offered at the time figuring it would be good to have another way to cook during an emergency. I wasn't super sure how often I would use it, but I figured I better use it and figure it out before I actually needed it and let me tell you I am a convert. I can't believe how many years were wasted with out knowing how to use a thermal cooker. I will never go back. Now I don't use my thermal cooker all the time but it has definitely paid its dividends. 
How does thermal cooking work and what are the benefits of using it? Well, be it a thermal cooker, thermos, wonder bag, or wonder box, they all work on the same principles. First you decide what you are cooking, prep your food, throw it all into your cooking pot making sure you have a fair amount of liquid in there to get it to a boil, boil it for around 4-5 minutes, take it off the heat and then throw it into the thermal part and the rest happens like magic. You can use any stove type to get it to a boil, but the best ones to use would be a backpacking stove, alcohol stove, or butane stove. .Depending on what you are cooking it can take anywhere from 3-6 hours to fully cook. And the best part is it will keep it hot long after it's done so you can eat it when you are ready to eat. The biggest benefit to doing thermal cooking is it requires very little fuel. For the most part you are going to have it over a heat source for about 10 minutes or less. I have cooked a ton of different things and it has never taken me more than 10 minutes to get it to a boil and then let it boil for a few minutes. Another great aspect is that you can also use them to keep things cold.
You can cook just about anything in a thermal cooker, it will cook things very similar to a crock pot. There are some caveats to it, like you can't put frozen food in it and expect it thaw and cook, but in an emergency you probably won't have frozen food. It's best to cut your meats and anything else into bite size pieces-this is a good general rule for most methods of cooking in an emergency as it will cook faster and therefore conserve fuel. If you have tough cuts of meat that you don't want to cut into bite sized pieces(though you should still cut it into smaller pieces and not keep it whole) it would be best to use a stovetop pressure cooker and then throw it in a wonder bag/box/oven. Make sure to NEVER open and check on your food when it is cooking, air is the enemy of thermal cooking. You will release the heat required to keep it cooking. Make sure your food stays above 140F, once it drops to 140 or below you create an environment for bacteria to grow and then you will have to throw it back on the heat and get it back up to temperature. ALWAYS make sure your cooker is at least 80% full so there is less empty space for air to cool it down.
I have the Saratoga Jacks thermal cooker and it comes with a recipe book. I have tried a few of the recipes in the book, some were a hit with my family and others not so much. There is a recipe for pulled pork sandwiches the sauce is great but I have found a more tender cut of meat like a pork loin roast is better and a little less fatty than the cut of meat the book calls for. Other things I have cooked in it are: sweet pork burrito filling, red beans and rice with andouille sausage, overnight oatmeal, rice, teriyaki chicken with veggies, pork lo mein (except I didn't cook the noodles in there they would get too mushy), etc. Some cold things I put in there are were a ceasar salad with pasta, potato salad, and some cold treats. One thing I like about mine is that it has a large inner pot and a smaller inner pot that nest into each other. Even if I don't put anything in the small pot I will take advantage of it by either boiling some water in it and using it to help retain even more heat or put ice in it to help keep things cooler. It works great. I also have kept my box it came in with the styrofoam top and bottom and use it as an added measure of heat retention. For me, I like to make sure I do whatever I can to ensure enough heat stays in there, maybe it seems excessive, but I prefer to be safe rather than sorry.
If you have a kid in sports or dance or something that keeps your life busy, a thermal cooker is a great way to be able to feed your family on the go. When my family goes out boating if we know we will be on the lake either early in the morning fishing or night skiing we will take the thermal cooker and eat breakfast or dinner from it. I have started our dinner at 10 in the morning let it cook all day and when we eat on the lake around 7 it is still very hot and even after opening it and dishing everyones food out when we get home around 10 that night and I am putting leftovers away it is still hot enough you could eat more for a late night snack, that is if you have teenage boys that are bottomless pits.
Some thermal cookers can be expensive and others not so much, you can definitely make your own with stuff you probably have around your house (boxes, coolers, towels, hay, straw, leaves, blankets, foil, styrofoam, fabric, etc). Just make sure when you make your own you use materials that can be washed or easily replaced. The thermal process creates moisture and so your materials will begin to get smelly which is why it is a good idea to wash them periodically or replace the insulation you are using. It is also important to make sure whatever you use you have at least 4 inches of insulation around your pot anything less and you run the risk of letting all the heat escape and your food won't cook all the way or it will drop below the desired temperature and either way not be safe to eat. Wonder cookers do have one advantage over other types of thermal cookers in that you can use whatever size pot you want. Here is a great website that does a comparison of all the different types of thermal cookers out there and has a lot of great information and resources for thermal cookers. Since my kids are still relatively young, with the size of thermal cooker I bought, I have to cook a lot of food to ensure I have it at the 80% capacity which also means I have lots of leftovers. Right now that's not a big deal and most of the leftovers I have freeze dried and put in either my pantry for quick dinners or long term storage for emergencies. During an emergency you probably won't have a practical way to store leftovers so you will either have to throw them away (YIKES!) or you could always take them to a neighbor in need.
Pros- fuel efficient, doesn't need any tending once you've put in the thermal part, no evaporation, safe to use indoors, and portable
Cons-some varieties will need insulation replacement as they will absorb moisture and odor from cooking, not everything can be cooked with a thermal cooker, some versions aren't as compact and therefore a little less convenient to take places
Overall we have covered just about all the types of fuels and ways to use them for cooking during an emergency. We hope you feel informed enough and not overwhelmed to make decisions about what you want to have on hand to cook during an emergency. One last thing we would like to emphasize is that it is super important to try things out and learn how to use them now when we have the "luxury" of making mistakes while learning how to cook these different ways. It would be horrible to burn food and either have to eat it burnt or throw it away(hopefully you don't) in an emergency as resources are going to limited to what you have on hand.
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