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Multi-Pot Haybox

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Multi-Pot Haybox

A multi-pot haybox is a larger box with a separate insulated nest for each pot, so that breakfast porridge, a midday stew and dinner grains can each be started at its own time from a short fire. Each pot still needs its own full boil, its own hold of under 8 hours, and a nest sized to fit, and opening the box for one pot loses heat from the others.

Part of Retained Heat Cooking

One box holds several insulated pots, trading a larger build for fewer fires. The pots share a lid and a structure, and so share heat losses.

The Overview’s Plan And Its Timing

The overview suggests:

  • Breakfast porridge started the night before.
  • Midday stew started in the morning.
  • Grains for dinner started at noon.

It says one short fire session in the morning can start all three meals, with total fuel for a whole day’s hot meals about one armload of sticks. Those statements do not fit together: porridge started the night before and grains started at noon need their own boils at those times, so the plan is three short fires, not one. Fuel use, one armload, is the overview’s figure.

Method

Step 1: Build nests that each fit a specific pot, with insulation between them.

Step 2: Schedule. For each pot, write down the boil time, the hold and the time you will eat, and check the hold is under 8 hours.

Step 3: Boil each pot hard just before it goes in.

Step 4: Open once per pot and close the box quickly.

Step 5: Reboil any pot whose hold passed 6 hours.

Common Mistakes

  • Putting a half-hot pot in with hot ones. It sits in the growth range.
  • One lid for all and leaving it open while serving. The remaining pots cool.
  • Mixing a fire-heated stone into one nest next to hay. See Pre-Heated Thermal Mass.

Safety

Several pots, several clocks

The more pots in a box, the easier it is to forget one. Label start times, check the temperature of each pot as you open it, and reboil any that is cooler than expected or has passed its limit.

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