Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Tuesday Tried It -- Cooking in a Cooler

One of the hardest things about cooking corn for a large group is getting that much water to boil twice - once before you add the corn and once after you add the corn.  When I saw


I hoped it worked. 

I'm here to say it does.  Really well.

Calvin and Junior adding the boiling water to the shucked corn

We put 400 ears of corn in two coolers, filled them with boiling water, shut the lids, and let them steam for 45 minutes.  They were perfect and it was slick.  

The next morning Calvin, Junior, and I were planning the day and determining what needed to be cooked when.  Chili dogs were on the lunch menu and we were debating whether to grill or boil the hot-dogs.  Junior suggested we cook them in the cooler like we had the corn.  All be darn.  Hot-dogs steam just as well as corn in a cooler.

Junior holding in the steam

The only problem was we put the hot-dogs in a cooler with a twisted lid so the steam kept escaping.  Junior laid on it for the 45 minutes while they cooked.  They came out perfect.

(Though I didn't get a picture of them, we served the 10 inch Costco hot dogs in those big, red-checked, cardboard, boat-trays.  Bun, hotdog, Fritos, chili, then cheese sprinkled on top.  Those red-checked boats were nice for serving such large portions and even improved the taste with their eye-appeal.  It was almost as good an idea as cooking them in the cooler.)

Bryce getting his French toast, ham, and hashbrowns for breakfast

7 comments:

Melinda said...

I love this idea!! I am going to try it for sure.

Jill said...

Amazing, what a great tip!

Lucy said...

Brilliant! I love Pinterest. I have had grease stains on my ceramic burners for 2 years and no amount of elbow crease, comet, scouring pads or magic erasers were getting it off. Then, a pin came my way suggesting I put them in a gallon ziploc with a 1/4 C of ammonia and let them sit sealed overnight. I only had 12 hours and it still worked. The fumes made the grease come right off and I wiped them off with a washcloth!! So, yes, I believe the corn cooler thing would work. I just hope i never have to cook so many ears that I have to use that trick!!! Still...good to know and I'm so glad you were serving food in waves.

Jorden said...

Cooking in a cooler, that is awesome. The name is kind of an oxymoron, but brilliant none the less!

Barb said...

Good to know that the cooler trick works so well. I'm working on a family reunion for next summer, I'll file this one away.

michelle said...

I've wondered about that, too! Love the hot dog serving idea.

Nikki said...

How VERY neat! I have trouble making enough corn on the cob in my pot. And we usually only have it when we have company-- which means lots more people than we already have.

Thanks for sharing it!