Reducing cooking time and saving on gas

[Caribbean girl]

Years ago I discovered how to reduce the amount of time spent in cooking certain foods as well as saving on gas.

There are some peas, particularly dried peas (pigeon peas) which take a rather long time to cook. In order to save gas and reduce the amount of time needed to cook these peas, soaking them in water for an hour or two before placing them in the pot, helps to soften them up a bit. This has worked for me. I also did the same thing with blackeye peas the other day, since there are some brands of this that take a long time to cook also.

When it comes to doing cream potatoes, cutting the potatoes into smaller pieces before putting them on to boil, reduces the amount of time spent in cooking them. Some potatoes are rather big and take a long time to soften up, so it is always best to cut them in half or even quarters.

Do you know of other ways besides the above to reduce cooking time and save on gas?

 

[kgord]

Only unorthodox ones for impatient people. My roommate never waits until the oven gets up to the highest temperature the one recommended, when he is cooking. He only partially pre heats the oven when he puts his food in. I don't agree with that personally, I mean they put the temperature on products for a certain reason and bypassing that...might make things not cooked as well as they should be. IF you don't have the time, don't make it!

 

[MrsDangermouse]

Using a pressure cooker is a good way of speeding things up - dried beans are a really good example of this: red kidney beans take less than 10 minutes (soaked) or 25 minutes (unsoaked) in a pressure cooker. Tough cuts of meat which normally need long and slow cooking can also be done much faster eg. my corned beef takes just over an hour in the pressure cooker rather than 3 hours in the oven.

 

[valedevento]

Always put the lids on your pots and pans when cooking, and cut harder vegetables in smaller pieces. When I cook pasta or potatoes, I always turn of the gas a little bit before they are cooked and let them sit in the hot water for a few minutes. I also try to use as little water as possible when cooking vegetables, less water means less time to boil it.

 

[L_B]

I also cut up vegetables in smaller pieces because they cook faster that way. If I am having a roast I just throw all the vegetables in the roaster along with the meat. That way I am not spending extra time cooking the vegetables on the stove top. Everything thing is cooked at the same time.

 

[winterybella]

I too cut things smaller like potatoes and the like. Someone spoke of putting the lid on and that obviously works to get the job done faster. When I put some meats in the oven I cover with foil for faster cooking and absorption. My pressure cooker story has been told before and that has been out of use for years.