Dr Hector PereraƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  London

You might be surprised to learn that the government department in Canada which tracks energy use, the Office of Energy Efficiency at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), estimates that a cooking stove accounts for 10 percent of an average home’s consumption of electricity.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Most people don’t give the energy used by their cooking stove too much consideration, but 10 percent is a significant portion of your energy bill.

Again it is found by research that modern pressure cookers can reduce energy consumption as much as 70%. We cannot have pressure cookers for everything but if we could adopt and modify the technique then a substantial amount of energy can be saved. Energy saving involves a number factors such as the technique and the type of cook ware. Only thing, energy wasted in cooking can be reduced to some extent if the method of cooking is significantly modified.

Again they found by research in Canada that gasƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ stoves use even more energy than electric stoves about 65% more or 1275 kWh/year because their ovens aren’t as well insulated and lose heat through the flue that exhausts the combustion gases from the oven area. I can demonstrate how to save 50 or even 60% energy saving on cooking certain things by gas or electric. I cannot show how to save energy in baking and on the use of grill. In England they often use oven for baking pies, pasties, pizzas, biscuits, cakes and many more things. My scientific energy saving cooking technique apply to cooking things such as pasta, spaghetti, rice, boiling potatoes, carrots and even cooking of curries such as chicken curry and vegetable curries. As I mentioned before, my technique is able to save a considerable amount of energy on other type of cooking than baking or use of grill.

DonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t like curries?

The foods without spices or salt added are generally called bland food sometimes medically recommended to eat bland food in certain cases. In general majority of the people prefer to spice up the food for various reasons but the problem arises when the things go over the limits. Many cooks have no quantitative or qualitative idea of ingredients; they just add anything because they have already made a name in the TV or in other cooking programmes. Too much chillies, pepper or mustard in certain food burn you from Portsmouth to Lands end, see what I mean?

The word curry was invented by British colonialists in the 18th century.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There is no rigid definition of “a curry,” many restaurants use it as a generic term for sauce-based dishes that can vary in spice content and heat and can contain meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, coconut milk, onions, fresh ginger, kaffir lime leaves and other ingredients. Today, curry powder may also include cloves, coriander, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, fennel, caraway, ajowan seeds, dried basil, mustard seeds, mace, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, saffron and cinnamon. These spices have a number of organic highly volatile chemicals with complicated molecular structures. Cinnamon alone has 18 chemicals. The bottled ready made curry pastes are loaded with other chemicals, monosodium glutamate, salt, colourings, food preservatives, oils and many more to protect the shelf lives so I prefer not to choose them for my work. Can anyone remember the servants back home make this curry paste instantly by grinding? They give a real taste to the curries. Over here now these can be done so easily due to electrical grinders. These spices have plenty of antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal and medicinal values and some can even lower cholesterol levels as well. In a way this is a kind of natural herbal therapy, no artificial colouring and additives or chemicals as found in many takeaway packed foods or in bottled curry pastes.

A little history of scientific inventions

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Two German scientists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosh together found how to make ammonia on industrial scale but using a simple technique. Ammonia is a gas nothing but hydrogen and nitrogen. Unless the right conditions are there, very unreactive gas nitrogen does not react with hydrogen to form ammonia. By adjusting the right temperature and pressure then passed over a substance that helps them to combine and we call it a catalyst to get this gas, sounds very simple. Fritz Haber had a table top model with one meter long metal tube through which these gases were passed over a substance that helps them to combine the gases. Carl Bosh developed it into industrial scale. Both of them received Nobel Prizes in different years for their individual discoveries. The process was named as Bosh-Haber process. The rights were sold to BASF chemical company for a golden handshake. Today even GCSE students know the principals of the process.

An Italian scientist called Galileo had a simple telescope to discover that sun was the centre of the universe not the church insisted way that is earth was the centre of universe. What did he get, cash rewards? Galileo an eminent scientist was life imprisoned for revealing the truth and only after many years it was officially accepted by the authorities, what a shame! Now even the long distance flying satellites are named after him to honour him, how wonderful!

George Stephenson had to attend night school to learn English and Maths at the age of eighteen. Unless one has the determination to learn, study and come up in their lives, no parents or teachers can force them to do so. Now in England many school leavers cannot even write and read English properly and have a poor knowledge of Maths but majority got expensive mobile phones and exchanging broken text messages. George Stephenson did odd jobs to collect money to go America to see a steam engine and to get an idea how it works. He was keen in finding how any machine works, even clocks, he even repaired them to earn money. He even had to look after the neighbours cows to earn money for his future.

At that time, many people knew the power of steam but he redesigned or modified an existing engine to get the full power. He found his design generated by steam could pull heavy metal trains better than anyone elseƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s designs. All he had was the technique and the knowledge of improving the existing steam power. George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use steam locomotives, Liverpool to Manchester Railway which opened in 1830. I havenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t a specially designed cooker for sale to save energy but I have improved the technique scientifically in cooking to save wasting energy. I know some cook ware can be modified to improve energy saving. One thing earthen ware pots are not quite suitable for my purpose because they do not have a good thermal capacity. I cannot forget the past, we had nothing but earthen ware cook ware but now the technology has changed for better.

Why not talk about energy involved in cooking?

We mainly use gas and electricity for heating and eating. Many top politicians in England and energy companies pay attention only to energy involved in heating bills, I think not paying enough attention to the energy used in eating. I am not quite sure if these officials paid any attention to investigate whether there are methods to save energy wasted in cooking. To begin with Canadian authorities are investigating on energy saving.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ One cannot find the total answer to stop the energy wasted in cooking but if a reasonable cut down of energy wastage is available, such as my method would they be cared to find out? If the answer is yes then they must find out how the scientific energy saving technique works. I may be wrong, so far none of the top officials including the politicians, havenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t paid any attention to save energy on cooking that may be because they are unaware of energy wasting on cooking. Some might say when the high streets are full of takeaway shops, fast eating places, who would be cared to cook something at home? Now in Sri Lanka there are places with plenty of tasty food, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-eat as much as you likeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ just for a little money. It looks like cooking at home is so rare; probably some people are unaware of energy wasted in cooking.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka is blessed with natural heating

In cold weather countries energy involved in heating is quite important but what about the energy involved in eating or cooking? Everybody needs to eat some food prepared by using energy that means by cooking not just depend on raw carrots and salad leaves so no energy is involved, no cooking. In countries like Sri Lanka where it is blessed with natural heating system the sun, they use energy only for eating that means for cooking. Even in the night they need fans and air conditioners to cool the houses because itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s fairly hot weather. When they use gas and electric cookers to cook carelessly, the wasted heat energy additionally again warm the houses that means the fans and air conditioners work over time and the energy bills go higher and higher. Even if the prices keep on going up and up and if there is a technique to save some yes some gas and electricity then they can afford to use gas and electricity for day today cooking. Prices always increase in anything, food, petrol, train and bus fairs and in many more not just in gas and electricity. Any comments please perera6@hotmail.co.uk