WWII Homemaking Tips for Conservation
I just went to a really interesting exhibit at my local museum on the "Greatest Generation" of our state (MN). I learned a lot, and actually came across some interesting tips for conservation at home that the government put out, and I was really curious to know whether or you any of you had heard of this one or knew if is was at all true...
Specifically, does having a clean pot bottom mean that water will take longer to heat on the stove? One of the main recommendations was to never scrub the bottoms of pans, because doing so would make it take longer to boil water, thus wasting energy. Is this at all true?
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4 Comments:
If you want more tips for conservation and self-sufficiency, take a look at Mother Earth News.
beth1 at 12:55PM on 08/10/09
Interesting. If by "dirty," they're referring to the black gunk encrusting the bottom of my mother's copper-bottomed pots, I'd think that the black would tend to absorb heat, while the original shiny copper would reflect it a bit. But at the same time, if you've developed a layer of crust on the bottom, that's also making the pot thicker, and the heat has to travel through that insulation.
If they're just talking about pot bottoms that are dark and discolored vs those that are shiny, you've got the absorption vs reflection argument again, but if you're cooking over a live flame, I don't know if that makes any difference.
There are way too many other variables in a home kitchen to make measuring it very reliable. How cool/warm is the water in the pot to begin with? How high is your flame, and is it the right size for the pot you're using? If the difference between a dirty pot and a clean one is a fraction of a second, you're never going to be able to adjust everything else that precisely in a normal home kitchen for it to make any difference, I'd guess.
The money-saving may actually be greater in the washing. If you're spending 10 minutes worth of running hot water to wash and shine the bottom of the pot, that's a lot of heated water, vs just rinsing it. But that might have been a harder concept to sell.
dbcurrie at 1:04PM on 08/10/09
ditto dbcurrie.
lemonfair at 6:33PM on 08/10/09
i remember my mom telling me that during the war they grew a victory garden in the medium on her street, i asked her if she was ever worried that someone would steal the vegetables they were growing, her reply was "of course no one would take them, the food doesn't belong to them".
WHAT A CONCEPT.
olddad at 11:19AM on 08/11/09