google:   cooking with aluminum health         and you'll get an ear/eye full.  try:

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/02/aluminum-and-cooking.html
and
http://www.ehow.com/facts_4914271_what-dangers-aluminum-cooking-utensils.html

Often it is not the Aluminum, but how it combines with other artificial chemicals in our food.  I'm no expert, just rying to be safe and treat my body well enough that it wont crap out on me before I'm 90!!! :-)

It' not Friday, so we may get in trouble :-)   for this deviation of the original post.   m

________________________________
From: Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca>

Malcolm   if you are in the habit of eating "lintels" why do you worry about red meat and aluminium?      :)     alistair

PS I've had a great little backpacking pressure cooker for years, (good for winter camping) I use it in the van. Its aluminium and proud of it. Maybe if some peer reviewed paper was to show adverse health effects I might stop using it, Malcolm, any such papers?

On 9-May-10, at 9:56 AM, Malcolm Stebbins wrote:

I'll chime in here.  An alternative to the slow-cooker is a pressure cooker.  Pressure cookers are not so popular in N America, but I have been using one now for about a year.  Cooking time in a pressure cooker takes less time than in a pot, maybe it  takes anywhere from 5 minutes for things like split peas, 15 minutes for lintels and other beans,  20 to 30 minutes for those of you have not heard that red meat is highly correlated  with nasty health issues.

One can mix the ingredients similarly to a slow-cooker (beans, veggies, spices, olive oil), and then put the pressure cooker over the stove burner (maybe with a flame diffuser) and in a few minutes it's all done.  Many recipes on the web.

They come in 2.5 liter, up to 8 liter.  Also, I'll suggest that for health reasons, consider ONLY Stainless Steel and not aluminum.

FWIW, I've had the Fox Hill burner top oven ( http://www.foxhill.net/ ) that was recommended by Larry Chase, but I've rarely used it.....maybe this summer.   m2cw    Malcolm