Random Cooking Question

[Cyclonesteve]

I was thinking about a grid down situation (& my love of chili) and I had a random question for anyone out there.

I know crock-pots don't use a ton of power so what I was wondering is if you had a battery bank if you could keep one running 24/7? Every night you toss in some beans, veges, rice, water, meat or whatever. It's cooking on low all night and all day. (& you add water when necessary) People can come in and have a bowl when they're hungry. If you run out they would have to wait until the next morning but if it's still half full you fill it half up.

The issues I don't know about are if it's safe. They say to cook foods to X degrees but if you never stop cooking and keep refilling would it ever go bad?

[MamaLiberty]

The issues I don't know about are if it's safe. They say to cook foods to X degrees but if you never stop cooking and keep refilling would it ever go bad?

I don't know how much power they use, but I do know you would burn out the elements fairly soon trying to run it 24/7. And it would not be safe, even if you like to eat totally mushy and over cooked stuff with all the nutrients heated and boiled out of it. The crock pot, dipped into often, would eventually be seriously contaminated even if you left it on at a boil - 220 degrees or so, which would be necessary to keep the germ population down much..

If you want to use a crock pot, use up or store in the refrigerator any leftover each night, and start a new batch to cook slowly overnight. Use leftovers promptly, but never put them back into the pot.

[Scheherazade]

The crock pot, dipped into often, would eventually be seriously contaminated even if you left it on at a boil - 220 degrees or so, which would be necessary to keep the germ population down much..

If you want to use a crock pot, use up or store in the refrigerator any leftover each night, and start a new batch to cook slowly overnight. Use leftovers promptly, but never put them back into the pot.

That used to be done with a pot on the back of woodburning stoves... long before people knew about bacteria.  That is what the line in "Pease Porridge Hot" (a nursery rhyme) refers to when it says, "Some like it in the pot, nine days old." Now that we know about bacteria, that sounds like a bad idea.
I also agree about nutrient loss from over cooking, as well as the danger of burning out the unit.
A crockpot is the best way I know to cook any kind of  beans. I also use it for making bone broth. I often say that diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but a crockpot is a mom's. So I especially like the idea of finding a way to use one even if the grid goes down.

[MamaLiberty]

Depends a lot on what you put in the pot on the back of the stove. My grandmother did that on the farm 60 years ago, but it got cleaned out and restarted nearly every day, especially if there was meat in it. Even so, my sister and I got sick from eating it (we were 8 and 10 years old then), since we had not built any immunity to whatever bugs she was cultivating there. Just not necessary to do that, even in a grid down situation.