Saratoga Jacks 7L Thermal Cooker by Saratoga Jacks

This is a great thermal cooker! I have only had mine a few weeks and have only used it twice and I have been more than pleased with the results. It keeps the food piping hot! The first time I made Zuppa Tuscano in the large pot with a quick bread in the small pot. Both cooked for about 5 hours and the soup was steaming hot and the bread was nicely done, even leaving it for that long, which I did to take up the space with something in order to keep the heat in this large cooker. The next thing I made was Calico or Cowboy beans and they also turned out great. For this one I added boiling water to my small pot and set it inside the cooker over the large pot to help fill the space, so as not to lose heat in empty space. The heated water can then be used for clean up or whatever may be needed. I do plan to also purchase the 5L and some accessories, like a trivet and bread pans.

I've read alot about thermal cookers and have always wanted one. Sure, I could have made one out of really cheap materials found around the house. But, I wanted one that was actually designed and built for the purpose of thermal cooking. I chose the Saratoga Jack thermal cooker. The first thing I cooked in it was beef stew. I cut up the beef into cube sizes, added a little oil to the large pot, and browned the beef cubes. After they were browned I added my other ingrediants. I used canned vegetables, because that's all I had on hand, and added the water from the cans directly into the pot. After all the ingrediants were added, plus the spices, I put on the lid and brought the pot to a boil for 5 minutes. The entire "cooking" process, from start to a 5 minute boil, took 30 minutes. I then put the large pot into the thermal cooker, closed the lid, and left it alone. By supper time (about 5 hours later) I opened the thermal cooker. Very hot steam came out of it. I checked the temperature of the stew and it was 175 degrees. Too hot to just wolf down a huge spoon full. I had to let my bowl of beef stew cool a bit. And, man was it tasty! My wife and daughter loved it as well. The beef was tender, and the vegetables weren't overcooked even though they came from a can. So, fresh cut veggies would work just as well. The outside of the thermal cooker never got hot. So, it would be safe to put in a car, take on a boat, etc and not have to worry about little hands touching it and getting burned. As long as the lid stays closed the thermal cooker is doing its job. I suspect my beef stew would have been ready to eat in as little as 2 hours. If I was making chicken stew I would allow about 3 hours before eating it. But, even so, the entire meal was still hot and ready 5 hours later and after only 30 minutes of "cook" time. My next meal will be beans and possibly cornbread (made in the smaller pot at the same time). Bye bye crock pot. Hello, Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker!

It does what it's supposed to! We made stew in it. We combined all of the ingredients, brought it up to temperature, covered it & put the inner pot in the outer pot to finish the cooking. The stew came out perfectly. The only reason I didn't give 5 stars was the clean up afterwards. I had to soak & scrub... & then soak & scrub again! It took a bit of elbow grease to clean the inner pot. Other than that, it's a great tool! I would definately recommend it to someone wanting a slow cooker without wasting fuel!

I bought this model (7 liters) because we wanted a larger one than what we already have (4.5 liters). After receiving it, my wife made the comment that it was not that much bigger than our old one. So I went ahead to do some careful measurements, by volume and by weight (water is 2.2 lbs per liter). The dimensions of the inner pot (that holds the food) are 21.4 cm in diameter and 17.3 cm in height. (Please also see dimensions mentioned in one of the “Answered Questions” here.) It comes out to be a litter less than 6.25 liters. I communicated such finding with the manufacturer. Surprisingly they would not let me return it (I bought it directly from them), even admitting what I had measured. (Manufacturer’s web-site does not have a return policy.) Measurement on my old unit showed that it is indeed 4.5 liters (actually slightly bigger).

I read through the instruction manual and followed the instructions, but the beans from the soup I made were not cooked through. Although I hadn't opened the top once, the soup was lukewarm after six hours in the cooker. I hadn't seen the suggestion that you fill the smaller pot with boiling water top fill the space completely. Maybe it would work then?

This is a great thermal cooker but the small pot has a thin bottom that is not suitable for cooking. Don't buy from amazon. Go to Saratoga Jacks website and get the one that has thick bases on both inner pots. Its not that much more expensive and you will be much happier when cooking in the small pot.