Jar cooking: cooking in a healthy and tasty way

Vaso-cooking involves cooking food inside glass jars, it has very ancient origins, but in recent years thanks to some famous chef e foodbloggers is a technique that is back in vogue again.

Vaso-cooking is a trulyhealthy cooking method and with great advantages, in fact, it allows you to cook with little fat and seasonings, which makes it "dietetic" and also healthy, as the properties nutritional values ​​of the food are not lost, nor are the aromas and taste of the food which remain trapped inside the jar until opened.

Finally, the joy of all those who love cooking, but not washing pots and stoves... it's a cooking technique that doesn't require a thousand dishes to clean, everything cooks inside the same jar and gets very little dirty!

What tools are needed?

First of all you need to equip yourself with jars that are suitable for this type of cooking, such as weck jars, which can have various sizes depending on the quantity you want to cook.

Obviously you can also use simple jars, such as jam jars, but weck jars are really ideal for this technique. They have a rubber gasket, a cap and clips necessary to maintain the vacuum and work in a similar way to a pressure cooker. Before starting cooking it is always a good idea to make sure that all parts are intact.

The steam created inside the jars cooks the dish inside, the gasket allows venting (exactly like the pressure cooker valve), this will allow quicker cooking times.

What are the cooking methods in jars?

You can choose to cook on gas or in the oven, but microwave jar cooking is the technique that is enjoying the most success. For those who are more interested in dishwasher safe, but in this case the jars must be closed in heat-resistant bags.

Vaso-cooking involves placing all the ingredients directly inside the jar, closing it and cooking with the chosen method:

• In the microwave, place the jar directly inside.

• In the oven, the jars should be placed in a baking dish with 2 cm of water.

• A bain-marie you must use a pot which must be filled approximately 2/3 with water and the jars must be separated by a cloth so that they do not collide with each other.

Obviously cooking times and power vary depending on the type and quantity of the dish as well as the size of the jar.

You must consider that, even if cooking is completed, the jar will be hot and the food will continue to cook inside it. Before opening the jar, it is best to turn it upside down to distribute the seasonings and wait about 5 minutes, paying attention to the steam that will come out.

What can I cook with jar cooking?

You can cookalmost all foodswith jar cooking except for doughs that require leavening, mushrooms, because they release toxins that would remain "trapped" inside the jar and foods which require long external cooking, such as potatoes, which should be previously boiled.

On the other hand, all vegetables, fish, but also flesh.

The important thing is to insert all the ingredients inside the jar that are cooked at the same time, to allow uniform cooking of all the foods.

The advantages of jar cooking

As we said previously, the advantages of cooking in jars are many:

• “dietetic” cooking, because it allows us to cook with little fat and seasonings.

• A healthy technique, because there is no dispersion of the nutritional properties of foods.

• Allows fast cooking times.

• It very little dirty, both during the cooking phase and because it is possible to serve and eat the dish directly in the jar.

Furthermore, with thevacuum-packedthe foods inside the jar remain fresh and can be stored in the fridge for a few days and this gives us further advantages:

• Have ready-made, but still healthy and tasty dishes, to eat at home or take to the office.
• Help to avoid waste.