Whether it's for back-country use, power outage preparedness or just to indulge the Pyromaniac Boy-Scout within, I've experimented with a number of portable stove designs. While doing some research I got curious: could you power a stove on tea lights alone?
Obviously, one tea light won't do much. But what if you had a whole bunch?
Step 1. Check YouTube. And what do you know, here's proof that you can cook with tea lights.
Step 2. Buy and eat 4 cans of tuna. The simplest 'stove' I could think of was a sheet of aluminum foil, a few empty tuna cans, the tea lights and a pot on top.
Step 3. Try to cook an egg! I organized 5 tea lights and 4 tuna cans and lit it all up:
![](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-77MlvhN06tM/WKX7venVt1I/AAAAAAAGCzY/ByrO1YayAhIVtv7sd2lTNFG8wbQQFWeIwCPcB/s400/20170215_162126.jpg)
I pre-heated a frying pan for 5 minutes and then cracked an egg into the pan:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuDSKXA2ICk3Xfu30cnP2j8_MfQFQ3-fkBUfQgS2aFCaEKfJe3Su8ma0oy1QjJMtTOswnnt7VueGX8A4vJLw9-AITV7ETgHeTc43IGsAaJFFMk8lLcZb2uegI8N3FZBrOizLBT/s400/20170215_160225.jpg)
I covered the pan and checked in a few minutes later:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVRi07WtvAObwGJmNp3dZYM5ImcAhbHZFacw_NLaenzzZ-TceSWXDHpJeyYzX_MHEiOv-A-8yL3lTfm4yGlcZ8Es3QASBks5D273RTYMTph_s8iAjgWQhm8-j5aCtW0hyUVVRQ/s400/20170215_160617.jpg)
And to my surprise, the egg was partially cooked.
Ultimately, I let the experiment run for about 18 minutes. And when I was done, I had an overcooked egg:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVyOydyO-O54QitPWjqhfpHS9BOvdrM69OaNb20qKtpBdSdBzrGtwv3qeVhy8fiaj0QNEVdrP2eHP46XQ6f6Sg-h3cO20ob0dItiXYJigw7FHDSwQfxWGDFTNWX3MIk3B9kkDx/s400/20170215_161225.jpg)
So the process was slow, but definitely effective.
Step 4: Improvise a crock pot. Cooking eggs is fun and all, but I wanted to step things up a bit. I filled a casserole dish with about 3 cups of water, lit the same 5 candles, covered it, and let it 'cook.'
![](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NAwOc3mPv4U/WKX7vfa2o3I/AAAAAAAGCzM/68HYgarP30wHywWcEGiU2pldncwG-Sg5QCPcB/s320/20170216_101813.jpg)
![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PpeEJ2bmXwE/WKX7vV2s7qI/AAAAAAAGCzY/XGMgMlJijjA62CxrT2WigcjMjqQYxI5jgCPcB/s320/20170216_141002.jpg)
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oDMTxamAm6s/WKX7vZ2IGZI/AAAAAAAGCzY/xjfonMfgv2EUx4ktrm_NaSW4bNdtolT7wCPcB/s320/20170216_141106.jpg)
![](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LqKA--xWxNQ/WKX7vVRxYsI/AAAAAAAGCzY/shQlGcAmMzgjLzKAEhpP1Imcq1qagHM7ACPcB/s320/20170216_141029.jpg)
At nearly 4 hours, 3 out of the 5 candles had burned out. The water was almost 160°F. From a quick Google search I see that a crock pot on low cooks at around 190°F. So I wasn't quite there, but I was too in the neighborhood.
I have to say, I'm really impressed by these results. With almost no effort, and about 70 cents worth of fuel, I was able to nearly approximate a slow cooker. If I added a few more candles, and swapped them out at 3 hours and 45 minutes, I could probably have a functional slow cooker.
The final test is to actually make a more complex dish using this setup. Alas, I don't have time for this experiment today, but I will keep my eyes out for the right recipe to give this a shot with. And then we can find out just how bad an idea this is.
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