Wonderbag Review
Imagine a way to slow cook your food when camping - without the need for electricity, gas or a cord.
Think about putting a meal together before you leave home for work, and not worrying all day that that house is going to burn down because you are using an electrical slow cooker.
No worries about using too much power or too little.
All of the above is possible with the Wonderbag.
If you haven’t heard of this clever but simple concept in cooking, you need to read what its all about right now!
We got our hands on a Wonderbag thanks to The Billycan Store and are very excited to give you a review on this innovation that is changing lives.
Think about putting a meal together before you leave home for work, and not worrying all day that that house is going to burn down because you are using an electrical slow cooker.
No worries about using too much power or too little.
All of the above is possible with the Wonderbag.
If you haven’t heard of this clever but simple concept in cooking, you need to read what its all about right now!
We got our hands on a Wonderbag thanks to The Billycan Store and are very excited to give you a review on this innovation that is changing lives.
What is the Wonderbag?
The Wonderbag is a slow cooker created by Sarah Collins who had a vision to make cooking easier for rural people – especially women. Her goal was to reduce the time they spent looking for fuel for their meals, and also reduce the pollution caused by cooking indoors (a cause of death for children under the age of 5).
You should read her amazing story and find out how it all began.
The bag is made of fabric and repurposed PU foam chips, and it finishes the cooking process you started when you first made the meal.
The way Wonderbag is described is as seen in the above image.....
Boil it. Bag it. Slow Cook it. Share it.
That’s the basic concept.
If you are reading this review from the USA – whenever you purchase a Wonderbag, one is donated to a family in need in USA. Find out more here.
You should read her amazing story and find out how it all began.
The bag is made of fabric and repurposed PU foam chips, and it finishes the cooking process you started when you first made the meal.
The way Wonderbag is described is as seen in the above image.....
Boil it. Bag it. Slow Cook it. Share it.
That’s the basic concept.
If you are reading this review from the USA – whenever you purchase a Wonderbag, one is donated to a family in need in USA. Find out more here.
How does it work?
When we first opened up our Wonderbag, its all vacuum sealed and squished, so you need to open it up, shake up the repurposed PU foam chips inside it, and let it sort of get its shape back (takes about 1 hour, and it’s a once off thing).
The insulation that we had to allow to "fluff up" keeps the food cooking and hot for a number of hours. It’s a really simple concept that was designed to help the poor in Africa who would spend precious time looking for fuel, and then cooking indoors. For us, who are luckier with our circumstances, the Wonderbag is designed to allow us to enjoy a simple way of cooking with minimum fuss.
When your meal is ready and brought to a boil, you place the pot in the Wonderbag, put the little round pillow-like lid on top of your pot, and pull the drawstring on the bag, trapping the heat all around your meal, and beginning the slow cooking process.
Nothing too complicated.
Watch the video below to see how it works
The insulation that we had to allow to "fluff up" keeps the food cooking and hot for a number of hours. It’s a really simple concept that was designed to help the poor in Africa who would spend precious time looking for fuel, and then cooking indoors. For us, who are luckier with our circumstances, the Wonderbag is designed to allow us to enjoy a simple way of cooking with minimum fuss.
When your meal is ready and brought to a boil, you place the pot in the Wonderbag, put the little round pillow-like lid on top of your pot, and pull the drawstring on the bag, trapping the heat all around your meal, and beginning the slow cooking process.
Nothing too complicated.
Watch the video below to see how it works
How is it different to your slow cooker?
For a start if you are camping, do you really want to take along your slow cooker and have to worry about powering it up?
- The Wonderbag is powerless. That is where it differentiates from your slow cooker.
- You can put it the back of your car/caravan with no power, and have your meal already good to go at the campsite.
- It’s not on a direct heat either – so no overcooking or burning of your dinner.
How does it cook my food?
The meals you are going to cook in the Wonderbag need to be prepared at home or wherever you want to do the prep work, before the Wonderbag's benefits of slow cooking are realized.
Food like stews and curries are going to be the sort of food that will benefit from this slow cooking method.
If you want to make a curry for example, you are going to need to do the browning of the meat, adding the spices and other ingredients and bringing the food to the boil all before you use the Wonderbag.
If making a pudding (which we did) you will need to do all the pudding mixture work in your kitchen and start the cooking process at home, and THEN transfer your bowl to the Wonderbag.
Not being a slow cooker sort of person, this meant a bit of thinking in advance for me (and a bit of work ahead of meal time, but with camping, many of you probably do some prep work before you leave home). Once you have the meal in the bag, you can just walk away and forget about it until you need to eat.
Food like stews and curries are going to be the sort of food that will benefit from this slow cooking method.
If you want to make a curry for example, you are going to need to do the browning of the meat, adding the spices and other ingredients and bringing the food to the boil all before you use the Wonderbag.
If making a pudding (which we did) you will need to do all the pudding mixture work in your kitchen and start the cooking process at home, and THEN transfer your bowl to the Wonderbag.
Not being a slow cooker sort of person, this meant a bit of thinking in advance for me (and a bit of work ahead of meal time, but with camping, many of you probably do some prep work before you leave home). Once you have the meal in the bag, you can just walk away and forget about it until you need to eat.
What else is needed with the Wonderbag?
- Your food is going to need to go in a pot with a tight fitting lid (and one that can fit in the Wonderbag). The preferred material for such pots are copper/steel/aluminum/enameled cast iron/cast iron and glassware. Clay and ceramic are not recommended.
- Your pots that are going to go in the Wonderbag should have short handles.
- Recommended is a trivet (not supplied) to put at bottom of Wonderbag.
Our thoughts on the Wonderbag
There is no doubt that is a great idea and is definitely changing lives of people all over the world.
We would be more likely to use this for winter camping as the meals we like to eat at that time of the year, are more of the heavier style of food – casseroles/chunky soups/chilli etc.
From a camping perspective, I can see the benefit of having a meal ready to go after driving to your campsite that first day. Make the meal at home, bring it a high heat, and then place in the Wonderbag, which would fit nicely on the floor of the back seat of a vehicle. Get to your campsite and open up your Wonderbag and your meal will be ready to eat.
In a caravan where you have a permanent kitchen, you would be able to make up your meal during the day, place in the Wonderbag, and have a meal by evening - and not placing a drain on your power (perfect if you move to a non powered site).
A concern I do have with the Wonderbag is about food safety. Most recipes stated in the supplied recipe book mention that the food is meant to stay hot about 4-5 hours and up to 8 hours (though I would be concerned about eating food that had been not on a direct heating source for 8 hours)
If I were in any doubt that the food was not hot enough, I would heat the meal up again, as food needs to be above 60 degrees Celsius for safe eating.
At home, there are great advantages – a slow cooker without using electricity or on a gas stove. The need to have some sort of power on during the day for cooking is one reason why I have never had a slow cooker.
Another way I would use this would be if we wanted hot food on a picnic (cooked at home), or keeping food hot if someone isn’t home from work/sport yet.
But I must stress, that food needs to be brought to a very high temperature/boiled prior to putting it in Wonderbag.
We would be more likely to use this for winter camping as the meals we like to eat at that time of the year, are more of the heavier style of food – casseroles/chunky soups/chilli etc.
From a camping perspective, I can see the benefit of having a meal ready to go after driving to your campsite that first day. Make the meal at home, bring it a high heat, and then place in the Wonderbag, which would fit nicely on the floor of the back seat of a vehicle. Get to your campsite and open up your Wonderbag and your meal will be ready to eat.
In a caravan where you have a permanent kitchen, you would be able to make up your meal during the day, place in the Wonderbag, and have a meal by evening - and not placing a drain on your power (perfect if you move to a non powered site).
A concern I do have with the Wonderbag is about food safety. Most recipes stated in the supplied recipe book mention that the food is meant to stay hot about 4-5 hours and up to 8 hours (though I would be concerned about eating food that had been not on a direct heating source for 8 hours)
If I were in any doubt that the food was not hot enough, I would heat the meal up again, as food needs to be above 60 degrees Celsius for safe eating.
At home, there are great advantages – a slow cooker without using electricity or on a gas stove. The need to have some sort of power on during the day for cooking is one reason why I have never had a slow cooker.
Another way I would use this would be if we wanted hot food on a picnic (cooked at home), or keeping food hot if someone isn’t home from work/sport yet.
But I must stress, that food needs to be brought to a very high temperature/boiled prior to putting it in Wonderbag.
Practice makes perfect
Our pudding is in there!
Our first dish was a pudding (because I love desserts and I really try to incorporate sweet things into this camping website at every opportunity!).
Not having the ideal pudding container/bowl was my first mistake, which then led to my next mistake – not cooking the pudding enough on the stove before adding to the Wonderbag. Three hours later, and I took off the Wonderbag lid, to see my pudding hadn’t risen as much as it should in 3 hours.
Into the oven to finish off the pudding! Lucky I was home. And it worked out quite tasty. The recipe came from the recipe book supplied with the Wonderbag, and the recipe was way more complicated than it needed to be (eg. 7 tablespoons of milk - just put how many mLs would be so much easier).
Important tip – you must have the right size pot for what you are cooking.
Not having the ideal pudding container/bowl was my first mistake, which then led to my next mistake – not cooking the pudding enough on the stove before adding to the Wonderbag. Three hours later, and I took off the Wonderbag lid, to see my pudding hadn’t risen as much as it should in 3 hours.
Into the oven to finish off the pudding! Lucky I was home. And it worked out quite tasty. The recipe came from the recipe book supplied with the Wonderbag, and the recipe was way more complicated than it needed to be (eg. 7 tablespoons of milk - just put how many mLs would be so much easier).
Important tip – you must have the right size pot for what you are cooking.
That's our pudding bowl. Wrong bowl. And its ceramic. FAIL.
Next meal was Chilli Con Carne.
I used a recipe that I use all the time, for a simple chilli, not too spicy that the kids will actually eat. I cooked it in all up on the stove and when ready, placed it into the Wonderbag (using a saucepan with a glass lid). I wanted it to then slow cook for about 4 hours. Normally, I would have this meal over a very low heat on my stove, for about 2 hours to let the flavours develop.
It was actually 5 hours by the time we got to eat that night, and the food was hot! Success. I was actually surprised by how hot it was after that length of time. Due to another commitment, I had to go out before I could enjoy my dinner........so I served up the meal to others, brought the leftovers to a high heat, and back into the Wonderbag for another 90 minutes!
I got to enjoy my dinner, 6.5hours after it was first on the stove.
A big success!!!
I used a recipe that I use all the time, for a simple chilli, not too spicy that the kids will actually eat. I cooked it in all up on the stove and when ready, placed it into the Wonderbag (using a saucepan with a glass lid). I wanted it to then slow cook for about 4 hours. Normally, I would have this meal over a very low heat on my stove, for about 2 hours to let the flavours develop.
It was actually 5 hours by the time we got to eat that night, and the food was hot! Success. I was actually surprised by how hot it was after that length of time. Due to another commitment, I had to go out before I could enjoy my dinner........so I served up the meal to others, brought the leftovers to a high heat, and back into the Wonderbag for another 90 minutes!
I got to enjoy my dinner, 6.5hours after it was first on the stove.
A big success!!!
The successful second attempt - with the right bowl and lid!
But wait, it does more than cook!
You can keep food cold in it as well due to the insulation. Have it in the back of your car and put those items from the chiller section in the Wonderbag for the trip home or on the way to an event!
Wonderbag can be spot washed too, and put on the line to dry (or if your machine has a very gentle cycle on cold water, that apparently is good too). We haven’t had to wash our bag yet.
Wonderbag can be spot washed too, and put on the line to dry (or if your machine has a very gentle cycle on cold water, that apparently is good too). We haven’t had to wash our bag yet.
The Details - Size, cost, availability
The Wonderbag is not going to be able to fit in with the rest of my saucepans – it’s too nice to be stuffed away! But it is on the large size, so it may need to be stored away from our kitchen. I have read of others using it as a cushion!
COMPACT can take up to a 6 Litre pot
MEDIUM can take a 2L to a 10L pot
Cost
The cost varies depending on the size of the Wonderbag.
At time of writing, $85 for the compact 6L and $95 for the next size up.
Availability
Via thebillycanstore.com
COMPACT can take up to a 6 Litre pot
- Comfortably feed 2-6 people
- 38cmx38cmx20cm
- Weight 1.1kg
MEDIUM can take a 2L to a 10L pot
- Has the versatility to feed a family or a party approx 2-15 people
- 47cmx47cmx22cm
- Weight 1.4kg
Cost
The cost varies depending on the size of the Wonderbag.
At time of writing, $85 for the compact 6L and $95 for the next size up.
Availability
Via thebillycanstore.com
This item was gifted to Go Camping Australia for the purpose of this review - for further information on our unbiased reviews, please read our Disclosure Policy.