Cooking smart: Your recipe for energy savings

Cooking Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends doesn’t have to gobble up a lot of energy. Farmers RECC offers these simple tips for trimming your electricity use while preparing your meal.

• Do a little cleaning before the big day. A clean oven and stovetop cooks more efficiently.
• Match your pots to stovetop spaces. Use the right size pot on the stovetop space; using a small pan on a large burner wastes energy.
• Cover up. Using tight-fitting lids on pots and pans traps heat, allowing for lower temperature settings and quicker cooking times.
• Cook with glass or ceramic dishes. They retain heat better than metal pans, so you can reduce the oven temperature by 25°F.
• Don’t peek. The temperature drops by as much as 25°F each time the oven door is opened. Turn on the oven light and look through the window to check on your food.
• Gobble up oven space. Minimize the time your oven operates by cooking several dishes at once.
• Use time and energy savers. Slow cookers and pressure cookers prepare food in less time and use less energy. Microwave ovens use half the energy of conventional ovens.
• Load up the dishwasher. Dishwashers use half of the energy it takes to hand wash dishes.