From a Pan of Indonesian Chicken Curry for Indonesia Sustainable Energy

Oleh : Nurdin Hasananto*

Regulations about energy have been creating few forms of protest-action from different layers of the society. This is mainly because, to some extent, it gives a lucrative position and “enjoyment” for the oligarchy side only. At the same time, the depletion of energy resources also needs extra attention and determination to sustain the concept of sustainability of energy.  While waiting for the ramification of our protest, we can indeed give our contribution for this precious country. The university students are well-known for a string of protest, but how about the others? Do they have flexibility to contribute for Indonesia? Do they even know how to give contribution?

In the next few days, we are exciting to countdown on the special day for Muslim. Yes, it is Eid al-Fitr or lebaran. In that day, the majority Muslim in Indonesia will have a special moment by gathering with their friends and relatives as well as serving their signature dishes such as Indonesian chicken curry, ketupat sayur and sambal goreng. Do Eid Al-Fitr and Indonesia sustainable energy have a connection? Yes, they have and a strong connection indeed. Approaching this festival, every house member will lend their hand for their mother, their wives to cook Indonesian chicken curry using different kind of fuels, ranging from wood chips, natural gas or even LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas). This one massive cooking agenda inevitably needs extraordinary amount of fuel. Now, we move into the interesting part where even a mother or a wife has a big chance to do their parts of contribution for energy sustainability.

In the middle of cooking process, after the preparation of raw materials is already finished, a mother will choose what kind of pan *she wants to use. Surprisingly, this step might alter the whole energy consumption. A mother who has cooked Indonesian chicken curry with pressure cooker or panci presto to give right level of tenderness for the chicken will save the fuel consumption and duration compared to the conventional way. This is because, pressure cooker is considered as one of the HPP (High Pressure Processing) application which is independent of duration or mass[1]. In the other side, the conventional cooker is dependent on duration or mass. The longer duration, the higher amount of energy is needed. Therefore, after benchmarking those options, using the pressure cooker is more preferable in terms of fuel consumption.

Now let’s move into the next approach. It is maybe common cultural phenomenon to cook plenty of opor chicken portion since the whole family will eat it three times per day with side dishes such as sambal goreng or ketupat. The big portion of the Indonesian chicken curry and the reheating process are two things that connect to one another. Type of heater device that someone use might affect the fuel consumption. A wife who has reheated the Indonesian chicken curry with microwave might save more energy consumption compared to conventional cooking since the heat losses from convection, conduction and radiation are likely more happened in the traditional cooking rather than microwave cooking[2]. So, this alternative way might increase the electric consumption however in the overall energy calculation, this might be the cheaper choice.

Let’s move into the third approach. For some cases, there might be some families who want to cook the chicken as a whole piece and some others chopped chicken. Neglecting about individual preference, and judging from energy point of view, the chopped chicken has more surface area compared to a whole piece chicken. Based on the heat transfer theory, surface area is directly proportional to the heat transfer which means that a wider object has the higher final temperature since the rate of heat transfer rise. In this part, a whole chicken is slower for reaching desired temperature compared to chopped chicken. Therefore, it is preferable to pre-chopped the chicken for the energy saving purpose.

Based on the three mentioned approaches, it is desirable to see which applicable method, not only for a single household, but also for the collective level of society or even cities. If a house be able to cut their fuel consumption as much as 10% will have impact. How about 100 households, or even  264 million people of Indonesia in their own kitchen in Eid al-Fitr implementing this simple alternatives, it could save many metric cubic of gases or tones of woodchip for the future generation. This kind of approach means that either a wife or a mother in their deep willingness has their own ways to contribute in Indonesia energy sustainability. Continuing this concept not only for Eid al-Fitr and Indonesian chicken curry, but also for the future will be a game-changing for sustainability energy in Indonesia.

References

[1]      M. Srinivas, B. Madhu, S. Girijal, and S. Jain, “High Pressure Processing of Foods: A Review,” no. November, pp. 467–476, 2018.

[2]      C. Jouquand et al., “Optimization of microwave cooking of beef burgundy in terms of nutritional and organoleptic properties,” LWT – Food Sci. Technol., vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 271–276, 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.lwt.2014.07.038.

*) Nurdin Hasananto Teguh, Mechanical Engineering
Brawijaya University