Amid rising inflation in the U.S., NPR has reported on an old-fashioned, unexpectedly economical cooking method from Italy that is still used today. In Tuscany, a woman named Gloria Lucchesi discovered her grandmother's instructions for building a "cooking box," a tool used by Italians throughout lean times during WWII.

Cooking boxes are often nothing but a wooden box lined with straw, a deceptively simple setup that has fantastic insulating abilities. To use the box, one simply heats a pot with ingredients on a stove, then places it inside the box, which will retain the heat for hours, letting the stew cook further without using any gas or electric energy.

A cooking box saves you money on bills and frees up time spent standing over the stove. Lucchesi has modified her grandmother's cooking boxes to use wool instead of straw, and has launched a nonprofit cooperative, Filo & Fibra, that offers cooking boxes — but you can also make your own using many guides found online.