Cooking with the Sun
A pot of garbanzo beans fresh from the solar oven
Solar cooking (harnessing the heat of the sun to cook food in a solar or sun oven) is a triple treat for me because it enables me to conserve energy, enjoy the outdoors more and cook delicious food all at once! If you haven’t yet tried solar cooking (or have never even heard of it) read on for tips on why and how to get started.
Aside from the obvious benefits; saving energy and therefore money, solar cooking has many other added incentives. It enables you to:
1) save time by letting food cook while you do something else
2) cook and pasteurize water wherever you are (on the beach, at the park, camping)
3) cook with less water and fat since the sun cooking method draws out the natural liquids (and flavors!) of foods,
4) feel empowered and keep cooking should you have brownouts or blackouts
5) be kinder to the environment, and
6) have fun in the sun!
My sun oven collecting rays
Perhaps the easiest way to get started is to purchase a solar oven from a sun oven manufacturer. Some of the most well known manufacturers and sun oven proponents are The Solar Oven Society and Solar Cookers International. They offer different models, all very affordable, and they use some of their profits in humanitarian efforts bringing solar cooking to developing countries where need is great. Without the need to cook over a fire, women are freed up from traveling miles to gather firewood and they no longer suffer from respiratory issues related to cooking over a fire in closed in spaces such as huts of caves. 126 countries and counting have benefited.
If you’re excited about trying solar cooking, but don’t want to purchase a ready made oven there are ways to make them out of simple supplies that you may be able to find around your house such as cardboard, tin foil, glue and document clips. A thorough discussion on various sun ovens that can be built at home, along with diagrams and instructions can be found in the book Cooking with Sunshine which is also a rich source of recipes.
Speaking of recipes, the ones that you can make in a sun oven include recipes for meat dishes (yep, with practice omnivores can make everything from a quick fish fillet to a slow cooked pulled pork), breads, cakes, cookies and all sorts of vegetable and grain dishes. Virtually anything you can imagine cooking in your oven and many things you cook on your stove top (rice pilaf, sauteed green beans, thai curry) can be cooked in a sun oven.
That being said, my suggestion once you’ve made or purchased an oven, is to start with a simple pot of beans. Beans are a long, slow cooking food and as such lend themselves well to solar cooking, particularly if you want to cook for several hours without checking up on them. Try following these tips and you’ll be amazed at the outcome.
1) Soak your chosen bean (garbanzo, black, pinto, navy) overnight in cold water.
A thermometer in your sun oven is crucial
2) In the morning set your sun oven out to preheat (facing directly into the sun).
3) Meanwhile, rinse the beans with cold water and add them to a preferably black enamel or clear glass pot (white and metal reflect heat away).
4) Add enough water so that there’s about an inch of water over the top. If you’d like, add some sea salt and a digestion enhancer such as a piece kombu, a bay leaf, or cumin.
5) When your sun oven has reached 150 degrees, place your pot of beans into the preheated sun oven to cook . Let cook for several hours and, if
possible, go out every half hour to an hour to rotate your oven to face the moving sun, thereby helping your beans to cooking faster and more efficiently. If you are not going to be home for several hours, position your oven at the best possible angle for catching the most sun, particularly at zenith. (You just want to ensure that your beans stay at 150 degrees or above until you are able to remove them).
6) Remove your pot of beans when it appears done, which is usually accomplished in about 2-3 hours in a commercial sun oven, and more like 4-5 in a home built sun oven.
7) Guestimate, have fun, and enjoy cooking with sunshine!
I used to have a miniature version I bought in the 70s from Edmund Scientific
It was only good to warm coffee or soup, but it was cool. And you know me, I obviously also had the solar cigarette lighter.
Here’s an idea, indirectly courtesy of Gerry Scappaticci: You might start a little side-line there (or partner with someone) offering a solar tracker mount for themz that use their cooker at home. You’d just need someone to fabricate the parts for an equatorial mount, and throw on a $35 Celestron motor mount, powered by a solar cell, of course! It could be a simple frame design with a single screw gear. You could probably produce a plug in version for around $55~$65 in materials, make it easy to assemble, and sell it for easily double that plus shipping and handling. Add the cost of a 12V solar cell for the full-on solar one.
Just an idea…