I had the "Simple Portable Light Weight Solar Cooker" ($19.95) for a couple of years and liked it a lot. I used it as a pattern to make a couple more carboard ones... so that I could have 3 pots going at once. But my mil thought they were packing material and threw them away when we moved.
I've been looking at them for a while, and during the last heat wave... I splurged and bought the "Solar Hybrid Electric Oven". (The heat must have gotten to me. )
I've been using it for 4 days and LOVE it! I wish that it was a little deeper... Since my favorite pot that I used to use with the foam solar cooker is a teeny bit too tall with the lid on. But it is WAY easy to use. And unlike the foam "oven"... I can put rectangle casserole (lasagna type) pans in there.
Thus far have made baked potatoes, brown rice, garbanzo beans and a lasagna in there.
It cooks more like at crock pot or slow cooker than an oven... but it is slightly hotter (at least this time of year) and, unlike a crock pot, every hour or two you have to rotate it to follow the sun. But anything that you can make in a slow cooker... you can make in the solar cooker.
I haven't had to use the electricity yet... It was 310 degrees in the oven with just the sun and no electricity.
The rice and the lasagna probably would have been done after 2 hours... and I let them go 3 hours and may have over cooked them a little... and the rice got kind of mushy but wasn't burned.
Originally posted by GoingSkiing: PS... if I had to do it over again... I think that I'd buy the Sport Oven with reflectors, however, they are on back order... (although I cooked MANY meals for two years or so, in the one labled "Sun Toy")
And I've been really happy with the one that I bought... Although I haven't needed the electric part of the oven at all.
* I've made chicken breasts in it. (40 mins to cook 3 boneless/skinless)
* I heated water for pasta. I thought that the stove would be better for actually cooking the pasta... but I got the water to boiling in the solar oven and then brought it inside and cooked on the stove... so that the stove was only on for 10 mins... verses about 22-25 mins to get the water up to boiling and then cook the pasta.
* beans... I didn't even soak them first. (2 hours for 3.5 cups of beans (3.5 c. after cooking).
* baked potatoes
* lasagna
* defrosting and reheating some frozen lasagna
* peach pie (this could be better, could be worse) I cooked it in the solar oven... and then browned it in the regular oven under the broiler. If I do say so myself, I make some awsome pie crust... and the solar oven made an ordinary, not awsome pie and crust. And it wasn't even a terrible pie. Just tasted like it was made by somebody who overworked the dough some.
It worked GREAT for the pie filling... so I may figure out some way of making the crust in the conventional oven and the filling in the solar oven.
The only thing I've cooked inside since buying it is the 10 mins of pasta boiling... and putting my pie crust under the broiler and having the oven on for 5 mins.
Wow! Sounds great Denise! Don and I have talked about getting a solar oven, but our backyard is pretty shady, and I'd be afraid of it being stolen from the front yard (we live on a corner of a relatively busy street), so we aren't sure how well it would work in our yard. But I think we are going to have to check into it further.
I HAVE been using my crockpots more this past couple of weeks, and cooked everything outside (on the grill and the extra burner on the grill) or in my crockpot last week because we were in the high 100s-mid 110s.
Blessings,
Lori
Re-committing myself to a healthy lifestyle that will include regular (and increasing) exercise, and following the baby steps rule on food. 6/17/08
Posts: 3125 | Location: California | Registered: March 11, 2004
PS... if I had to do it over again... I think that I'd buy the Sport Oven with reflectors, however, they are on back order... (although I cooked MANY meals for two years or so, in the one labled "Sun Toy")
And I've been really happy with the one that I bought... Although I haven't needed the electric part of the oven at all.
* I've made chicken breasts in it. (40 mins to cook 3 boneless/skinless)
* I heated water for pasta. I thought that the stove would be better for actually cooking the pasta... but I got the water to boiling in the solar oven and then brought it inside and cooked on the stove... so that the stove was only on for 10 mins... verses about 22-25 mins to get the water up to boiling and then cook the pasta.
* beans... I didn't even soak them first. (2 hours for 3.5 cups of beans (3.5 c. after cooking).
* baked potatoes
* lasagna
* defrosting and reheating some frozen lasagna
* peach pie (this could be better, could be worse) I cooked it in the solar oven... and then browned it in the regular oven under the broiler. If I do say so myself, I make some awsome pie crust... and the solar oven made an ordinary, not awsome pie and crust. And it wasn't even a terrible pie. Just tasted like it was made by somebody who overworked the dough some.
It worked GREAT for the pie filling... so I may figure out some way of making the crust in the conventional oven and the filling in the solar oven.
The only thing I've cooked inside since buying it is the 10 mins of pasta boiling... and putting my pie crust under the broiler and having the oven on for 5 mins.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: GoingSkiing,
Dang! Am I the only person who has never heard of these? Thanks for the info and I'll be looking into all this (especially with the hot temps and clear skies...because of very little rain lately....around here! )
I love stuff like this!! Something like that would be great for our cabin as well even though we do have a gas stove/oven up there.
You guys always some up with some of the neatest things!!
But he built a really NICE one that is well insulated. I’m not sure if one of the flimsy ones with no insulation would work as well… might bring the water/food to lukewarm or something. But I suppose a person could always build one for $2 out of a roasting pan and tinfoil and see… and worst case… you’d have to take it apart… and you’d still have the roasting pan and poster board.
I used the cheapo cardboard ones in winter… and my experience is that everything just takes longer. I thought that it was the angle of the sun… but MAYBE it was the outside temp. (Actually, I don’t know if it ever occurred to me that it might be because I was cooking and it was 40 degrees instead of 80 or 90 or 100 degrees outside and the air temp was bringing down the temp of the pot.) If you can make 2 quarts of brown rice in summer in 2 hours… in the winter… It might take 5 hours. And that is why I broke down and got the hybrid electric one… because it is a bummer to have the sun go down and your rice needs just 15 more minutes… or in the winter… you just don’t have the hours of day light… so if you lose an hour or two to clouds it is a bummer.
To me, the biggest downside of the homemade cardboard ones is the wind… since it is a bummer to see your dinner rolling across the back yard inside of a big giant tin foil and cardboard tumble weed.
The 2nd biggest downside to the cardboard ones is that you put the pot in a big turkey cooking bag… and dealing with the bag every time you want to check the food gets old… and it is REALLY nice to lift up the lid of the nice new oven and check the food… and not deal with a wet turkey bag filled with condensation a few times a day.
Tied for 2nd biggest downside: It can look pretty funky to have your backyard filled with tinfoil wrapped cardboard contraptions … Sort of like some trail park trash imbecile tried to build hisself a satellite dish hoping for more TV channels.
Or maybe like you are trying to have an encounter of the third kind and attempting to make contact with beings from an another universe or demention. If you REALLY want to freak out your neighbors… you need to make a tin foil pointy hat and put that on when you go out to turn the oven to point it towards the sun.
Distant 3rd biggest downside… The dog never learned to open a real oven door, but he got a couple of solar oven meals. It was too hot for him to eat (at least initially) but he did mess it up good enough so that we didn’t want it.
quote:
Originally posted by D in St Pete: Is it that they assume humidity = overcast?
Hmmmmm... maybe... I just read humidity... but maybe they are confusing humidity and overcast.
Can you see your shadow? Can you predict if there will be 3 more months of summer?
It sounded really interesting! And then the thing about humidity made me sad.
Is it that they assume humidity = overcast? Because right now, it's sunny, 88 (feels like 93), with 55% humidity (surprisingly low!). It will be VERY sunny and VERY hot with 60%+ humidity on a lot of summer days; in fall/winter, we can have sun, decently cool (60s-70s), and still high humidity.
(And I'm more than a little moved they're sending some over to Sudan, because the Darfuri women face their biggest danger every day walking miles from the refugee camps to gather wood for cooking fires. Plus, it's depleting Sudan's largest--and only, I think--forest at an unimaginable rate.)
Challenge Goals: *10 minutes of unplanned exercise five times a week *Gym time twice a week *Socialize at least once every two weeks.
Originally posted by BrenauMom: If it is just the lid that is in the way, have you tried covering it with tin foil instead of the lid? That might allow it to go in the oven.
Foil on the food isn't that good because it would reflect the sun... rather then absorbing it. Either black or clear is better. Sort of like "Sun Tea". You want to make sun tea in a clear jar... not a jar wrapped in tin foil.
The lid worked fine if I put in on upside down... with the handle sitting IN the rice.
Or yesterday, I stuck a black cookie sheet on top of the lasagna pan... and that worked great. (Nelson said that you would never know that it was made in solar oven. Nelson and I both liked it a lot. Jamie didn't like it, because it was Greek Lasagna made with feta and eggplant and lamb and other "weird" ingredients. Nelson doesn't like eggplant... but liked this.)
I thought this was a cheap and easy oven to make...
My sister used to work for a company that did vitamins and supplements and stuff... and they would ship stuff to Mexico... and the shipping box WAS a solar oven. So after the supplies were taken out of the box... the box could be used for cooking.
* * * * * Also... one hint... I'm not sure if it works that well on humid days. It needs to be SUNNY... not just a hot day. So a hot, humid kind of overcast day... wouldn't be such a good day to cook in one.
I remember hearing about those years ago but had forgotten about them. I am sure they have been much improved since I first saw them.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by GoingSkiing: [...]Since my favorite pot that I used to use with the foam solar cooker is a teeny bit too tall with the lid on.[...][QUOTE]
If it is just the lid that is in the way, have you tried covering it with tin foil instead of the lid? That might allow it to go in the oven.
1. do 4 laps on walking track without "resting" 2. do 1 mile (17laps) in 20 minutes (3miles per hour)
Posts: 3907 | Location: NE Atlanta (Chamblee, Doraville, Norcross, Duluth) | Registered: March 15, 2004
You know, I never knew there was such a thing and now I'm intrigued. I found this article about the use of solar ovens and how great they are for the environment.
Thanks for the info!
Jill
Summer Challenge Goals: 1) Walk 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week 2) Plan weekly menus
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