Solar cooking

The trailer is powered by 750w of solar, and we use some of that power to run a hot plate, but that isn't what this post is about. We use two solar box ovens for some of our cooking. The first one is a Global sun oven, the second is a SOS sport oven.

This is called passive solar. The insides of the insulated boxes are black metal that heats up when the sun strikes it. The chambers are sealed to keep the heat in, this in turn keeps the moisture in so foods don't dry out. Being insulated and sealed means that once heated up that a cloud can pass over and the temperature will hold for quite a while.

Both of these oven can get up to 300 f with good sun. You can leave food in there all day and it wont dry out BUT you certainly can over cook it. Chicken and pork can loose their texture and become something of a paste after a while. There are other solar ovens and cookers that get even hotter depending on what and how you want to cook.

About the only thing I can not cook in these on a good day are fried goods. They simply don't get hot enough to fry. I would need a parabolic or lens cooker for that and these are bad enough to store now.

Other than that, most any recipe can be converted to solar. The average temperature of 250 f automatically lends itself to low and slow roasting or like a crock pot. Baked goods like bread take longer, cakes are oh so moist.

It will be another post but I'll mention the cookware used. It is the black enamel-ware that is sold in many camping cooking kits, some of ours was purchased decades ago when we used the tent. The black surface absorbs the light and converts it to heat that cooks the food. The only exception is cakes where the hot pan dries out the edges before the center of the cake is done.

So between the two ovens and a nice sunny day we can cook for a small army starting with fresh bread in the morning. We can get up to four pots going at once so multi dish meals are easy.

So why two different cookers to get use to instead of one. It's the differences that make them work so well together. The SOS can take two pots side by side, the Global can take deeper pots. The global has a hanging shelf that keeps the food level as you tilt it to follow the sun, The Sos has a winter position that can take advantage of the lowest sun. I don't see it as one being better as much as I think they compliment each other.

When we can use the ovens it saves propane and keeps the interior of the trailer or house from getting heated up. They will also heat a pot of water to boiling if you leave it in there long enough. That hot water gets used for coffee, washing dishes, shaving and getting cleaned up. We only turn on the six gallon hot water heater for showers.

Here soon I'll post some recipes and discuss the differences in these two ovens as well as other solar cookers available. Want to know how your favorite recipes would fare? Let me know and I'll explain how to convert it and may even try it myself.

Thanks for looking

Jim