More on the Solar Oven

Because so many of you expressed interest in my solar oven I will share with you my experiences with it so far.

Experience 1: Pot Roast.

I broke open my solar oven box around 1:00pm and read the accompanying material to discover that I was already about four hours behind. Optimal baking time for a big piece of meat is around 6-8 hours and the brightest sunlight is before noon. But the makers of my solar oven are in Michigan and I figured that they had underestimated the strength of the Phoenix sun, so I went ahead and got everything set up. I put the meat and some of the veggies in one pot and the rest of the seasoned veggies in the other pot. The oven came with optional heat reflectors that you can use on less sunny days or to speed up your cooking, so I figured if I used those I'd be good to go.

I checked the roast several times during the afternoon but the oven temperature never got higher than 180. Around 5pm I brought the pots inside to check for doneness and found the meat and vegetables only about halfway cooked. I was disappointed and went online to the company's website to see if I had done something wrong. What I discovered is that I had not peeled off the white protective film from the clear plastic lid. Duh! It's no wonder the oven hadn't be able to get very hot. The white film was reflecting the sun instead of allowing it in to cook the food!

Anyway, although it was still light enough to get another good hour of cooking from the sun I just decided to finish cooking the roast in my regular oven. But since it wouldn't be done for a while we ordered pizza. We reheated the pot roast the next night for dinner.

I know some of you are now very worried about the safety of the food. I too checked up on this. #1) Inside the dark pots where the food is, is actually hotter than the spot where the oven thermometer is. #2) Cooking begins to happen at 180 degrees, so as long as the oven is at least that hot, it is too hot for bacteria to grow. #3) I wasn't going to be eating the roast anyway, just Spouse and the kids, what did I care?

I'm just kidding about #3. Except for the part about not me eating the roast.

Here is a picture of what my solar oven looks like (except my pot lids are black):

But this is what mine looked like all afternoon, not getting hot because of that darn white film reflecting the sun! It's so reflective you can't even see the oven in the picture!


Experience 2: baked potatoes

Now that I had the kinks worked out I really wanted to see this baby exercise it's full potential. What could be safer than baked potatoes? Sunday morning I washed and wrapped the potatoes in tin foil and place them out in the oven. After a few minutes Spouse went outside to see the oven in action for the first time and made the obvious observation that perhaps I should not have wrapped the potatoes in tin foil (reflective! hello!? what is my problem?!?). Placed in the black pots, that's the best way to bake a potato in a solar oven. Apparently the black pots are a pretty integral part of solar oven cooking.

Problem corrected, the potatoes began baking around 10:30 with the oven at about 250 degrees. Before we left for church I turned the oven to face southwest to catch the sun as the afternoon passed. As soon as we got home from church, around 4:30 (ugh! I know) I went out to check the potatoes and was frustrated to see the oven in the shade! I hadn't thought that one through. But fortunately the oven was still piping hot and most of the potatoes were cooked perfectly. These were huge, 1 lbs baking potatoes and the ones at the bottom of the pots were not as done as the potatoes near the top.

Next time I will take into consideration the actual placement of the oven to be sure it doesn't get shaded as the sun moves. And when I do potatoes again I will try to get them in the oven earlier, maybe around 9:30, and I will want to rotate the potatoes halfway through, so they can cook more evenly.


Overall I think my experiences have been positive. Nothing exploded, no one died from food poisoning. Next up? Chocolate cake.

{I hereby do solemnly swear that this blog will not turn into a Pioneer Baking or a Mother Survivalists blog. Soon, I'll be back to my regular programming. Star wars jokes, and embarrassing moments. Be sure to check back on Earth Day. It's going to be good.}