Solar oven/ cooking

[JiminDenver]

I found a solar oven on craigslist for $50 and it was complete except for the cook book. Anyone here use one?

I read a review that said it was slow to heat but even though it's below freezing outside it took only 15 minutes to hit 315f and that's hotter than I'd want to cook my ribs at.

[letscamp12]

That sounds like a great deal on the solar oven! Many people do use them and find them handy, especially for low-energy cooking. While they can be slower to heat than traditional ovens, it’s impressive that it reached 315°F so quickly, even in freezing temps. Just keep an eye on the temperature if you’re cooking something sensitive like ribs. It might be fun to experiment with it—just make sure to have a good thermometer on hand to monitor the heat.

[MNtundraRet]

Have you tried to get the cookbook from the manufacturer?

[JiminDenver]

So today we had sun so I put a rack of ribs and a few taters in the oven at 9:45 in the morning and left them in there until we lost the sun to the shadows at 4 pm. They looked burnt and I was worried they were dried out but I shouldn't have. They were as moist and dissolve in your mouth tender as i could have hoped for.

[JiminDenver]

well I decided to give the Sport a try today. It's partially cloudy and I had to use the reflectors to get it to maintain 200-250F so I didn't want to put anything expensive in there in case the clouds got worse. I found a box of Jiffy cornbread mix and made muffins instead. I left them in for a few hours and they pricked cleanly with a skewer. I think I could have taken them out sooner but that's the nice thing about the lower temp oven is that it wont burn things if you go a bit long.

[JiminDenver]

Roy

The basis design is simple and there are a number of ways to do it. I had intended on making one but finding one new so inexpensively was too good to pass up.

the difference between a solar oven and a solar cooker is that the oven is black inside to absorb the heat. A cooker reflects the light onto a black vessel that cooks the food inside. I took the oven out for a second test at 3 pm and after a half hour it was holding 225 without the reflectors. I didn't remove the lid when I brought it in and a half hour later it is still 125F inside.

The difference between the magnifying glass concept and the dish is the dish focuses the light from below like a stove would.

Here is a page of plans for solar cookers. I used a wash basin and black pot to heat water in the tenting days, it was nice washing up or doing dishes with hot water.

plans

[RoyB]

Jim

I really had not put much thought in using something like this to cook with. Sounds like something we guys that camp off the grid should look into...

I imagine you will be tracking the right sun angle for maximum heat. Probably be cooking with thermo-gun meter handy haha... I would think you would have too much heat....

I got an old SAT DISH here I line the inside with foil and it works great melting snow on my side walk haha...

Seems like you could make a pretty solar stove good rather easy...



I know all of us carry a small magnifying glass to be able to start a fire when we need one. Got a compass with a mirror lid just for doing that haha...

Roy Ken

[MM73]

I recently made a solar oven similar to this for my wife and I. It works really well. And we documented the build process for anyone wanting to do the same:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZpkHj2rEMI