Cooking With A Solar Oven
By Bob Wells
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
When I first moved into my box van, I quickly realized that I had to
do my own cooking, or the cost of eating-out at restaurants would eat-
up the cost savings of living in the van. I quickly figured out how to an
oven: I love cornbread and chili, some frozen pizzas are cheap and
oven, none of those things are possible. One solution was a camping
oven that sits on top of the propane stove. I had a Coleman folding
camp oven but it took a lot of propane to operate it, it made the van
hot in the summer, and it was hard to regulate the temperature and
get foods cooked right. I had more failures than successes so I soon
gave it away and learned to live without an oven.
It is many years later and I still miss an oven. So a friend suggested
that I get a solar oven, and the light bulb went on, what a great idea!!
I spend my winters in the desert Southwest so I have an abundance of
sunshine making a solar oven the ideal solution for me. So I started
doing some research. The very best thing I did was join the Yahoo
solar cooking group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SolarCooking/).
If you have any interest in solar cooking, join this group now! There are
many people there who use many types of ovens and are very eager to
help newcomers get started with solar cooking. In their photo album,
there are hundreds of different photos of how people made their
different solar ovens. There are also many do-it-yourself plans on the
web for making your own oven. Some are very cheap and easy, others
are very elaborate and more difficult. (here is one of the best easy
plans: (http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/radabaugh30.html).
I also looked at commercially available ovens such as the SOS Sport
(click here: http://www.solarovens.org/) and the Global Sun Oven
(GSO or Sun Oven) (click here: https://www.sunoven.com/. I was very
impressed with both of them, but the video on the Global Sun Oven
site (sunoven.com) really sold me on it. While they are both very good
ovens and work extremely well, I strongly prefered the GSO. It's
large reflectors gather more heat from the sun, which allows the GSO
to attain a higher temperature than the Sport. In good sun the GSO
can get up to 400 degrees. Also, it's large, self-leveling food tray
allows it to be tilted at any angle which is especially important in the
winter when the sun is low on the horizon. For those reasons I decided
I wanted a GSO, but they are expensive so I had to put off buying one
till later when I could afford it. Well, the next week I was driving
along and saw a garage sale with a GSO set up in it. So I slammed on
my brakes and pulled over. It looked exactly like a GSO but it said
Burns Sun Oven on the side, which confused me, but, not enough to
keep me from buying it! He wanted $60 for it so without any hesitation
I bought it. Later I researched the name, and it turns out that a man
named Burns had started the company and the early models had his
name on them. That means my oven is 10-15 years old. Some of the
wood is drying, and there is a very small amount of rust on some of the
hardware, but it is 100% serviceable and it should last me another 15
years. And, it cooks great food!
Everything I had read on the web said that food actually tasted
better when cooked in a sun oven, but I thought that was just
overzealous hype. It's not! Food actually tastes better when cooked
by the sun! Maybe it is the slow, even heat from the sun, but whatever
the reason, it really is better. I took the oven to a gathering of
members of the vandwellers yahoo group, and we used the oven
almost every day to cook all kinds of food and everyone there went
away wanting a GSO. We all agreed that the food just tasted better.
We made a batch of brownies that was the best I had ever eaten
anywhere. It turns out that the solar oven is a very good mimmick of a
crock pot slow cooker. It makes great soups, rice dishes, stews, pot
roasts, and meat loaf. Anything you would make in a crock pot will turn
out great in a GSO. We also used it for breakfast, making eggs and
oatmeal with it.
Needless to say, I am in love with my GSO. Here's why:
Here are some tips on using a solar oven:
do my own cooking, or the cost of eating-out at restaurants would eat-
up the cost savings of living in the van. I quickly figured out how to an
oven: I love cornbread and chili, some frozen pizzas are cheap and
oven, none of those things are possible. One solution was a camping
oven that sits on top of the propane stove. I had a Coleman folding
camp oven but it took a lot of propane to operate it, it made the van
hot in the summer, and it was hard to regulate the temperature and
get foods cooked right. I had more failures than successes so I soon
gave it away and learned to live without an oven.
It is many years later and I still miss an oven. So a friend suggested
that I get a solar oven, and the light bulb went on, what a great idea!!
I spend my winters in the desert Southwest so I have an abundance of
sunshine making a solar oven the ideal solution for me. So I started
doing some research. The very best thing I did was join the Yahoo
solar cooking group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SolarCooking/).
If you have any interest in solar cooking, join this group now! There are
many people there who use many types of ovens and are very eager to
help newcomers get started with solar cooking. In their photo album,
there are hundreds of different photos of how people made their
different solar ovens. There are also many do-it-yourself plans on the
web for making your own oven. Some are very cheap and easy, others
are very elaborate and more difficult. (here is one of the best easy
plans: (http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/radabaugh30.html).
I also looked at commercially available ovens such as the SOS Sport
(click here: http://www.solarovens.org/) and the Global Sun Oven
(GSO or Sun Oven) (click here: https://www.sunoven.com/. I was very
impressed with both of them, but the video on the Global Sun Oven
site (sunoven.com) really sold me on it. While they are both very good
ovens and work extremely well, I strongly prefered the GSO. It's
large reflectors gather more heat from the sun, which allows the GSO
to attain a higher temperature than the Sport. In good sun the GSO
can get up to 400 degrees. Also, it's large, self-leveling food tray
allows it to be tilted at any angle which is especially important in the
winter when the sun is low on the horizon. For those reasons I decided
I wanted a GSO, but they are expensive so I had to put off buying one
till later when I could afford it. Well, the next week I was driving
along and saw a garage sale with a GSO set up in it. So I slammed on
my brakes and pulled over. It looked exactly like a GSO but it said
Burns Sun Oven on the side, which confused me, but, not enough to
keep me from buying it! He wanted $60 for it so without any hesitation
I bought it. Later I researched the name, and it turns out that a man
named Burns had started the company and the early models had his
name on them. That means my oven is 10-15 years old. Some of the
wood is drying, and there is a very small amount of rust on some of the
hardware, but it is 100% serviceable and it should last me another 15
years. And, it cooks great food!
Everything I had read on the web said that food actually tasted
better when cooked in a sun oven, but I thought that was just
overzealous hype. It's not! Food actually tastes better when cooked
by the sun! Maybe it is the slow, even heat from the sun, but whatever
the reason, it really is better. I took the oven to a gathering of
members of the vandwellers yahoo group, and we used the oven
almost every day to cook all kinds of food and everyone there went
away wanting a GSO. We all agreed that the food just tasted better.
We made a batch of brownies that was the best I had ever eaten
anywhere. It turns out that the solar oven is a very good mimmick of a
crock pot slow cooker. It makes great soups, rice dishes, stews, pot
roasts, and meat loaf. Anything you would make in a crock pot will turn
out great in a GSO. We also used it for breakfast, making eggs and
oatmeal with it.
Needless to say, I am in love with my GSO. Here's why:
- It cooks great food.
- It cooks for free and requires no maintanence, other than a quick
wipe down. - It doesn't make the inside of the camper hot when I use it.
- It's light at 19 pounds and fairly compact when folded down so it
fits in my tiny camper. - It has large reflectors and it is insulated so it to gets hot even in
the winter. - It's easily tiltable so it gets hotter in the winter, or cooler in the
summer. - It has safety glass so it won't break in the camper.
- It is extremely durable and should last for many decades to
come. - The outside does not get hot so it won't hurt animals or kids. The
inside does get very hot, so use oven-mits.
Here are some tips on using a solar oven:
- Set it up half an hour early and let it preheat.
- Use black (or very dark) colored pots that are thin metal.
Silicone also works fine. I have used Glad Simply Cooking
Ovenware that is plastic, and had very good luck with it. - Cast iron works fine, but because it is so thick, preheat the pan
before putting the food in it. - Turn the oven every half hour to keep it pointed at the sun. Look
at the shadows it throws and keep them aligned so they are even
on both sides and straight back from the oven. - Cooking times may vary from a conventional oven, so keep track
of the time food takes to cook so you can learn by trial and error.
I'm a bachelor and not much of a cook, and I have only had one
meal turn out poorly because I cooked it too long. Believe me, I
had many more failures using a conventional oven! It is a very
forgiving method of cooking. - If you are going to be gone all day, you can still use it as a slow
cooker. Point it due South in the morning and put your food in it.
It's temperature will steadily rise until mid-day when it will be
it's hottest, and then slowly cool off until evening when you get
home, when it will be the perfect temperature to serve it. - Wind is the enemy of a solar oven. It wants to blow the oven over
and even if it doesn't it blows heat away from the oven. In the
desert and at the beach, the wind blows small dust particles that
will damage ordinary reflectors. The GSO uses polished aluminum
reflectors, so they are nearly impervious to such damage.
| Biscuits cooking. They turned out great |
| The ultimate comfort food, fishsticks cooking. |
My first two pound meatloaf almost done.
I put it in the oven at 11:30 am and by
2:30 pm it hit 180 degrees and I called it
done. It was March 14, in Pahrump, NV.
The outside temperature was 73 degrees
hour was partly hazy. There was a light
breeze the whole time.
I put it in the oven at 11:30 am and by
2:30 pm it hit 180 degrees and I called it
done. It was March 14, in Pahrump, NV.
The outside temperature was 73 degrees
hour was partly hazy. There was a light
breeze the whole time.
The two pictures above show the ingenuis levelor tray that keeps your food
level no matter how it is tilted toward the sun. In the picture at the left
the oven is laying flat on its front side and even at this extreme angle your
food is still level. The picture on the right is with the oven flat on its bottom
so the levelor hangs striaght down. Your food is still level.
level no matter how it is tilted toward the sun. In the picture at the left
the oven is laying flat on its front side and even at this extreme angle your
food is still level. The picture on the right is with the oven flat on its bottom
so the levelor hangs striaght down. Your food is still level.
The levelor will keep our food level, and the leg
mounted on the back of the oven easily allows us
to raise and lower the angle of the oven to the
sun. In the winter when the sun is low on the
horizon. we want it tilted all the way for
maximum heat. In the hot summer we may not
want any tilt in order to lower the temperatures
in the oven.
mounted on the back of the oven easily allows us
to raise and lower the angle of the oven to the
sun. In the winter when the sun is low on the
horizon. we want it tilted all the way for
maximum heat. In the hot summer we may not
want any tilt in order to lower the temperatures
in the oven.
temperatures (up to 400 degrees). They are
storage. The picture on the left shows the
reflectors folded flat, the leg pulled in, and the
oven ready to travel.
storage. The picture on the left shows the
reflectors folded flat, the leg pulled in, and the
oven ready to travel.
