Solar Cooking Tips
29/04/09 11:17 Filed in: solar cooking | tips
Using a Solar Cooker for your cooking can be great. There are many, many benefits and it is also very rewarding.
There is a number of ways to ensure the best results for a variety of different foods / cooking techniques - a few common ones are listed below.
Cooking -
General cooking is normally best in a covered pot. Anything from dhal (lentils), rice, potatoes and much more can be cooked in this way. If using a Solar Oven there is generally no need to stir as there is no hot spots & hence burning is reduced.
We even use a roasting pot to cook pizza in the sun oven!
Simmering / Boiling / Steaming-
Steaming vegetables is a great way to cook, or maybe you would like to boil / simmer a dish. If you use a parabolic cooker you will normally need to stir occasionally (depending on the temperature) but the temperature will remain constant.
In a solar oven the top lid may get cloudy from steam. This will lower the temperature and increase cooking time.
If you let the lid sit open by about 2-5mm this should clear the steam while you cook if the design of the oven is good. We found that the Global Sun Oven® has provision for this with the latch that holds the lid down. The glass stays clear & the temperature stays high!
Baking-
Baking is not possible in a panel cooker & would require a heavy sealed pot in a parabolic cooker. In a solar oven that gets hot enough baking should be fairly easy. Of course you need to be quick in opening & closing the lid. If you find the temperature drops too quickly when you open the lid — try using a heat pad. A heat pad is a ceramic pad that is normally used for keeping served food hot. Just put the heat pad in the solar oven and the sun will heat it up — once the oven is at full temperature put in your bread. For best results we have found that rising the bread first & allowing the oven to reach full temperature is best. It is possible to rise the bread in the oven but then the temperature to bake may take a while to reach.
Roasting-
Roasting can be done either covered or un-covered depending on your taste. We generally do the cooking in a pot with lid, then take the lid off at the end to crisp up the top. This gives juicy, tender succulent meat with the crispy top. YUM!
Drying-
Drying can be done in a panel cooker or a solar oven. Some even use specially designed solar dryers. We use a Sun Oven and have a few trays on top of each other.
Temperature is key in drying. You want the oven hot enough to dry the food but not too hot to cook it.
Fruit Leathers and Sun-Dried Tomatoes work amazingly well — and save you a LOT of electricity from the electric dryers (which also don’t work as well).
In a solar oven you can either have the lid open (wedge something underneath) about 1 - 5 cm or open the lid fully. Either way you will need to cover with a clear mesh to stop flies / pests entering. We found the best results with a Global Sun Oven with the lid fully open and a fly mesh cover fitted snugly over the top. This gave great air-flow and the perfect temperature (up to 70ºC).
Adjust your solar cooker to get the desired temperature with the lid open and fly cover installed and adjust throughout the day. Fruit Leathers can take up to 12 hours depending on the thickness and sun-dried tomatoes depend on the size that you cut them into.
Panel cookers may have trouble keeping the food hot enough when a fly cover is installed so may take a lot longer. The air flow is good though
There is a number of ways to ensure the best results for a variety of different foods / cooking techniques - a few common ones are listed below.
Cooking -
General cooking is normally best in a covered pot. Anything from dhal (lentils), rice, potatoes and much more can be cooked in this way. If using a Solar Oven there is generally no need to stir as there is no hot spots & hence burning is reduced.
We even use a roasting pot to cook pizza in the sun oven!
Simmering / Boiling / Steaming-
Steaming vegetables is a great way to cook, or maybe you would like to boil / simmer a dish. If you use a parabolic cooker you will normally need to stir occasionally (depending on the temperature) but the temperature will remain constant.
In a solar oven the top lid may get cloudy from steam. This will lower the temperature and increase cooking time.
If you let the lid sit open by about 2-5mm this should clear the steam while you cook if the design of the oven is good. We found that the Global Sun Oven® has provision for this with the latch that holds the lid down. The glass stays clear & the temperature stays high!
Baking-
Baking is not possible in a panel cooker & would require a heavy sealed pot in a parabolic cooker. In a solar oven that gets hot enough baking should be fairly easy. Of course you need to be quick in opening & closing the lid. If you find the temperature drops too quickly when you open the lid — try using a heat pad. A heat pad is a ceramic pad that is normally used for keeping served food hot. Just put the heat pad in the solar oven and the sun will heat it up — once the oven is at full temperature put in your bread. For best results we have found that rising the bread first & allowing the oven to reach full temperature is best. It is possible to rise the bread in the oven but then the temperature to bake may take a while to reach.
Roasting-
Roasting can be done either covered or un-covered depending on your taste. We generally do the cooking in a pot with lid, then take the lid off at the end to crisp up the top. This gives juicy, tender succulent meat with the crispy top. YUM!
Drying-
Drying can be done in a panel cooker or a solar oven. Some even use specially designed solar dryers. We use a Sun Oven and have a few trays on top of each other.
Temperature is key in drying. You want the oven hot enough to dry the food but not too hot to cook it.
Fruit Leathers and Sun-Dried Tomatoes work amazingly well — and save you a LOT of electricity from the electric dryers (which also don’t work as well).
In a solar oven you can either have the lid open (wedge something underneath) about 1 - 5 cm or open the lid fully. Either way you will need to cover with a clear mesh to stop flies / pests entering. We found the best results with a Global Sun Oven with the lid fully open and a fly mesh cover fitted snugly over the top. This gave great air-flow and the perfect temperature (up to 70ºC).
Adjust your solar cooker to get the desired temperature with the lid open and fly cover installed and adjust throughout the day. Fruit Leathers can take up to 12 hours depending on the thickness and sun-dried tomatoes depend on the size that you cut them into.
Panel cookers may have trouble keeping the food hot enough when a fly cover is installed so may take a lot longer. The air flow is good though
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