Summer cooking
 

One way to do a little to help the environment and your pocketbook as
well is to cook using solar. Solar ovens are easy to make, or you can
buy a really good one for about $220. A homemade one made from
cardboard and tinfoil works very well though, reaching temps of about
220F. A Global Sun Oven, one of the major brands easily reaches temps
of 350 F due to the tight construction, adjusting capabilities, and
materials.

Here's how you save money and help the environment. Solar heat is
free, and so is the solar oven essentially (if you make one).
Secondly, you generate the energy, not a power company which may be
burning coal. Also, you use less AC since your inside stove and oven
are not putting out heat causing your AC to work overtime. And you
thought global warming was a bad thing!

I keep my solar ovens in my garage, and it takes me almost no time to
set them up. If you can't adjust the ovens to face the sun every hour
or so, many foods can be cooked just fine by pointing the oven toward
where the midday sun will be. I do this with most of my foods like
steel cut oats, lentils, rice, baked potatoes. For dry beans, which
might take 3-4 hours to cook thoroughly, I do need to adjust the face
of the oven a couple of times. This time of year, in Southcentral
Texas, we have cooking capabilities on most days from 9am till 7pm.

Food does not burn in solar ovens, at least not easily, and it stays
warm a really long time, at least in the Sun Oven, because the box is
insulated and with the hot food inside, it will stay warm for at least
2 hours after sundown.

Give it a try. You can cook meat as well, just not frying, but a roast
and stews work really well, I think. You probalby need a Sun Oven or
you can make a box oven type because with meat you probably should
preheat the inside so the meat doesn't take too long to get to a temp
that kills bacteria. You can't preheat the homemade Cookit (plans
available on the internet) and other types that don't use black boxes
to retain heat, but rather use plastic turkey bags and black cookware.
That type works well for most things other than meat and dry beans
though. In the case of dry beans, esp. kidney beans, they contain a
toxin that requires boiling for 10 min. to kill, and many homemade
ovens may not get the beans to boiling. Some slow cookers also don't
get to 212 F. Here, if I didn't own an oven that gets really hot, I
might just boil the beans for 10 min. on the stove, with just a small
amount of water so it would go fast, then continue with solar. dkw