I've waited 20 years to have a nice solar oven! Tried building one when my girls were little, but either we didn't do it right, or the sky wasn't sunny enough for long enough when we tried to use it. In recent years I built a solar reflector that I used with some success. The pot went into an oven cooking bag to hold the moisture & heat in.
Right after arriving in Texas, we ordered a nice solar oven http://www.solarovens.org/, and 2 months later, the sky is finally clear enough to use it! Yesterday I made Hard Cooked Eggs (for egg salad) and cooked turnips - nicely done! Today (4/5/12) was the real challenge. I made a Molasses Rye/wheat yeast bread complete with 2 risings. It was done before noon! This is amazing since the heavy dough usually takes forever to rise (I should mention that I grind my own flour, so it was 1.5 cups of rye berries and about the same of wheat berries), but I put it in the solar oven and set the oven in the sun but not aimed at it so it was under 150 degrees and it rose quickly. I took it in and punched it down and set it back in the oven (inside its enamel pot) and in no time at all it had risen again and was ready to bake. I put the reflectors on the oven and went on with my rig cleaning (the ceiling vents needed cleaning and the only way to clean them is from the roof - brilliant! So I got the extension ladder out of the shop and hauled my pan of water and rag and cleaner up to find I needed a crescent wrench to get the vent covers off - it took a while, and a few trips up and down the ladder, but I finally got it done, and when I did, the bread was also done! Perfect! Then I got out some chicken thighs (frozen) and cut up a couple potatoes and tossed in some frozen vegies, squeezed lime over the chicken and added a bit of rosemary and put it all in the pot and back out in the oven. WOW! The flavor was unbelievable. It cooked at 250 for about 4.5 hours, and the chicken fell off the bone. Juicy and just wonderful.
As I continue playing with my oven, I'll add to this blog, so stay tuned!
Right after arriving in Texas, we ordered a nice solar oven http://www.solarovens.org/, and 2 months later, the sky is finally clear enough to use it! Yesterday I made Hard Cooked Eggs (for egg salad) and cooked turnips - nicely done! Today (4/5/12) was the real challenge. I made a Molasses Rye/wheat yeast bread complete with 2 risings. It was done before noon! This is amazing since the heavy dough usually takes forever to rise (I should mention that I grind my own flour, so it was 1.5 cups of rye berries and about the same of wheat berries), but I put it in the solar oven and set the oven in the sun but not aimed at it so it was under 150 degrees and it rose quickly. I took it in and punched it down and set it back in the oven (inside its enamel pot) and in no time at all it had risen again and was ready to bake. I put the reflectors on the oven and went on with my rig cleaning (the ceiling vents needed cleaning and the only way to clean them is from the roof - brilliant! So I got the extension ladder out of the shop and hauled my pan of water and rag and cleaner up to find I needed a crescent wrench to get the vent covers off - it took a while, and a few trips up and down the ladder, but I finally got it done, and when I did, the bread was also done! Perfect! Then I got out some chicken thighs (frozen) and cut up a couple potatoes and tossed in some frozen vegies, squeezed lime over the chicken and added a bit of rosemary and put it all in the pot and back out in the oven. WOW! The flavor was unbelievable. It cooked at 250 for about 4.5 hours, and the chicken fell off the bone. Juicy and just wonderful.
As I continue playing with my oven, I'll add to this blog, so stay tuned!
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