Your Guide To Green

Imagine, not having to heat up the kitchen or consume fuels to make a great meal -- simple, safe and convenient solar cooking can do the trick. Sun-baked foods stay moist; the natural internal juices do not bake out, resulting in a superior, moist taste and much less shrinkage.

Cooking with the sun appeals to a wide variety of people from outdoor gourmets, summer bakers, campers and boaters to environmentalists, ice fishers and people who live in storm-prone areas.

Currently a product sold on this web site, GLOBAL SUN OVEN® is being used in 126 countries around the world. Anything you can cook in a conventional electric or gas oven can be cooked in this solar oven.

Reaching temperatures of 360 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, the GLOBAL SUN OVEN® generally will reach its maximum temperature as it is being pre heated. The temperature will drop when food is placed in the chamber. The slow, even rise in temperatures in a this type of oven gives the complex carbohydrates time to break down into simple sugars allowing the subtle natural flavor to emerge.

Cooking times can be similar to those in a conventional oven but are affected by several factors: the quality of the sunlight at the time, the types and quantities of the food being cooked, and how often the oven is being refocused.

Food cooks at 82ºC (180ºF) to 91ºC (195ºF), and is therefore free from disease-causing organisms when fully cooked. Simple solar cookers gently cook at temperatures just above these, so foods maintain moisture and nutrients, and rarely burn or overcook. As with any cooking method, however, care should be taken when cooking with the sun to maintain food safety, particularly with meats, legumes and grains.

Important considerations

Solar cooking experts explain that these sun-powered cookers require direct sunlight to function properly. They need to be used on sunny days, in locations where shadows are not a concern. Shadows, clouds and inclement weather limit their effectiveness. In general, you can solar cook when the length of your shadow on the ground is shorter than your height. Some solar cookers, however, are efficient enough to be used year-round.

A small group of solar cooking aficionados combined forces about 20 years ago in the Central Valley of California to form Solar Cookers International. Today SCI provides a wide variety of information including:

Benefits of Solar Cooking?

Health and Nutrition

• Help preserve nutrients.
• Solar cookers are smoke and fire free.
• Safer around children.

Types of Solar Cookers
The three most common types of solar cookers are heat-trap boxes, curved concentrators (parabolics) and panel cookers. Hundreds — if not thousands — of variations on these basic types exist. Additionally, several large-scale solar cooking systems have been developed to meet the needs of institutions worldwide.

• Box cookers - cook at moderate to high temperatures and often accommodate multiple pots. Worldwide, they are the most widespread.
• Curved concentrator cookers or "parabolics" - especially useful for large-scale institutional cooking.
• Panel cookers - incorporate elements of box and curved concentrator cookers. They are simple and relatively inexpensive to buy or produce.

Solar Water Pasteurization

For those of us lucky enough to live where the water is treated and usually safe, it is still important to know how to pasteurize water for camping trips and in case of emergency. Water that has been heated to 65ºC (150ºF) for a short period of time is free from microbes.

Traditional fuels can be used to pasteurize water, but on sunny days solar energy can be used as well. Simple solar cookers can pasteurize water for a family at a rate of about one liter per hour. Solar Cookers International's reusable Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) can be used to determine when water heated by solar or conventional means has reached appropriate temperatures to make it safe.

So even if you can only boil water, solar cooking could still be for you! Plus if you want to get help with some recipes check out The Morning Hill Solar Cookery Book at Solar Cookery Book.