Solar ovens, once little more than a science experiment, have graduated to being a full-fledged household appliance. As ever more people begin using solar ovens in their daily life, ever more uses for the appliance are being developed. Using only the power of the sun and a simple solar oven, you can cook, roast, bake, steam, dry and preserve.
Slow Cooking
Solar ovens have always been known for their slow cooking abilities. Because of their gentle heat, they need very little added water. You can think of them as a crock pot powered by the sun. Their slow, steady heat allows juices and flavors to mingle. Meats that need moist heat, grains that need gentle cooking and dried beans that simply need time—all these are prime candidates for solar cooking.
Baking
A solar oven is more than just a crock pot, however. Breads come out of a solar oven tender and flavorful. Yeast breads that are moist and sweet such as dinner rolls and sandwich loaves, work best. Cakes also come out moist, though heavy cakes like gingerbread and fruit cakes seem to work better than light fluffy cakes.
Drying Foods
Beyond cooking, you can also dry in a solar oven. Ovens specifically made to dry food are available. These units are similar to standard solar ovens, but with drying trays and ventilation holes. If you don't have a solar dryer, you can dry foods on a wire rack in a standard solar oven with the lid ajar. Or you can use the rear window of your car on a hot day for a diy solar dryer. Put the food on a rack and crack a couple of windows.
Pasteurization
Health organizations around the world suggest boiling as the best method to sterilize contaminated water. Countries with contaminated water, however, often have a shortage of firewood as well. A solar oven and a WAPI, a wax-based water pasteurization indicator, can help solve the problem. Even simple solar ovens can bring water to 149 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature at which most disease-causing microbes are killed. At that temperature, the wax in the WAPI melts, indicating the water is drinkable.
Coffee Roasting
Two brothers, Mike and David Hartkop of Solar Roast Coffee, have taken solar cooking to the next level. They use a solar collector, a sophisticate variant of a parabolic solar cooker, to roast coffee commercially. Their ten-foot diameter collector can bring three to four pounds of coffee to the 500 degrees Fahrenheit necessary to roast the beans. The steam, smoke, and hot gasses inside the roaster are trapped, making for a rich, aromatic roast.
Canning
Foods that can be canned in a hot water bath can also be canned in a solar oven. A solar oven that can reach and hold temperatures well beyond the boiling point is essential for canning. Acidic foods like pickles and tomatoes can do well in a solar canner. Meat, nonacidic vegetables, and anything that is normally canned in a pressure canner do not. Note, however, that canning in a solar oven is not a skill for either beginning solar cooks or beginning canners.
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