Solar cookers are extremely efficient, and they cost almost nothing to manufacture at home. Once you know how to make a solar oven and you are all set up, you will be wanting to cook your first dish. It is simply amazing how many types of foods you can cook in such an oven. You simply need to add all the ingredients, cover up your pot, then place a plastic wrap or a fibreglass sheet over the oven and let delicious food be prepared with the power of the sun. These solar ovens work on a “set it and forget it” basis – the food is cooked at a relatively constant temperature for quite long hours, so you do not need to stir the food or check it every 5 minutes. Allow the food to simmer there, and you will notice that food cooked this way tastes much better than food cooked at high temperatures with your conventional oven.
It is true, in order to get a juicy and flavorful roast beef meal, you might have to leave the cooker “on” for the entire day. This means that if you want to prepare the perfect roast beef for dinner, you need to place the ingredients in the cooker as early as possible. However, you are not going to use your cooker only for such difficult recipes. You can prepare a very wide palette of delicious foods that are ready within an hour or even less.
Here are a few tips regarding on how to cook with a solar oven:
- You should definitely use a timer when you cook with your solar oven, so that you can stay efficient. Your solar oven should also be equipped with a thermometer, so that you can check on the temperature once in a while.
- Preheating is extremely important. Just allow your oven (with the empty pot inside) to sit and preheat for about 30 minutes in direct sunlight.
- If you want to prepare meat with your cooker, make sure to marinate it the day before. This way you will get the juiciest, most delicious meat, and your food will be ready faster too.
- If you are thinking of cooking beans, make sure to soak them in water the day before cooking. Dry beans will take between 3 and 4 hours to cook in the solar oven.
- Cooking pasta is extremely fast and easy. The pasta is ready in about 35 to 40 minutes if cooked in a solar oven.
- Slow cooking is best for meals such as stews, chili or meat. Just allow these foods to stay in the cooker most of the day for best results.
As you can see, you may need a little more patience than usual if you use a solar cooker, but the results will surely be worth it.