How Can You Use Solar Energy To Cook Food
Solar powered camp cooking.
How can you use solar energy to cook food. We can bake stew steam fry and braise. You can even pasteurize water simple solar ovens made of cardboard boxes can reach 325. The second good thing about using solar energy to cook is that it does not use any of the limited sources of energy non renewable energy which makes our environment a safer place to live. If you ve ever seared your legs on a hot metal slide you understand the cooking potential of the sun.
They use a free renewable energy source and do not pollute the environment. You can t rely on precision temperature control so you have to stick with foods that aren t fussy. We constructed one by using 70 mm thick insulation all round and this gave good results. And this heat energy is then retained by the pot and the food by the means of a covering or lid.
You can t broil in a solar oven but you can bake boil and roast. But plenty of foods fit the bill. You can set a solar oven anywhere you. Although it is something of a novelty exercise cooking with solar energy is much easier than you think.
A solar cooker can cook anything that can be cooked in a conventional oven. You can make almost all. To green up your life you can build and cook with a solar oven. Sunlight isn t hot in and of itself.
Using stoves and ovens we can cook foods like meat vegetables beans rice bread and fruit in just about any way. Using a solar cooker we can do the same things but by using sunlight instead of gas or electricity. The food will take longer to cook but that s no problem. If you plan to use your solar cooker on a regular basis to ensure healthier cooking and energy savings or only intend to use your cooker on lovely sunny days to replace your weekly braai sustainable co za has the solar cooker for you.
It is not the sun s heat that cooks the food nor is it the outside ambient temperature though this can somewhat affect the rate or time required to cook but rather it is the suns rays that are converted to heat energy that cook the food. They can roast meat steam vegetables and even bake bread. Solar cookers solar cookers are used to cook food and pasteurise water for safe drinking. Just start your dinner in the morning and turn the oven a few times to make sure it s facing the sun.
With a box pan aluminum foil a cooking bag duct tape man s best friend styrofoam insulation and a thermometer you ll be cooking in no time at all. And while many people joke about frying an egg on a sidewalk with the use of a solar oven you can easily harness the sun to prepare food at home or when you are camped miles from civilization. At the other end of the scale you can also use solar energy simply to cook a meal. This means that you can use a solar oven anywhere that has lots of sun.
A solar oven can bake at temperatures above 350 f.