Solar oven info

xpc

Doubled and twisted
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Yesterday I made bread:

The recipe calls for 1 can of beer which is a good thing because that is all I have left, all my other test recipes also called for beer but for the cook and not what was being cooked, though they both turned out getting cooked.

tilt.jpg

Following the sun a over 3 hour time period. I added a windshield shade to the sides for now.

bread.jpg

The dough was fairly sticky and sloped in the tilted pan, I have to cut the grate down a bit so it can swing forward some more. It raised over the top on one side in about 1.5 hours and done in 3 hours.

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In the last hour I popped it out of the pan and sat it on the grate to make the bottom of the loaf crispy. It was a fairly dense bread and added a bit too much salt when I mixed it but when slathered it butter it was good and cheap. The flour cost $0.30 and beer was $0.50.

I did not have a 32 oz can and so used a standard bread pan that I covered with aluminum foil which I painted black the day before. I just bought a can of juice this morning and will try this recipe again.

http://www.cookwiththesun.com/recipes.htm

beer bread:

3 - cups self-rising flour

2 - TBSP sugar

1 - 12oz can of any beer

pinch of salt

1/2 to 3/4 cups of raw, unsalted sunflower kernels (not used)

Mix all ingredients to form a dough ball. Put dough into a greased 32 oz juice can that has been painted black on the outside with barbecue paint. Set can into preheated oven and bake until top is golden brown- 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours depending on how hot your oven is. Remove from solar oven and let cool. The bread shrinks a bit while cooling, and will slip right out of the can. Slice, and enjoy! Makes great burger, and sandwich buns.

About the container:Take a 32 oz can (like a large V8 juice can) remove the top and paint the outside of the can with BBQ or grill paint found in the BBQ section of your big Depot type hardware store. After the paint has dried bake the empty container in the solar oven to cure the paint. This is the best way to bake a loaf of bread in a solar oven.
 

k0xxx

Mr. Sunshine
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Nice! I can definitely see another project in the works here. Thanks for sharing this with us.
 

xpc

Doubled and twisted
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I baked a 28oz. Banquet broccoli & chicken over rice TV dinner, straight from the freezer it was completely thawed in a half hour but took 2 more hours to get to an internal temperature of 150F because it was mostly cloudy today (70% cover). I put it in the microwave for 5 minutes to bring it up to 170F.

The only reason I cooked today was because the weather report said only 25% cloud cover but they lie, it was clear in the morning and didn't get clouds until an hour after putting in the food (noonish) yesterday it did the same thing but got the bread in at 9am and it was done before the clouds came.

The whole idea of using this oven or any of these solar contraptions is to make it easy enough to use all the time. Like a diet it is worthless unless you can follow and stay with it. My microwave cooks this in about 20 minutes and an oven about 1 hour, depending on how often the ovens cycle it would cost between 5 cents (mw) and 20 cents (oven).

An electric oven is about 4kw and the large stove top burner is 2.5 kw and cost 25-40 cents an hour to operate at 10 cents per kWh and can add up over a months time. My main concern is the fact that I will be off grid and electricity will be too expensive to make with solar panels and need this oven for that reason more so than the $10 a month that I may save now. The PV panels and batteries needed to run a stove for an hour would cost about $3,000.

edit math
Note: a natural gas oven can cost less depending on local rates and up to 50% less than a electric oven. LP can go either way.
 
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