Non-attended cooking with solar oven

On September 30, 2019 at the HoSa Solar base in Kocherinovo and in clear weather, we conducted an experiment with two solar ovens. Our experiment was intended to show that a person who goes to work in the morning can put a pot with a dish in the solar oven and when he/she returns in the afternoon the food will be cooked! Both ovens were installed at 9.00am in a north-south orientation (see red line in the photo). In the first oven we put a raw chicken leg in a pot with some water - for cooking and stewing. The other oven also had a raw leg, but without water - for baking. Each piece weight was about 450 grams. The position of the ovens has not been changed throughout the day! The temperature in both ovens reached 130 ˚C by 13h when the sun was at its highest point. We opened the ovens at 6pm and found that the boiled leg was still partially blood-filled inside, but it was consumable. While the other leg was perfectly toasted and with a very nice aroma.
The result of the experiment confirms that non-attended cooking with a solar oven is feasible. All you have to do is observe the following conditions:
- if you are preparing a dish with meat, it is advisable to bake it - especially during the autumn and winter months, when the sun is weaker;
- if the meat is water-cooked, cut it into thinner pieces. In the experiment described above, the chicken leg was quite large and should be cut into smaller and thinner pieces in advance;
- potatoes and any vegetables could be easily stewed in a little water or baked in small pieces;
- place the food in a metal pot, black or dark blue in color from inside, with a glass lid;
- orient the oven north-south;
- raise the oven from the rear by about 10 cm - for better lighting by the sun of the working chamber.