Comments From Our Customers
Here is what customers are saying about the Sun Ovenâ.
Dave Menicucci
Sandia National Labs
Renewable Energy Office
In regard to recipes, unfortunately I have no special recipes for the solar oven.
In fact, I try to send a message that the oven does not need special recipes. I try
to make the point that there is nothing unique or different about the solar oven, but it
is simply another useful kitchen device. What we typically do is to prepare the meal the
night before and put it in the fridge. (In the winter, we simply put it in the oven
outside.) In
the morning, we put the meal in the oven and set it up facing south. When we get
home in the afternoon, the meal is cooked and ready to eat. I have learned a few
tricks that are typical to our climate, such as facing the oven east of south during the
summer monsoon season, which tends to produce afternoon cloudiness.
All of the recipes I use are identical to ones that would work in a regular oven. The only difference is that solar oven cooks at a lower temperature and therefore takes longer. The other difference is that you don't have to stir pots as required on a stove. (This was one of the most difficult aspects of solar cooking my wife had to get used).
We cook everything from stews, meats, breads, and cookies in the solar oven.
What I have found is that it tends to produces very tender meats, and tends not to burn
foods, even when they are left in for much longer than required. In fact, I have never
burned any food in the Sun Oven. (A few were a bit brown and crispy on the edges,
but not burned to a crisp as a conventional oven would do.)
Early on, I did a bit of research into recipes to understand how they were developed
and what I would have to adapt it to the solar oven. I found that almost all
recipes available in the literature today were developed or reworked for publication by
professional chefs. In commercial kitchens, the oven space is at a premium. So
a chef will typically cook foods at the highest possible temperature to get them in and
out of the oven in the minimal amount of time. Even in a home oven, which is
expensive to
operate and heats up the kitchen, it is to the advantage of the cook to move the
food into and out of the oven quickly. That is why the oven timing is so critical on
conventional recipes and why foods will burn if left in a conventional oven even for a
short additional period of time.
In most recipes, the food product can be cooked for a longer period at a lower
temperature with excellent results. This lends itself to the solar oven that cooks
between 275 deg. F and 315 deg. F. So when using conventional recipes, I cook the
food for longer than is called for (or simply until the food is done). Therefore, in
regard to your question about my solar oven recipes, let me submit most of the oven and
stove recipes that are in existence today. That is a big bunch. We love our solar
oven and I know that we will never be without one for the rest of our lives. This
oven is an extension of our kitchen and is one of our most valuable cooking tools. I
would encourage almost anyone, especially those in areas with good solar resources, to use
one. Not because it is good for the environment or saves energy, but because
it
is, frankly, one of the best ways to cook food. And if someone is serious
about solar cooking, the Sun Oven is one of the highest quality product available.
Mary Smith Of Reno, Nevada
UPS delivered my sun oven in mid July and I happened to have some whole wheat pizza dough in the freezer. I immediately put my brand new, outof the box Sun Oven out on the patio and positioned it. I hastily defrosted the dough and then baked it like bread. I was like a two year old, every 10 minutes, "is it ready yet?" The bread was great and I didn't heat up my un-air conditioned Nevada house on that summer afternoon.
While I have prepared many things in my Sun Oven, my specialty is roasted garlic. Because the Sun Oven doesn't burn things, the garlic needs a long time to cook, it's a wonderful solution!
Here is my thrown together (no measurements) recipe:
-Cut the pointed ends off of your garlic 1 do 3 pounds at a time and put the cut end down
in a dark (pyrex) dish that has a cover
-Drizzle the garlic heads with olive oil, make sure every head has some oil on it
-Pour in about 2 cups of STRONG chicken broth or chicken bouillion
-Add about 1 cup of white wine
-Sprinkle with a small amount of salt, if you used boullion, omit the salt
-Cover and put in your preheated Sun Oven for at least 4 HOURS! Yes that is right, the
longer it cooks the milder and sweeter the garlic becomes. I usually start the entire
process around 10am on a Sat morning and check the position until I leave for my weekly
errands around noon. I usually return late afternoon and I leave it out until the sun
completely goes down.
-When completely cool, just simply squeeze the garlic pulp out. Now, this next step is
completely up to you, it's not crtical...I add all of the drained juices and the pulp in
the blender and blend until completely smooth, about the consistancy of sour cream. I add
more chicken broth if needed.
This garlic is fantastic! on bread, toast, crackers, my husband even uses it as a dip on
tortilla chips. My absolutely favorite way is on corn on the cob instead of butter. It's
also good in recipes calling for fresh garlic. I would think that it would last in the
refrig at least a month or two, but it never lasts past a couple of weeks in my house.
Enjoy!
Morgan Abele of Arizona:
We have now owned our Sun Oven for 8 years and have continually used it in the rather
unforgiving Arizona sun. It has provided us with a means of cooking a hot meal without
heating the house as well. This is important in a climate that can hit 120 degrees
or more in the summer. There are few things we own that we can truly say that we had
gotten our money's worth, the Sun Oven is one of those. I hope you are still making
it in the next century when ours finally needs replacing. Keep up the good
work.
Alberto Marques of Luanda-Angola, Africa
Iīve tried it myself last Sunday and it worked fine, although itīs
winter time here. Itīs more well finished, attractive and efficient than I thought.
Boe Kaup of Tucson Arizona:
E-mail: sunburst@azstarnet.com
I'm a retail dealer of solar energy products, Sunburst Solar Products. Recently my distributor, Alternative Solar Products, added your ovens to their line of products. Because I happened to be in California when they received their first oven, they somehow thought I should have one. Low and behold I received my oven 2 weeks ago. I was not overly excited about this acquisition and left it in its box until just 2 days ago. I pulled it out to look at it and thought why not give it a try. Enter solar cake making 101. Put the mix together and into the oven it went. One hour later, bing-bang-boom, cake. Needless to say I was impressed. Not only had I just made my first ever cake, but I did it in the great outdoors, didn't heat up the house or turn on the electric oven (that thing that makes the meter fly around in circles the fastest and makes the utility company happy).
That's not the end though. My wife monitored the ongoings and was also impressed. I suggested cooking a chicken. They were all frozen so had to get a little help from our Whirlpool microwave. She prepared it with seasoning and enter solar chicken 101. We couldn't have all this fun without letting someone know what we were up to. My wife took care of that. She went and knocked on our neighbors doors and at 3:00 we had 8 people in our backyard looking at a solar chicken that was just about ready for the dinner table. I gave them a brief overview of the oven and then adjourned to the kitchen (the still cool kitchen) where we consumed solar cake and sun tea. Now, not only were my wife and I impressed, but so were all my neighbors. How cool! What a success my sunny Sunday venture was.
In closing I want to say this is a super product. Although it has been on the
market for awhile, it seems that people are unaware of its existence. I want to change
that!