I was not even aware of their existence until I watched Living with Ed. Does it take much longer than a conventional oven?

The cooking temp often winds up being 25-50 degrees lower than I would use with my regular oven. It doesn't affect how things bake, except that it does take a little bit longer at a lower temperature. The other day my quick bread took about an hour and a half at 300-325 degrees.

Clouds coming and going can cause the temp to fall slightly lower. If one fails to move the solar oven, as the angle of the sun changes, the temp will fall. The reflectors need to be facing the sun. In full sun, 350 degrees F is reached in 10-15 minutes. You can't leave things to cook on their own, like you can with a crock pot. A solar oven does have to be monitored.

If I roast a four pound chicken, I have to change the angle of the oven to match the angle of the sun once during the cooking process (about 1-3/4s hours). Which means pivoting the oven a little bit, so that it is fully facing the sun.

I've cooked pots of beans, roasted all types of meats, roasted vegetables, baked cakes, sweet breads and brownies, and simmered soups and stews in my solar oven. I wish the interior space was a bit larger than it is. They come in more sizes now. (I've had mine for awhile.)

You might want to do a search on solar ovens for the heck of it. You can also find instrucitons for how to build your own.

Lorna

Thanks, Lorna......I didn't know about them either and went looking for information on them. They seem to have made a tremendous impact in places where refugees gather and in poor third world countries where even firewood for fuel costs too much for some families to afford.

The concept couldn't be simpler, and to see one made from a recycled pizza carton just made me go "Duh"........how obvious! It would be a fun thing to do with the g'kids, and I would actually use one if I had one.