Linda Frederick Yaffe - Solar Cooking for Home & Camp: How to Make and Use a Solar Cooker

Solar Cooking for
Home and Camp LINDA FREDERICK YAFFE STACKPOLE
BOOKS Copyright 2007 by Linda Frederick Yaffe Published by STACKPOLE BOOKS 5067 Ritter Road Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 www.stackpolebooks.com All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania 17055. Printed in the United States First edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Cover photograph by Solar Cookers InternationalCover design by Caroline StoverIllustrations by the authorLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Yaffe, Linda Frederick. Solar cooking for home and camp / Linda Frederick Yaffe. p. cm.

Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8117-3402-8 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8117-3402-1 (alk. paper) 1. Solar cookery. Title. Title.

TX835.5.Y34 2007 641.5'8dc22 2007003173 eBook ISBN: 9780811741583 In fond memory of my beloved parents-in-law:
Charles D. Yaffe (19102006)
and Frayda Goodstein Yaffe (19122006)The sun himself shines heartily, and shares the joy he brings. Ralph Waldo Emerson, The World-Soul, 1899 It is so much pleasanter and wholesomer to be warmed by the sun when you can, than by a fire. Journal of Henry D. Thoreau, November 8, 1850 Solar Cooking for Home and Camp C HAPTER O NE M AKING AND U SING Y OUR O WN S OLAR C OOKER Solar cooking is free, clean, simple, and fun. It will save you time and money and also save the earths finite resources. More than just a novelty, solar cooking is a healthy way of life. Its the most fun youll ever have while doing the right thing.

Imagine sitting in a car with the windows closed on a bright, sunny day. You notice that the temperature inside the car is much hotter than the temperature outside. This is the greenhouse effect: Sunlight shines through the windows and is converted to heat. The heat is soaked up and retained by the objects inside, such as the upholstered seats, especially if they are dark colored. This built-up heat is then trapped inside the car. Solar cookers employ the same principle to quietly, gently cook your food.

The process is basic: Put raw ingredients in a covered pot, place the pot in the solar cooker, and point the cooker toward the sun. Solar cookers are major home appliances, but they are simple, lightweight, and low-tech. And unlike other major appliances, you can build one yourself in a few hours, and it costs nothing to operate. Solar Cooking for Home and Camp shows you how to make these wonderful appliances from common, readily available materials. Instructions are provided for building two types of solar cookers: a box cooker and a portable, folding panel cooker. Or, if you prefer, you can buy a prebuilt solar cooker (see smoke or fumes, an overheated kitchen, pots to stir, or the use of fossil fuels.

Plus, there are no concerns about overcooking; although a large casserole will be fully cooked in one to two hours, the dish can be held in the solar cooker all day. Your solar cooker will become your favorite way to prepare meals because it is convenient and labor-saving. Vegetables dont need to be parboiled before being stuffed and baked. Pasta used in combination baked dishes doesnt have to be boiled and drained first. Foods such as meats and vegetables dont need to be marinated; the solar cooker marinates and cooks, all in one step. Delicious fresh fruit jam can be made without stirring or messy boilovers.

Frozen dishes placed in the solar cooker defrost, cook, and then keep warm for hours, allowing you to dine whenever youre ready. Cleanup afterward is easier, too. With no burned-on food residue, pots quickly wipe clean. With naturally gentle, slow solar cookingand little or no water addedyour meals will be moist, flavorful, and full of nutrients. So reserve your conventional oven or camp stove for nighttime or days of inclement weather. On sunny or mostly sunny days with at least four hours of direct sunlight, you can cook with solar power.

Solar Box Cooker The solar box cooker is made from two cardboard boxes lined with aluminum foil, the smaller nested inside the larger. A cardboard lid with a window made from a nylon oven cooking bag and topped by a foil-covered cardboard reflector completes this easy project. The cardboard solar box cooker was devised in the 1970s by solar innovator and activist Barbara Kerr, in collaboration with Sherry Cole. Their simple, lightweight design has made solar box cookers easy and inexpensive to construct and use. Box cookers are dependable over a long cooking season each year. Since they utilize both reflected and retained heat, box cookers hold the heat well on partly cloudy days.

They excel at long, slow cookingperfect for simmered foods such as beans and stewsand they are excellent for baking. Although this simple box takes just a few hours to make, it will provide you with great meals for many years to come. Assemble the following tools and materials, and youll be ready to go. Materials Three or four large cardboard boxes: one for the inner box, one for the outer box, plus additional cardboard to make a lid, a reflector, and four interior insulating panels One roll of masking tape One 75-foot roll of regular-weight (not heavyweight) aluminum foil Eight ounces of nontoxic glue, such as Elmers glue, or flour paste (see recipe on ) Two or three empty toilet paper rolls Several pounds of insulation: wool fabric scraps, crumpled newspaper, or shredded office paper One nylon oven cooking bag, large or turkey size One wire coat hanger One jar or spray can of black, nontoxic tempera (water-based) paint Cardboard Boxes When choosing your cardboard boxes, keep in mind that a large, shallow solar cooker works best. A cooker that is too deep is hard to heat, largely because the tall sides of the box create more shadows, but also because it loses more heat from the sides. Look for recycled corrugated cardboard boxes that originally held large electrical appliances.