21 days ago
- The authors conducted a solar cooking experiment using an evacuated tube cooker during summer 2023 in the Salish Sea, where temperatures ranged from 12-32°C, and also in 5°C conditions.
- They prioritized cooking foods with long cooking times (e.g., brown rice, beans, potatoes, seitan, cake, bread) but adapted meals based on weather: full sun for full meals, sun with overcast for quick-cooking items, and no cooking on rainy/heavily overcast days.
- Planning involved checking forecasts, pre-soaking beans or pre-mixing dough for next-day cooking, with optimal cooking times in morning or early afternoon to avoid sun angle issues near the horizon.
- The cooker was placed on the boat's bow for stability, though obstacles like land obstructions, wind causing alignment issues, calm days requiring frequent re-adjustment, and shadows from sails or mast posed challenges.
- Cooking times on sunny days resembled stovetop times (e.g., 30 min for half-cake, 1 hour for half-baguette, 1-1.5 hours for pre-soaked beans), with reliance on smell rather than time due to variable heat from cloud coverage or boat movement.
- Dry foods like coffee beans and sunflower seeds cooked quickly and required careful monitoring to avoid burning; roasting coffee beans was successful but distracting due to the aroma.
- Temperatures inside the tube could reach 216°C/420°F on sunny days, posing burn risks, so oven mitts were used for safety.
- Baking involved using parchment paper to prevent sticking, with bread taking about 2 hours total (flipped every 30 min) and cakes about 1 hour, though removing cakes without breakage was challenging.
- Cleaning the tube required a special brush to avoid food encrustation, which could trap the tray; avoiding saucy foods like pasta sauce helped minimize mess.
- Advantages included keeping heat outside (reducing indoor steam from pressure cookers), reducing LPG use (saving fuel over summer), and cooking almost daily without fuel concerns.
- Failures included inability to cook soybeans due to long cooking times and messiness; other beans like black beans and chickpeas worked well.
- The cooker was secured with stainless steel hooks in the anchor locker during sailing to prevent breakage, and not left outside when unused.
- In June 2026, the original stainless steel tray failed at the seams, leading to a DIY replacement using aluminum cans (named 'The Canoe'), which worked for dry or semi-liquid mixtures like chickpea flour cakes.
- Experiments listed various foods cooked under specific conditions, dates, and notes, such as seitan, chickpeas, rice, beets, bread, coffee, sunflower seeds, cake, and lentils, with detailed observations on outcomes and adjustments.