For some people, the concept called solar cooking is a hobby. For others, it's a lifestyle change. Solar cooking uses sunlight-generated heat to prepare food. Many solar cookers are made from household materials, such as cardboard and aluminum foil. Most are fairly inexpensive and can be made at home.
For some people, the concept called solar cooking is a hobby. For others, it's a lifestyle change.
Solar cooking uses sunlight-generated heat to prepare food. Many solar cookers are made from household materials, such as cardboard and aluminum foil. Most are fairly inexpensive and can be made at home.
When the solar cooker is placed around a dark-colored pot, sunlight reflects off the foil and concentrates on the pot. The light is then absorbed and converted into heat, which cooks the food within the pot.
There are three basic models of solar cookers: box cookers, panel cookers (which look like the reflectors you put in car windshields), and parabolic cookers (a large reflective dish with a pot in the center). Depending on the model, solar cookers can reach 300 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.
While largely unknown in the culinary arts, solar cooking is not a new trend. Beverly Blum, director and founding member of Sacramento-based Solar Cookers International, said U.S. interest in solar cooking first developed in the mid-1970s. In countries such as China and India, interest in solar cooking began due to wood and fossil fuel shortages.
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According to Blum, SCI formed to spread enthusiasm for solar cooking as well as the idea of free energy.
"What motivated us [to start SCI] was the realization that there are many parts of the world which were already facing severe fuel shortages," she said. "Our purpose was and is to see if we couldn't spread access to solar cooking and water pasteurization, and to benefit people whom it would help the most."
Blum, who has traveled to refugee camps in Kenya and other countries, said solar cooking is helpful for Third World residents because women are not required to hunt for cooking resources.
"It's wonderful for people in fuel-scarce areas," she said. "Finding wood and fuel to burn is a terrible burden for women and girls in these countries. A third of the world still cooks over fires. It's tedious and hazardous to gather wood, and then these women get home and have to cook over smoky fires. It's kind of an invisible problem." Solar cooking is also convenient, Blum said, because the cooker needs no extra attention. Food goes into the cooker in the morning and is left to cook all day in its own juices. By evening, dinner is ready, with no stirring and no burning.
Not only is solar cooking easy, Blum said, but building or buying a cooker is inexpensive. SCI's easiest model, the CooKit, was designed with impoverished families in mind, and can be purchased for $25 or less. Instructions for building homemade solar cookers are also available on the Internet, as are Web sites to purchase manufactured cookers.
Solar cooking has also caught the eye of environmentalists in the United States.
San Antonio native Monica Salyer started her own group, Texas Solar Cookers, after she first researched the concept three years ago. The 12-member group meets once a month at a San Antonio-area park to discuss solar cooking promotions, swap recipes and cook together.
Salyer said she owns several solar cookers, including the SCI CooKit, which she said works well when fixing Texas cuisine.
"It's a blast," she said. "For Texas cooking, fajitas and ribs comes out just absolutely fantastic." In addition to starting Texas Solar Cookers, Salyer gives demonstrations around the state at fairs and festivals, including impromptu sessions at South Padre Island.
"I went to the beach with my sister and pulled [the cooker] out," she said. "People were gathering around want to know about it. What changes their disbelief into wonder is when you open the cooking vessel and steam comes out. People can smell the food cooking and that's when they get interested."
Tom and Nancy Vineski of Livingston, Texas said solar cooking is a useful addition to their lifestyle. The Vineskis are self-described "solar nomads," who travel the United States in a solar-paneled mobile home. They have three solar cookers they use daily for everything from bread-baking to fixing Cuban black bean soup.
"You can cook almost anything, except deep fry, which is probably better for you anyway," Tom Vineski said. "Most any favorite recipe can be adapted readily to the solar cooker, and because the food tends to steam and not burn, foods can cook longer and deeper for some incredibly rich flavors."
In spite of the benefits of solar cooking, Blum said there are disadvantages. Weather plays a huge part in determining whether or not a solar cooker works. Solar cooking can be time consuming as well, usually taking twice as long to cook than the average recipe.
Because solar cooking is still "under the radar," Blum said it's taking longer to change people's minds.
"This is still the introduction of a new product in many areas, and that takes time," she said. "Most of us are not risk takers, and the poorest people are the least able to take risks with precious food or anything else. They have no spare resources, so they have to see community leaders using these new ideas before they themselves will dare to try."
Vineski said solar cookers and sun ovens could help reduce energy consumption in the United States, but not enough people are interested.
"We scratch our heads wondering all the time why people don't take advantage of it," he said. "In the southwest, we could easily turn around and use the heat, but there appears to be inertia there, and people don't make that change."
Salyer said the use of solar cooking signifies a paradigm shift in cooking, and that as time passes, more people will be interested.
"I don't think it will ever replace cooking indoors," she said. "It's a trade off between convenience and saving the environment and money. It's a tool in food preparation, a novelty. It's something new, and what's new takes a while to catch on."
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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
