So for today, before the sun sinks any further in the horizon and becomes more difficult to work with, at least until spring, I thought I’d review the Global Sun Oven. I’ve had it for about six years now, but it hasn’t gotten a lot of use, especially lately due to a few litters of puppies. Chihuahua puppies might not have been an issue, but we’ve got Great Pyrenees. I’m not confident that they would leave the sun oven alone. And the only place on our property that I can place the oven, without having to walk a long ways, is on our driveway, a favorite hangout of all the dogs. Because we are on the eastern side of a mountain ridge and our sun sets pretty early, we are a bit limited in where we can place the oven.
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Now, I didn’t have this during the years we lived in Missouri, so I can only make guesses as to how useful it would have been. And my guess is it would not have been very useful. (I would love to read comments from people who have used sun ovens in the Midwest.) Gardens grow well there, so I know there has to be some sun, but we just didn’t seem to see it very often. There were a lot of clouds. It was a very rare day that the sky was actually blue. If I were in the Midwest, I don’t think I would want any solar oven. It would be too unreliable for the financial expense and the shelf space when unable to use it.
Living in the high desert, most days are sunny. But we can have a problem with afternoon winds, prime cooking time, so that is an issue. The reflector panels of the oven do not tolerate wind at all. That eliminates some days for us. Even an occasional breeze can be a problem. It’s probably not too big a deal if you can monitor your oven from where you are working, but I can’t unless I’m cleaning the garage or weeding on that side of the house.
However, when the elements combine to work well together, the Global Sun Oven performs.
We made the most fabulous beef stew in it and took it on a family picnic on Peavine Mountain. Why is it that food that turns out so well for camping and other outdoor activities can never be replicated at home? I haven’t made beef stew that good since, and I swear it’s the same recipe.
There are a few drawbacks for this particular sun oven. For one, it takes up a lot of space on a shelf or in the back of the truck. And you have to have sun to use it, so it can be used to make a late lunch, but it’s going to be difficult to pull off a hot dinner when the sun sets early. Obviously, it’s not going to work for breakfast, either. Furthermore, it has to be turned every hour or so, especially in winter. And finally, if it can’t be used a lot, it’s a bit pricey.
However, the sun is free, so there’s no fuel expense. That is a huge plus. It is relatively light, so most people shouldn’t have a problem carrying it. And it is great for baking in the 350 degree range.
I thought I would provide a table of times and temperatures to give you a better idea of how well it works. And this is a place for me to keep my notes as well. A trend I’m noticing is that as we move into winter, it is very important to do the baking earlier in the day.
Date Weather Outside temperature Time Oven temperature
October 25 Sunny 61 degrees 1:00 61 degrees
1:30 350 degrees
2:05 320 degrees
4:25 275 degrees
October 26 Thin clouds 71 degrees 3:30 220 degrees
(adjusted angle of oven) 3:45 240 degrees (so aborted attempt)
October 30 Sunny 47 degrees 3:20 300 degrees
4:00 260 degrees so adjusted angle, but couldn’t get any warmer. Too late to finish baking.
November 8 Sunny 47 degrees 12:15 325 degrees
12:45 290 degrees
12:55 300 degrees
1:05 300 degrees
1:15 300 degrees
Most cookies bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. At 300 degrees it takes about 20 minutes. Also, baked goods don’t get that golden brown color we’re used to, so you can’t use color as a judge of doneness.
1:20 295 degrees
I took a casserole straight from the freezer. I figured it wouldn’t completely bake, but I could get a head start on it.
2:20 275 degrees
November 16 Sunny 53 degrees 11:40 290 degrees
12:05 290 degrees
1:30 310 degrees (baked cookies and they turned out fine)
2:15 320 degrees (adjusted angle of oven)
2:50 300 degrees
3:05 260 degrees
At 2:15, I started baking a loaf of whole wheat sandwich bread. I make my bread is batches of three loaves, so for comparison I baked two inside in the kitchen and one outside in the sun oven. I really thought I started too late and that I wouldn’t be able to fully bake the bread, but I wanted to see if it would work. I was delighted to be wrong. Normally I bake bread at 350 degrees and was concerned 300-320 degrees wasn’t going to work. But I let it bake longer and used an instant read thermometer to check the internal temperature. At 3:05, the bread had reached 190 degrees, the temperature required for whole wheat sandwich bread loaves, so I brought it inside. We cooled it about ten minutes and then cut through the center to check for doneness. There was no difference in taste or texture from out other loaves. However, the loaf was much lighter in color than the loaves we baked inside.
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