Solar Outdoor Cooking

Using the power of the sun is an interesting, not to mention old way of cooking. Campers are familiar with the power of the sun: water is heated during the sunniest, warmest parts of the day, and some campers take along a reflector in order to hasten cooking instead of building a large fire. In households today, the sun is an ally of energy saving: barbecues, grills, and cookouts are considered more practical instead of an electric oven.

Solar cooking isn't just for heating up your food. You need it to sterilize your water. Water filters will often function as layers and layers of sand, silt, and stone, all of them aiming to adsorb or keep back harmful minerals or compounds in the water of the wilderness. Solar cooking adds to this by heating up the water, further killing toxins and other bacteria.

So how can you cook using the sun when you go out in the Great Outdoors? Provided that it doesn't rain and that you're out camping during the warm summer, you can bring along a light solar reflector panel to help you cook your food. You can also bring along a solar box or oven, which absorbs the suns heat and transfers it to the food that you are cooking.

A solar oven can be easy to make if you have the time and materials to do it. All you need is some dark, strong materials to make the box, and some clear glass to cover the top of the box. When the suns rays hit the open, glass (or plastic) top of the box, the heat is transferred to the interior. The dark paneling keeps the heat in and allows food to cook in the closed-in heat.

Another kind of solar cooking method uses a curved version of the reflective panel. This curved panel focuses beams of sunlight onto a single point lying at the bottom of the panel, where you can place a pan, pot, or food wrapped in foil. This can raise the temperature of the food considerably, and make cooking fast. This is advisable if you are cooking foods that have already been thawed, or if you are simply reheating your foods.

These are only a few kinds of solar cooking methods that you might want to use for your picnic. There are many other permutations of these methods, and you need to know what kind of method works for what kind of food. Happy energy saving, and happy cooking, whether you're in the Great Outdoors, or in your backyard!