You probably won’t find a tutorial for a solar oven quite like this anywhere else. This is, quite possibly, the world’s worst tutorial. Ever.
Then again you probably didn’t find yourself knee-deep in house repairs today and find yourself saying “Kid, go make yourself busy!” Or maybe you did, I dunno. Regardless, that’s what happened in my house today. Mister Man (9) and Little Man (7) decided to make a quick solar oven and cook some hotdogs.
(I won’t mention the fact that today was the only day in the last 2 weeks it’s been overcast and under 90 degrees!)
They used a small 6-pack cooler and a disposable pin tin to make theirs, and as I don’t buy plastic wrap they used a plastic storage bag they cut to fit over the top.
(and let’s also not mention the fact that my cat decided to break into the contraption and eat a hot dog)
To make a simple solar oven you need:
-A box of some sort with a lid. A cardboard box will work but if you have an insulated box or thick cardboard it will work even better
-A lot of foil
-A disposable pie tin, skewers, long sticks, or something else to hold the hot dogs on. If you’d rather not make hot dogs you can use the grill from a small BBQ grill, or even a small muffin tin or inverted metal bowl. Depending on the size of your oven you might even be able to bake cookies on a cookie sheet!
-Plastic wrap (or a cut plastic bag) and tape to secure
-food to cook
-time to kill
Line the box and lid with foil. Use tape, string, or more foil to secure the lid at an angle to help reflect sun into the box.
Place the pie tin in the lined box upside down, bend as needed.
Place the food on the pie tin.
Cover the box with the plastic and secure with tape.
Let the food cook, the amount of time depends on how hot and sunny it is at the time. A good experiment would be to have the kids test the temperature of the hot dog every 30 minutes. Our hot dogs were hot enough to eat in about 2 hours but as they took a roll on the ground when the cat dumped the box over we opted not to eat them, we’ll try again next week.
Yup, worst tutorial in the world. Check out these links for some better tutorials and more fun summer cooking ideas:
Build a Solar Oven
Easy Solar Oven
