[Greenbuilding] While we're on Solar....any experience with a solar cooker?

[RT]

On Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:51:20 -0400, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> Can you say two words about the cooking/baking/roasting vessels you  
> employ?

> I think we're making slow progress because we don't have a good set of  
> dark colored enamel cooking pots and trays

White Men can't cook ? (sorry, that's 4 words)

I suspect that shiny steel or aluminum cookware could be painted with the  
high-heat enamel that is made for BBQ grills, woodstoves, stove pipes etc.  
to make it work in a solar cooker.

ie I doubt that the temperatures in a solar cooker would exceed the  
temperatures that the above items are subjected to when exposed to the  
open flames of a gas-fired or wood-fired appliance.

Or I suspect that simply wrapping the cookware with some dark-coloured,  
heat-conducting material (trying one's best to eliminate any airspaces  
between the wrapping and the cookware) might work too.

That being said ...

Baking and roasting are inefficient means of cooking.

ie Whereas roasting a 4 lb chicken would require about 1.5 to 1.75 hours  
cooking time at 350 degrees F in order to heat the flesh to a safe  
temperature of 170 degF ... that same chicken, if cooked using the Chinese  
method of poaching, would require only 5 minutes of rigorous boiling,  
followed by letting it sit for 20 minutes away from heat and then  
returning it to a rigorous boil for another 3 to 4 minutes. The resultant  
bird is amazingly (to Occidental cooks on first being exposed to the  
method) juicy, tender and alive-looking
(akin to the difference between stir-fried vegetables vs boiled or baked  
... or kiln-dried lumber vs air-dried).

Similar efficiencies are had by steaming (ie cakes and pastries) instead  
of baking.

That is to say, anything that would have been roasted or baked could be  
steamed or poached in a fraction of the time, using less energy and in  
most cases, yielding a better end product.

Don't ask me what this has to do with Green building, but if anyone's to  
be roasted for this, it should be Reuben. He started it.

-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
< A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a >
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