Solar Powered Turkey

Ysarex

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My biggest effort (by weight and time of year) so far. Roasted an 11.25 pound turkey today in my solar oven out in the backyard. I had to start at 7:45 am with the first rays of the sun and took the turkey out at 3:30 pm.

Joe

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turkey.jpg
 
Kinda neat! I'm guessing it must get up roughly around 300 degrees or so inside that box. It took right at 1.5 hours per pound, a little quicker cooking than my smoker. Watch out for the Bumpus dogs! :hopelessness:
 
Kinda neat! I'm guessing it must get up roughly around 300 degrees or so inside that box. It took right at 1.5 hours per pound, a little quicker cooking than my smoker. Watch out for the Bumpus dogs! :hopelessness:

If I can place a black pan in the oven with a black lid on the pan and I have a clear sunny day I can max the temp at 350 F. I wasn't able to get a lid on this turkey which was in an oven bag so the best I could reach was 305 F at the brightest part of the day.

Joe
 
Kinda neat! I'm guessing it must get up roughly around 300 degrees or so inside that box. It took right at 1.5 hours per pound, a little quicker cooking than my smoker. Watch out for the Bumpus dogs! :hopelessness:

If I can place a black pan in the oven with a black lid on the pan and I have a clear sunny day I can max the temp at 350 F. I wasn't able to get a lid on this turkey which was in an oven bag so the best I could reach was 305 F at the brightest part of the day.

Joe

If nothing else it sounds like a nice, survival oven. I wouldn't mind having one. I assume you have to adjust it with the angle of the sun so often.
 
Kinda neat! I'm guessing it must get up roughly around 300 degrees or so inside that box. It took right at 1.5 hours per pound, a little quicker cooking than my smoker. Watch out for the Bumpus dogs! :hopelessness:

If I can place a black pan in the oven with a black lid on the pan and I have a clear sunny day I can max the temp at 350 F. I wasn't able to get a lid on this turkey which was in an oven bag so the best I could reach was 305 F at the brightest part of the day.

Joe

If nothing else it sounds like a nice, survival oven. I wouldn't mind having one. I assume you have to adjust it with the angle of the sun so often.

Depends on what you're cooking and the season. In summer with a lighter job you can just point it south and go shopping. But yes, to do this turkey I had to keep after it about every 45 minutes and re-position it with the moving sun.

Joe
 
I have read about these ovens, years ago, in Survivalist magazine. It is interesting to actually see the results that it can produce. How did the turkey taste? Was the oven able to hold the juices? Have you cooked any other food items with the oven?
 
I saw the title of the thread and assumed it was a joke of some type. Nope.
 
I have read about these ovens, years ago, in Survivalist magazine. It is interesting to actually see the results that it can produce. How did the turkey taste? Was the oven able to hold the juices? Have you cooked any other food items with the oven?

Turkey tastes great -- very juicy. Holding the juices is an issue as this turkey was about as big as the oven can handle. The solution was to use one of those oven bags. The turkey was a real snug fit in the pan. About 3/4 through I took the turkey out and removed it from the bag pouring off any juice to save later. Then I returned the turkey with no oven bag back into the oven to brown up. I've cooked all kinds of things from bacon to chocolate cake. Does a great job on "hard baked" eggs. It's good for any kind of roast and very nicely cooks a whole chicken. I like to use it in the summer months so I can bake things without competing with the air-conditioner -- figure it's paid for itself.

Best thing of all it's my secret for apple butter. My brother last year pronounced my apple butter better than my sister's apple butter (you can't imagine). The thing about apple butter is you have to cook it down and if you do it on the stove top in a pot it'll scorch unless you stand there and stir it and stir it and stir it and stir it and keep standing there stirring it and nobody except your Depression-era Grandmother can stand there that long stirring the bleepin apple butter. So everybody including my sister gives up too early and calls it done when in fact it needs another 5 hours of cooking. But in the solar oven it won't scorch and you can cook it down for two days if you want -- don't tell my sister.

Joe
 
I've never heard of apple butter before, sounds great. I'll need to try it sometime!

That cooker looks awesome, it'd be cool to try one out but I don't think we get enough sun
 
Low & slow is the way to go when cooking large amounts of meat, imo, which is why I'm mostly interested in this and an oven bag is sure to retain the moisture. I just priced it on amazon and it's rather expensive compared to others but I suppose in a life or death situation most people would value their lives at "a little more" than $340. ;)

BTW, send me a jar of your scrumptious apple butter or I'll tell your sister. :boogie:
 

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