Sun ovens

[Rosie]

One of the drawbacks to camping is that after you spend all day hiking/boating/fishing/swimming or whatever, you arrive back at your campsite and you're starving but you still have to build a fire and then let the coals get to a good temperature before you can use your dutch oven.

A great way around this is by using a sun oven. You simply set out the solar oven in a sunny spot and position it to where it is pointing to where the sun will be at noon. Then you put what you want to cook inside a covered pot in the oven and it will basically act like a slow cooker and you can come back to your site to find perfectly cooked chilli or even a roast!

Does anyone here use a sun oven while camping or even at home?

[rockin]

Wow, that sounds pretty awesome! I would love to buy one and give it a try. I wonder what they cost. Any ideas? I mean the taste of the food on the campfire, but I'm all about easy some days!

[need2boutside]

You can make a sun oven with a cardboard box, black spray paint and aluminum foil. They are really easy to make and yes, we do use one at home sometimes.

[isabelle]

That sounds like a wonderful craft/cooking thing to try on GS trips too. I didn't even know they existed, I'll have to ask around/pass it around to others in my family.

[Grandpa]

Sun ovens sound very exciting to try for campouts. I really liked the box idea. I want to try that one.

I have heard of, seen, and ate pizza from a reflector oven, which uses heat from a campfire. Such as this...Reflector Ovens - Scoutmastercg.com

[WildRover]

The Sun oven can be found at sunoven dot com . I use this oven at least a few times a week at home and it's fabulous. It works even better when it's cold outside because the air is more clear so the sun can be more focused.

This won't work for backpacking though because the Sun Oven weighs 21 pounds. There are lighter solar ovens but of course you'd have to sacrifice some of the features of the Sun Oven.

It's not necessary to buy the oven though. If you're handy you can make one. There are plans galore online.

[Tony]

I've never used sun ovens before but I'm willing and very much interested to try it. Lighting a fire really takes a lot of time so this sun oven idea is very much appealing to me as I don't need to lit a fire.

[ponderosa]

I have a friend who uses a homemade version to bake during the summer, so she doesn't have to heat up her house. She also happens to be a generous gal, so I've been fortunate to sample baked beans, chocolate cake, homemade bread, and roast meats from her solar oven.
She also uses a big cooler, with an old blanket or sleeping bag inside for extra insulation. She prepares whatever she wants to cook in a can or big jar with a watertight lid, or just seals the dish in a big plastic bag. Then she heats a big kettle of water to boiling, and places the sealed food in the kettle with a tight lid. She carefully sets the kettle in the cooler and wraps the sleeping bag around it to insulate. Shut the lid on the cooler, leave it alone for several hours, and come back to hot baked bread or casserole or beans or whatever. It works!