Frozen to simmering in 2.5 hours

I've been fighting migraines for over a week now, and haven't felt like cooking much. Between the pharmacy switching one of my meds to a different generic and the hurricanes and cold fronts blowing through... I've been a zombie for a week.

I bought some frozen dinners this week, just to have some instant food in the house, when I don't have energy to actually cook. Today was absolutely perfect for solar cooking... no wind, no clouds, a very comfortable mid 80's air temp.

At 1: 30pm I put my roaster oven in the sun to heat; 30 minutes later, I got my food ready.

I grabbed my new Stansport Black Granite bowl (a bit of a disappointment, since it only holds one quart). Dumped a frozen Marie Calendar's Chicken Pot Pie into the bowl, put a glass lid on it and put that into the roaster oven. I readjusted the oven a couple of time through the cooking stage... the oven topped at almost 300F.

At 4pm, the roaster lid was completely covered in condensation, so I pulled the lid off and wiped it down; checked the inter temp of the pie (200 and simmering). I left the lid to the bowl off, and put it all back into the sun for a while to let the crust get crispy... I may have waited too long for that, but it looks beautiful!

OH, removing the roaster lid, dropped the interior temp by 50 degrees... gotta learn to not do that very much.

Added the next day: I left the pie in there for about 30 minutes longer, without the lid on the pot. The soft and gooey crust got beautifully crisp in that short time.

Yes, I will do this again! Effortless meals are a blessing when you don't feel like cooking.

Hot Soup!

After I completed all my experiments, the sun was still high, so I dumped about 2 cups of soup into the same pot that had boiling water in it.

Within an hour, the soup had gone from 35-40F to 200F.

Yeah, I like my Steel Bowl Cooker.

Experiement Conclusion

At 12:30, I had to move the cooker out of the shade, and onto a bucket. I tipped it back slightly to capture more sunlight.

I put 2 cups of tap water out, again at 85F in the same configuration as the distilled water.

At 12:55, the water temp had climbed to 150F.

I didn't check this again for 45 minutes, and the water was up to 200F. I repositioned the cooker, to face the sun better.

At 2pm, the water was boiling.

Pros of this cooker:

I am pleased with this cooker, and its cooking capabilities.

It is definitely more 'permanent' than my cardboard panel cooker, and much easier to store.

The steel bowls are light weight and relatively inexpensive. The two bowls cost $10 each, and I will need a new reflector soon, so for about the price of a CooKit, I have a cooker that will last for years, instead of one season.

Finally, the bowls can be used for other things.

If you don't have a resturant supply store in your town, check my links for online stores where you can purchases these mixing bowls.

Cons of this cooker:

The interior of the cooking bowl will need a lot of protection to prevent scratches marring the surface.

I will need to experiment more to perfect the focusing of this cooker to maximize the solar capturing and heating potential. I may need to raise the pots higher for instance.

With a panel cooker, all the research has been done; you just set up the cooker and face it towards the sun.

Experiment Details

I set the cooker out, on the cement, at 11:30 am with 2 cups of distilled water.






By 12 noon, the temperature had gone from 85F to 150F. I turned the cooker a small amount to keep it focused on the sun.


By 12:30 pm, the temperature was up to 200F... when I brought that water in the house to make tea.

Experiments- This cooker Boils!

July 21, 2008, with a UV Index between 11-12, I did an official experiment with my twin steel bowl cooker.

I used:

* A 3 cup pot & a glass lid (that I removed the plastic handle)

* A pyrex mixing bowl

* On top of the Bowl is a lid from an old crock pot.

The pot sits on a black candle holder, to elevate it off the bottom of the bowl. That is the shiny surface in the bottom of the bowl.

The bowl sits on what I'm guessing was a plate stand or plant stand of some kind. Having the bowl in this stand allows me to tip the bowl- as the cooker must be tipped to catch the sun- and still keep the pot level.

More about the Steel Bowl Cooker

I used pinch style paper clips to attach the ends of the windshield shade to lip of the bottom bowl in the front.

I used a third clip at the back (where the depression is for the rear view mirror) to fill in that gap and get the shade to conform to the shape of the bowl better.