Solar Cooker Experiment -- Red Potatoes

Image below taken from: SolarCooking.Org

I made red potatoes in the solar cooker today (see previous post for more details on my solar cooker). I simply washed five red potatoes and set them in the solar cooker pot. I washed and quartered a sixth and put it in as well. Then I set the oven thermometer inside with the potatoes. I added no liquid, salt, or seasoning of any kind. I cooked them this way because I wanted to see how long they'd take to cook, how a glass lid would work on the pot, and if the improvement I made on the cooker would make it cook hotter.

It's not cooking hotter than yesterday's 250 degrees, the temperature is the same. That might be because the glass lid wasn't made for the pot and is isn't a tight fit and may not be retaining all the heat that a properly fitting lid would. Also, I could smell the potatoes before I opened the roasting bag so the roasting bag may have a small tear in it, which means it's not retaining all the heat it could be. It was the same bag I used yesterday--washed and dried. Still, if it's up to 250 then the lid can't be too loose and the bag's tear can't be more than a puncture or two. The glass lid is awesome, allowing me to see the food and the thermometer without having to open the roasting bag.

There are small, puffy clouds in the sky today, so every few minutes the sun gets blocked out. This hints to me that if today were clear, the cooker may very well have reached 300. The potatoes were done in four hours. They may have been done sooner, I'm not sure, as I didn't check them until the four hour mark. I had cut the sixth potato in fourths because I wanted to see if it would oxidize and turn brown before it cooked. It didn't oxidize, it looks like any other cut and baked potato.

The potatoes, to which I added butter and salt, were delicious. Plain, but perfectly cooked, not dry at all, quite tasty! Next time they'll be cut into large cubes and cooked with butter, garlic cloves, and salt. Mmmmm.

The pot I use in the solar cooker gets VERY hot. I have to use pot holders to move it around and to lift the lid. Don't think this is a dangerous way to prepare food, it gets plenty hot enough to not only cook food but to burn fingers and kill bacteria. If you want to know more about food safey and solar cooking, check out This Site.