Hard "Boiled" Eggs!

by BC
(St. Louis, MO)

My husband had a great idea to hard “boil” some eggs in the solar cooker. I had seen before that it could be done, but I wasn’t sure about duration, whether water was needed, etc. Hubby assured me water wasn’t necessary, and indeed, that the entire process would be slowed down waiting for the water to boil.

We decided to simply invert the lid on the black pot that came with the solar cooker, place some eggs in that (see picture), and put it in the preheated cooker. The temperature inside was about 250 F when I placed the items in the Sun Oven.

Forty-five minutes later, I removed one egg from the cooker to check its progress. (The oven was registering about 325-330 F.) It felt done to me! But I don’t like hard-boiled eggs, so I let my husband be the judge after dousing it with some cold water. He pronounced it almost too done; the yolk was apparently a bit too dry for his taste. I immediately brought the others in, but I left them in the lid without putting them in water. There, they continued to cook a bit longer, and so these got that greenish-gray ring around the yolk that the first one didn’t have, and the whites had brown spots where it had been in contact with the hot pot lid.

I am very likely to try this again! It was quick, easy, and sort of fun because one does not have to stand over a pot of boiling water and risk it running over! However, I will adjust the cooking time to about 35 minutes, and then slip them briefly into cold water to stop the cooking process. Overall, this would be a great cooking project for a child! Just be careful: Those eggs and pots get very hot!