Warming Up Pre-Cooked Meals

by BC
(St. Louis, MO)

This week I decided to see how the solar oven performs in 50/50 weather. We had darker, puffier clouds racing by all day so that half the time the cooker was in a great shade. However, I placed pre-cooked meatballs in a sauerkraut/cranberry/jalapeno sauce and set them out for a couple of hours, beginning around 3. The highest temperature the cooker reached was 250 F. When I took them out around 5, they were in total shade and the cooker was barely at 175 F. Fortunately, the dish was completely warm—no, hot!—and very tasty. I don’t recommend this for serious cooking such as with raw meats and baking, but for warming pre-cooked meals up, it worked quite nicely.

In the future, I’d like to bake a pie in the solar cooker and see how it does, but I’m hesitant because pies are difficult to get right. It can be burnt on top and raw on the bottom and soggy within. Do I need to use tin foil on the pie to prevent burnt edges, does anyone know?