Foolproof Solar Cookery

A Century-old Idea Reborn Introducing Foolproof Solar Cooking

If sunshine on your shoulders makes you happy . . . and your name is Greg Stutzman . . . the shoulder could be beef or pork or even lamb. All kinds of things can be cooking in the Sun Chef. For three generations of Stutzmans — and for numerous other “Sunshine Cooks” with bake, broil, or roast in the sun as their solar goal — soup's on.

Stutzman lives in a townhouse crammed with the makings of his life. That means that the upstairs library is swimming in solar research, codes and theories, and miles of reports. A former member of the state Solar Commission, Stutzman conducts his work to the coos of “Love Dove,” his white dove, who lives in the livingroom, and the patter of lots of tiny feet.

“We just had babies! Want a hamster?” All of this makes the incongruous setting for the mastermind behind what is accepted by solar experts as “an optimum solar device” — i.e., oven. How did this single father come to focus on cookery? He shrugs but pulls out reefs of note paper thick with scribbles and diagrams. “Here's what I went through to get this design . . .” he muttered, flipping through pages of what appeared to be hamster tracks but turned out to be handwritten ideas, experiments, and results.

“Actually, I could have saved myself a bunch of trouble if I had seen this article in Scientific American dated June 15, 1878, in which W. Adams, a cook for the British Army in India, patented this identical device in 1876. Of course, his was for mutton and the idea was that the sun cooked it all day so it was juicy.” The original inventor never heard of a brown in the bag cooking bag — a trick that the Stutzmans use for their recipes — and the Stutzmans don't have mutton casserole recipes. But the idea of the two inventors is simplicity itself. Prepare the food, put it in a pan, put the pan in a clear brown n' cook bag, (this saves spatters as the meat cooks) and let the sun go to work for you. Stutzman says the system is foolproof.

“Nothing can overcook. Meats are really juicy so you can use less expensive cuts. It works for frozen or thawed foods and most things cook in an hour. But they will stay warm and not overcook as long as all day.” He makes his claims devoid of modesty. “Actually, I can't cook in a regular oven. About the only problem we had with the earlier models was that they were so pretty, with all the mirrors and wood, that people wired them with lights and used them for coffee tables. To tell you the truth, they looked great, but the idea is for people to cook with them. So now, I've switched to fiberglass bodies. But you can still use them for patio tables when you're not cooking,” he grinned, tapping the white side of the oven.

Another problem, just as easily solved, was recipes. There weren't any published for solar cooking. So Greg's mother, Doris, decided to write a cookbook more as a solar text than anything else. Solar Cooking Made Easy was a group effort, all hand-tested recipes, headed by Doris. Already she and her granddaughter, Laura, are hard at work updating the edition. Doris is concentrating on vegetarian dishes, and Laura is doing solar cooking for kids.

Looking at the lightweight contraption, you can't help but notice the size — about 31/2 to 4 feet across and about that tall. “I can't scale it any smaller,” Stutzman explained. “I tried, and things take all day to cook.

“Another comment I get is that you can't use it when the sun isn't out. True. But look. People spend a couple hundred dollars for a gas barbeque, which is only for grilling. So why not have a less expensive, more versatile oven which is only for when the sun is shining?” The Sun Chef, his oven model, sells for less than a microwave. It can be bought assembled or in kit form (it takes a day to put together because of the drying time involved). And it's even safe around animals and small children. The wooden knob, protecting the concentrating solar dome, doesn't get hot. And the mirrors ward off intruders. Once Stutzman's dog looked in, saw eight dogs staring back, and never came close to it again.

As for capacity, it holds a 21-pound turkey, sans the roaster, but in a bag. And the cooking directions are simple enough: point it toward the sun, put in the food, and forget it.

Slowly, solar cooking is catching on. Mrs. Sue Armstrong's classes in Paradise Valley High School have been doing solar cooking in the Sun Chef since 1978, and now 13 of the Valley's high school districts offer some solar cooking classes. The more it's used, the more versatile the ovens prove to be. “We cooked a 7 course meal for over 160 people using 13 ovens,” Stutzman recalled. “And we cooked in it on Saturday Night Live. The crew said if we could cook a 121/2-pound stuffed turkey in it, they'd run it on TV. We did — in 2 hours and 45 minutes, and they ate it in about 45 seconds.” So why hasn't the sun stolen the limelight from microwave cooking. The solar oven concept is still new to many people and, since Stutzman was involved with the Solar Commission, he hasn't marketed the device actively.

In the meantime, to that old saying, “make hay while the sun shines,” add zucchini, bread, spaghetti, chicken teriyaki . . . whatever your heart and stomach desire.