Go Sun solar oven - sharing experiences and recipes

Over in another thread Hank Waltner suggested perhaps we try making a new thread dedicated to sharing experiences and recipes using a Go Sun oven.  For those not familiar with these they are a particular brand of solar cooker that uses evacuated tubes more commonly used in solar hot water systems.  These provide excellent insulation allowing one to cook with the sun in freezing outdoor temperatures.  The challenge can be that as a result of the long glass tubes the cooking trays are also long and narrow.

Normally in my region this time of year ( winter solstice/Christmas ) it's very cloudy with little sun.  I got one of these solar cookers in the fall and haven't really gotten to play around with it too much yet.  I hadn't even tried using it on cloudy days.  Last week I did give it a shot reheating some leftovers on a slightly brighter cloudy day.  I left it out for an hour or two, not really expecting anything.  Surprisingly the food was slightly warm, though there was absolutely no risk of burning ones mouth on it!

Today it's a nice sunny but cold day.  The temperatures are hovering right around the freezing point.  I loaded up the tray with some leftover stuffing, baked tofu, and green bean casserole from our Christmas dinner and set it out aimed at the sun.  I checked it 20 minutes later and it seemed warmer, but I wasn't seeing much steam so decided to let it cook another 20 minutes.  At that point it was definitely steaming, though this doesn't show in my photo.  The tray was very hot to the touch when we pulled it out, so was the food.  Before we began eating this tray I loaded a second tray I have with more and set it out to cook as we ate.  We then ate and I went to check the second tray immediately after.  I don't know how long it was, but it was a shorter time.  I'll guess 25 minutes.  The sun was still shining fully.  As before when I initially checked the food right at the end of the tray by the opening didn't seem super hot, but further down the tray it was good.  So I brought it all in and found our "second course" of the meal to be nicely heated.  That first tray probably would have been in the same period of time too if I had checked it further down the tray.

This particular meal isn't really a recipe for cooking, just using it as a nifty device for reheating.  I didn't need to add any water, or anything.  I just put the leftovers in and let it go.  The food was moist and hot as it should have been.

Does anyone else have experiences and/or recipes to share?

I'm going to post so I can get updates and add something later. I build this style cooker this weekend and have yet to try it out as I've not built the food trays yet. Tested it after dark using a BBQ thermometer & a 40 watt incandescent bulb. Measured 19 degrees Celsius to 77 degrees Celsius in 40 minutes.

James, is the tube in your solar cooker an evacuated glass tube where you will insert cooking trays?  It looks like it will work nicely.  Please do let us know how it goes once you get to try it.

David Huang wrote:James, is the tube in your solar cooker an evacuated glass tube where you will insert cooking trays?  It looks like it will work nicely.  Please do let us know how it goes once you get to try it.

Yes it is. I hope so. Will do.

For anyone following without an evacuated tube cooker. There is an open box sale at GoSun on now. If you were waiting this maybe a good time to save some money.

Lessons I’ve learnt so far - early days, I’ve only cooked grains.

1) Do not over fill. If you want to complete the Cook grain in a solar oven Badge Bit do it in two goes. My first attempt was a failure and I put it down to lack of preparation and not putting it on a perfectly flat surface. My second attempt was also a failure - the amount of water required to cook two cups is right at the limit of the storage capacity and when water warms up it expands and leaked.
2) Rice at the very end doesn’t cook unless you stir it up. As per the last lesson, I was trying to complete the BB. The rice in the middle was over cooked and the rice at the end was undercooked. On the fourth attempt, I pulled out the tray and tried stirring it up, but it was still too full and caused a mess. So back to lesson 1, do not overfill.
3) Brown rice takes waaaaaay longer than white rice even with overnight soaking before cooking.
4) You can cook when it’s less than 0’C but you need to be mindful of the hours of available light and where the sun goes. Mid winter where I am in NJ, even though the sun is up, it’s often behind buildings and trees.

This is a great topic and I will be back with more experience. I have big plans for my solar cooker once I have a little more available light. I had to put my experimentation plans on hold over the Christmas period as the family require reliable food!

Thanks for reporting your experiences Edward!  I haven't yet tried grains, assuming you don't count warming up leftovers.  I do remember reading in my GoSun literature to be careful to not over fill when cooking things that expand like rice (or baking bread).  Great tips on stirring.  I wouldn't have thought to do that.  Question though, when you say it didn't cook as well at the end are you referring to the end closest to the opening (my assumption) or both ends of the tube?

I also basically just use brown rice these days so thanks for the heads up that it will take much longer!

I had forgotten about the PEP badge bit for cooking grain in a solar oven.  Thanks for reminding me of that!  When I was more actively doing BB's I didn't have a solar cooker and so put that one aside for the time.  I need to now go back and do that one!  Though like you I will probably be waiting until the days have gotten longer and sunnier.  I live in a winter gloom belt do to my proximity to Lake Michigan.  While this winter has been much sunnier than normal, heavy overcast days still prevail.

I did do an experiment making a whole food plant based vegan carrot halwa in my GoSun cooker last week.  While it turned out significantly different than a traditional carrot halwa it was still quite tasty.  I need to try it again, perhaps with a couple tweeks, document it, and share it here for anyone interested.

Thank you for bringing this up! My cooking currently is mostly pressure cooker multiple servings, then reheat for a couple days. In 2 months I'll be moving to Wheaton Labs and was thinking that the reheating leftovers part could be handled nicely by a solar cooker, so I'll probably grab their GoSun Sport model and have it delivered to Paul.

So far I gotta say this solar cooker is great for reheating leftovers so that's probably a good idea Mark!

I find a temperature probe very handy to know when the food is done. I have a Riida temp probe.
The sport will cook at most one cup uncooked rice. Double the water and cook untill temp reaches 210 degrees. I do not stir it or open the cooker until it is done.

Fusion recipe for 2 cups rice.
340 grams or 2 cups well rinsed white rice (jasmine is my go to) if you do not rinse it will be a little sticky.
680 grams water or 4 cups
Add a little salt and or oil if you must

Cook time was 2:40 minutes.

I am guessing the Sport with half that amount of water and rice will cook a little quicker.
I think the 3/4 cups of rice would be optimal for the sport.

Basic recipe for sweet potatoes.
You can of coarse season and spice many different ways but I main purpose is to get the timing figured out which when using only the sun which is a sticky wicket.

2 fairly large sweet potatoes I thought I would use the Sport but it would not fit so Fusion it is.
1tbs olive oil
salt you decide I probably used a tsp.
3tbs butter

Dice it up mine were fairly large dices.
Put the diced potatoes, oil and salt in a bowl.
Cook it.
When finished add the butter.

It took 1 hour to reach 210 and the potatoes were very soft added the butter and transfered to a serving bowl.
Today was full sun in my neck of the woods.

As stated my goal is keeping track of time, when the last hurricane hit and we had no power for 3 days I had my toys that I had used but I did not keep up with anything it was just load it and see how it goes, but I you find that you are depending on these toys you need to know what to expect, planning is everything when results matter.
You could make the sweet potatoes more healthy or less that is up to you but timing is important. figure and hour, or less if you do not like them real soft.

Made eggs this morning in my evacuated tube cooker. Outside temp -17°C and took 40 minutes to cook three eggs to 74°C.

Here's a simple dish my girlfriend recently did.  It's just Brussels sprouts and tomatoes with a bit of salt and pepper, cooked in the sun for 30 minutes.

Suns out. Go suns out. Hey guys cooking in the go sun again trying to figure it ou. Currently making a potatoey egg bake.I’ll post pictures when it’s done

Potato Cake

2 spuds
1 small onion
4 eggs
Cheese
Butter
Seasoning as desired( lawerys salt and some pepper)

Slice the spuds and onions put in go sun with parts of butter on top. Bake till done(bout 30 minutes). Crack eggs in bowl and stir together with some shredded cheese and seasoning. ( thin with milk if desired). Pour eggs in top of potatoes and bake till done.

Picture as promised.

I used mine for the first time at the lab to reheat some chili, I learned to smooth the food down so it doesn't poke out where it can touch the glass, otherwise there's more to clean. With clouds about 50/50 with sun it took about 40 minutes to reheat.

I've had my eye on these for quite a while. They're much more expensive in Canada, though. The model I wanted was the grill, but they replaced that with the fusion and I'm not interested in having the powered option.

So, I just sprung for a cheaper Chinese version. So far, I'm really happy with it. It's been very wet and cloudy, so I've only used it a few times, just for quick breads and vegetables. The whole beets I cooked took forever, but it was late in the day and somewhat overcast. Quick bread cooked in full sun took about 20min.

The cooker I have has more of a flat tray, rather than the half pipe that the gosuns have. It comes with disposable mini loaf pans to cook in. I've got my eye out for some stainless ones to replace them with. For now, I just line them with paper.

I'm still tweaking my recipe, but I've been doing 125g of chickpea flour and 75 grams of whatever other flour I want. Right now I have oat, millet, and barley milled. To that, I add 25g of ground flaxseed, 1tsp baking powder, and 1/4tsp baking soda. Add water to the right consistency and a splash of vinegar. That's the basic recipe.

I'll usually add in other stuff - dried fruit, herbs, grated vegetables, crumbled dried greens, mushroom powder, etc. About 100g grated vegetables is about right for that amount of flour.

That makes two mini loaves, about 500 calories each, depending on what all goes into them. So one of those with some pesto, nut butter, miso, etc makes a good, filling lunch.

Jan White wrote:I've had my eye on these for quite a while. They're much more expensive in Canada, though. The model I wanted was the grill, but they replaced that with the fusion and I'm not interested in having the powered option.

Thanks Jan! I was in the same boat. I bought some under sized tubes to make my own. Undersized not the right size. I'm still working on making something a little more usable out of the tubes. I still very much love Panel cookers and use that and my large parabolic the most.

That looks great Jan!  Thanks for sharing your recipe.  I may have to try that, and my girlfriend is gluten free so it could work well for her too.

Disaster strikes. Was using a bag of frozen chicken wings. Bad idea.

Ouch!  Well I guess they weren't lying when they warned of thermal shock from using frozen food!  Did you put the frozen chicken wings into an already heated tube or was the tube at "room temp" and just heated too fast for the frozen wings to thaw enough to equalize?

I hope no one was hurt.

I had used the tube earlier in the morning to boil hot water and thought it had cooled down enough. So yeah no frozen foods! No injuries and the wings were cleaned, cooked and fed to some animals. Us humans had more from the bag and cooked them in a solar box oven and then sauced and cooked in a parabolic to brown. I have more tubes at home so will try again with unfrozen next time.

Don't use frozen foods!

I have had a GoSun Fusion for about 6 years now and would give it 9 out of 10 acorns. Love it for cooking frozen salmon--straight out of the freezer--best salmon I've ever had with any method of cooking, no seasoning needed. When it's done the juices and all are there, so it sort of steams when it's cooking, in its own juices. (This is actually the case with everything).

I fill it with 3 large filet with at least a 1/4" gap between each and align it to the sun, set my timer for 67mins and that's it. If it gets cloudy it can take longer though, so I try not to do this with the frozen fish on days it doesn't seem that it will be clear skies long enough. Most days here are clear enough, year round. It takes the same amount of time whether it's 120 degrees (F) or 9 degrees (F) outside. I place the largest one in the middle with the thicker side toward the back (end of try that doesn't have the handle), the second largest goes in the back end with the thicker side toward the middle, and the smallest goes closest to the opening with the thicker side toward the middle. This helps them all cook with the same timing.

I am careful to never use it to cook more than once a day though, which helps reduce chances of breakage. I always have the reflectors closed when putting the tray in and taking it out, as having them open without something in it increases changes of breakage too.

It has electronics on it so that you can cook with a 12volt DC plug-in so that you can cook at night or if it's too cloudy, or shady, etc. The idea of that is nifty, and we had solar panels on our RV when full-timing it, so it worked great with that, a couple times. Except.. a lot of it is mounted on the bottom of the tray underneath and that makes it tricky to wash and set down without potentially damaging the circuits and all. I'm not sure if that's why this happens, but the cord and plug, etc. are known to get too hot when using it that way, and we had trouble once with that where it plugs into the tray. We've been using it almost daily without the DC power and it's best that way in my opinion. We've used it so much that some of the outer plastic where you put the tray in and out of and that the legs slide around on separated. We were able to kind of fix that, but I don't dare use the DC power on it anymore and kind of wish I could just get a tray without the electronics for it.

It has a larger capacity than the Sport or the Go, but evenso we need to use another solar oven for cooking other things at the same time. At one point they sold a multi oven unit that looked like it could be nice, but they aren't selling that anymore. They aren't selling the Grill anymore either.

Overall I like the Fusion best of their options because the frozen filet fit in perfectly and wouldn't work in anything narrower. I've cooked quinoa, rice, lentil soup, stews, and all kinds of farm veggies, etc. as well and they work great, like other solar cookers. I have not tried bread, but I've seen a lot of people do breads in them.

The legs on it are kinda' wonky in some ways. The design allows them to rotate so that you can tilt the unit for the sun and that part works well. Those legs fold in for carrying so you don't have legs sticking out which is nice in that way, but the problem is that the little thing they have for locking the legs out for use tends to shift and not work for locking them, so it's fiddly to not have one side or the other of the legs collapse. Once you get used to it, it's fairly easy to avoid collapsing--you just have to remember to pull both of the legs out when you're done arranging it. I don't bother trying to lock the legs with that little thing now, I just pull them legs outwards.

It would be nice if there was a version with an even larger diameter so more could fit, but as it is this is working for what I'm using it for.

I have a DIY small version that they sell calling it a kit too. It's basically a tube the size of the Go I believe, with tray and cap for the end, along with some 3D printed plastic ends with channels that you can pop on the ends of the tube and slide the included reflectors into (the channels). It's more of a novelty than something practical for me as I eat meals that are larger than that so it wouldn't really be so useful except to maybe cook some eggs or a snack, or boil water for something like coffee, or maybe sausages or hot dogs. But, I don't drink coffee (puts me to sleep!), or hot beverages, or eat sausages or hot dogs, and would use something else for the eggs, etc.

I also have the thermometer that they sell which syncs to an app to tell you what temp the things you have it in are without having to open it up, but I don't like apps so don't use it that way. I do use it to check that the fish is done though, and I use it for when I'm cooking with other methods in that way as well too.

The Fusion comes with a carrying case that has pockets for the DC cord, and if you also have one of their DC battery units that fits in there too. The case has hand handles as well as an over the shoulder strap. It's nice, but I rarely use it since we aren't taking it places on foot most of the time. We keep the body of it outside, with reflectors folded closed. The tray is inside our abode in its drying spot when not in use. It has held up to all sorts of weather. We've cooked with it in high winds too. Only once did it sort of slide across the ground in the wind, otherwise it holds up well.

I don't have pictures handy right now. Maybe I'll come back and add some later.