The Global Sun Oven Was a Hit… Well, Almost

A few days ago we went camping and brought along my Christmas present, the Global Sun Oven. Although I had un-boxed and cleaned the oven when I first received it, I never bothered to use it because I had assumed that the winter weather would prove it too difficult to use. As such, I simply packed it away with the rest of my supplies and essentially forgot about it until my son mentioned we should bring it along… so we did.

Since we showed up to the campground late (about 4:30 pm), I immediately setup the oven–it literally only takes 30 seconds at most–then placed inside a pot of rice with a few dehydrated vegetables that I had dehydrated a few months ago, along with a bouillon cube for a bit of seasoning, and some water. Since the weather was nice (about 84 degrees) and sunny, I had high hopes.

After angling it toward the sun as much as I could (using a log) we went about setting up the rest of the campsite. Every so often I checked on the angle and position of the oven to the sun and found myself adjusted it about every 20 minutes or so. Occasionally, I would check on the internal temperature using the built-in thermometer and happily found the oven to heat up to over 250 degrees Fahreheit within roughly 15 minutes. So long as I kept it angled properly and out of the shadows it kept this temperature really constant, reaching a high of no more than 275 degrees, which was concerning at the time.

Since I had no idea of what to expect from this first attempt, I let the food cook for two hours and, since we were ready to eat by then, my son removed the pot of rice and veggies from the sun oven. To my delight, the food was re-hydrated, cooked, and hot too!

Now, for the moment of truth… how did it taste?

Unfortunately, quite bland. It was cooked for sure, but it seems I didn’t season the pot well enough at all. And, sadly, we failed to bring any additional seasonings with us. We ate some of the rice and veggies just to try it, but the food certainly would have been a much better success had I seasoned it properly.

As for the Global Sun Oven, I was pleased. It did what I wanted it to do. The oven even held up well to the wind, which was something I was definitely worried about; I would suspect, however, that a strong wind gust could blow it over because of the panels. I was also concerned that I couldn’t do anything to get the temperature higher than about 275 degrees. I will research if/how that is possible, but for now it was a success.