Solar Cooking – learning how to use the AASO as a dehydrator
Note: Knew I was in for a busy few weeks, want to point out the subject matter of this post actually happened near the end of March and preceded the last post.
I have already played with boiling and baking in our, (still fairly new), All American Sun Oven – but have never tried using it as a dehydrator. Time to get to work at the end of March, 2019 –
You can see from the shadows showing the oven is currently about 15 degrees to the East of the sun. I am attempting to pre-heat it to about 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and will continue to do so through the day.
Couldn’t find the parchment paper that came with the AASO so simply cut some Renolds to fit.
Didn’t really know what I was doing and here is the first lesson learned – I needed to slice these to half the thickness shown above – or even thinner. Taking my time, slicing them thin, would have promoted faster and more effective dehydration.
Controlling the temperature in the oven is the most important part of this exercise. By continuing to “trail” the sun, (aiming about 15 degrees to the East of it), I was able to keep the temperature down in the range recommended for dehydration.
That tempered glass cover is hinged to the left, rests on a silicon seal – normally held down firmly by two little clasps on the right – however, for dehydrating food – you rest the glass on top of the little clasp levers, leaving a 1/4″ crack for air and moisture to escape.
Calling it a day – those tomatoes have been out for almost 7 hours now and from looking they still could use a bit more dehydration, but time to go ahead and get them in the house.
As you can see, I’ve eaten a couple. They are a bit leathery, but definitely still have a little moisture in them – so not fully dehydrated yet. Just the same, the learning experience was a total success.