CooKit Panel Cooker
-
instructions
160510
Thank you for choosing the
CooKit
. Please read these instructions carefully before using it.
Safety
Please observe the following rules to ensure safe use of your solar cooker
:
General
– most people in the UK are unfamiliar with solar cookers, so ensure that your
CooKit
is not set
up where others might get curious and inadvertently burn or scald themselves by touching it, especially
children. Make sure you explain the danger to others in the vicinity
Eye safety
– the reflectors are designed to focus sunlight onto the cooking vessel, but from some angles
it will be possible for some sunlight to be reflected into your eyes. NEVER stare at these reflections, and
do your best to avoid them completely by standing behind or to the side of your cooker. ALWAYS wear
dark polarising sunglasses with good UV radiation filtering properties while using your cooker. Make
sure others take the same precautions.
Risk of burns or scalds
- remember that this is a cooker, and it will operate at temperatures of up to
110
o
C. The cooking vessel will be hot enough to burn your hands, and the food will be hot enough to
burn your mouth. ALWAYS use oven gloves to handle cooking vessels, and ALWAYS take the same
precautions to prevent accidents that you would at home in your own kitchen while cooking and handling
hot food. Sorry to labour the point, but people really do underestimate how hot these can get.
Broken glass
– we strongly recommend that you use a borosilicate (Pyrex) dish to act as the
‘greenhouse’ for your
CooKit
(see below). If you use ordinary glass, there is much more risk that it will
break due to thermal stress if it cools too rapidly. Even if you use borosilicate glass, treat it with care.
Food safety
– Your
CooKit
will usually heat your food to between 90
o
C and 110
o
C in full continuous
sunlight. You can think of it as a low powered ‘slow cooker’. There is a risk of bacterial growth in food
held between 8
o
C and 63
o
C and so this is known as the ‘danger zone’. Because the
CooKit
is not
powerful, you should make sure that your food passes through the danger zone as quickly as possible.
NEVER use frozen food straight from the freezer, thaw it thoroughly first. ALWAYS use a thermometer
(see below) to observe how rapidly the temperature rises in your
CooKit
. ALWAYS think twice about
continuing to cook in your
CooKit
if the sun is not continuous until your food reaches 70
o
C. ALWAYS
check that
the centre of
your food has been cooking for at least an hour at 63
o
C or above, more for
chicken and some other meats. You can find more information about minimum cooking temperatures
here:
http://tinyurl.com/q488krk
NEVER let your food drop below 63
o
C before serving it.
Setting up your
CooKit
After removing all external packaging, unfold your CooKit, preferably in the shade, but always so that the
shiny surfaces are pointing away from the sun. Correctly assembled, it should look like the picture
(below, left). Push the two outer wings through the slits
and use the two clips provided to adjust the angle of the
front flap (below, right).
Put your CooKit on a flat
horizontal surface, facing the sun.
You can use any
dark coloured metal cooking vessel with your CooKit,
but vessels that are a) matt black in colour and b) as
light (i.e. not heavy) as possible work best. You should
use a short stand or trivet to keep your cooking vessel
off the bottom of your ‘greenhouse’. The ‘greenhouse’ is
the transparent outer container that
allows
sunlight
to
reach
your
cooking vessel, but prevents hot air
from escaping from around it. We
prefer to use borosilicate glass like
the container pictured on the left,
but you
can
use high temperature
plastic microwave cooking bags.
You
can
use a solid lid for your
cooking vessel, but a transparent
