Solar Cooking Basics

There are numerous solar ovens you can buy, and there are tons of solar cookers you can make; however, they all have some basic things in common:

1. There is a way to reflect the sun's rays into the cooker or onto the pot.
2. There is a dark surface to absorb the sun's rays - the inside of a box, or at least the pot itself.  Some models use black ceramic tiles to absorb and retain heat.
3. There is a way to seal in the heat - either with a glass/plastic cover, or with a plastic bag around the pot (like an oven cooking bag).

If you have these three things, the designs you create are almost endless.

(Parabolic cookers are a bit different, and not as easy to construct.  They focus the sun's rays on one spot and cook more quickly.)