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Solar Cooking Recipes: Easy Baked Beans

Before starting this and certain other recipes, please take into consideration the amount of prime cooking time available to you in order to complete the full cooking process. Some recipes require two or more steps in the process of cooking the ingredients and can consume a fair portion of your available ideal cooking time.During the summer time this is less of a factor due to the position of the sun in the vernal sky. Fall, Winter and Spring solar cooking require some adjustment due to the shorter prime cooking hours. For more advice and insight go to our Solar Cooking: When is the Best Time? page.

Solar Cooking Recipes

Ingredients:

  • 3-4 cans of **Pork and Beans (or two large), (some brands are better than others.)
  • ½ of large bell pepper
  • 1 Small Onion
  • ½ lb. of Bacon
  • ¾ cup of Ketchup
  • 1/3 of cup of Brown Sugar
  • 2 Tbs. of Worcestershire sauce
  • ½ teaspoon of dry mustard (if available)
  • 1 teaspoon of salt

Steps

  • Place Solar Cooker to preheat about 15 minutes
  • Place bacon in solar pot (all pieces individually separated) allow to cook for 1 hour

Meanwhile

  • Dice Green pepper to desired size.
  • Dice Onion to desired size.
  • In a large bowl, pour in cans of beans and mix in Ketchup, Brown Sugar, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, salt and onions and peppers.
  • Bring solar pot with bacon in and pour out grease and chop up bacon on a cutting board. (Bacon does not need to be crisp since it will simmer in beans)
  • Combine bacon and all other ingredients into solar pot and return the pot to the reflector panels.
  • Stir beans every 1.5 to 2 hours and adjust to sun as needed.
  • I prefer my beans to cook all day long, 4-6 hours, or you can do as*noted below.
  • Results: Baked beans should thicken in consistency and darken the longer they cook.

*Richer taste: Most of the time I will cook my beans for about 3 hours then refrigerate them and set them out to cook the next day for about 3-4 hours more. Allowing them to steep in their own flavor and juices for a day makes a more flavorful dish in my opinion.

**Dry beans of different varieties can be used in place of pork and beans from a can; they only need be pre-cooked prior to adding them to the recipe

Additional note:

Cooking Dry Beans

I have found that it is more efficient to solar cook all of the different varieties of beans, that I am going to use throughout the week and month for various dishes, all at one time.In other words cook them up and then freeze them in order to have them on hand and ready for cooking at any time.I will cook up separate solar pots of red, kidney, pinto, black, white and anasazi beans and then freeze them in separate freezer bags.Depending on the style and the quality of the beans and where they came from, the time required to cook them can vary from three to five hours in a solar cooker.

*Just as one would do using traditional cooking methods, pre-soaking your beans overnight can greatly reduce the cooking time required.


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