SC - Solar Cooking in period????

[L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt]

Hi Folks!

No, I have not lost my gourd: It's a serious question. Are there any
references to solar cooking in period? I ran across the following, which
quite clearly states that the SUN was to do the drying/cooking of the dough
(btw this is one of my favorite dishes, and my kids request leftovers in the
lunch box the next day. I read it with fresh eyes yesterday and was struck
by the solar cooking bit. Redaction is available if you really want it.): 

>From The Goode Huswife's Jewel by Thomas Dawson, 1596:
To Make Apple Moyse

Roste your apples, and when they be rosted, pill and straind them into a 
dish, and pare a dozen of apples and cut them into a chafer, and put in a 
little white wine and a little butter, and let them boil till they be as 
soft as Pap, and stirre them a little, and straine them to some wardens 
rosted and pilled and put in some Suger, Synamon, and Ginger, **and make 
Diamonds of Paste, and lay them in the Sunne**, then scrape a little Suger 
uppon them in the dish.

This raises all sorts of interesting WAR COOKING questions. Unfortunately, I
still have snow in front of my house and a cloudy forecast for the next few
days. Has anyone tried cooking the pastry this way? Can anyone in a warm
climate try it? I think the dough will have to be rolled VERY thin in order
for it to work in a timely fashion. Do we need shiny baking sheets or
dark-coated ones? I am fairly sure that solar ovens (which would do the
baking in about 20 minutes, regardless of climate)are a modern invention...I
was researching them for a child at the library last month. How would this
differ from results in a normal oven (puffing, browning, etc).

Curiosity killed the cat, etc....

Aoife

============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================