7 ms·

Wonder if this technique, which allows the drum to get to 900F, could be used instead of gas for wok cooking?

arcticbull 4y ago
Totally, assuming you're able to situate the wok in the middle of the New Mexico desert, and are satisfied with the safety profile of not putting your hand near it lest it become part of the dish.
- googlryas 4y ago
  The sun is the same temperature no matter where you are on earth, so you could reach 900 degrees regardless of where you are, as long as you can see the sun. You would just need to make the reflectors larger as you got farther north.
- 8ytecoder 4y ago
  I remember as a kid, in India, solar, gobar/bio gas and alternative ways of cooking and heating were all the rage. Then liquified petroleum gas became cheaper and everything just died. Here’s[1] an example of what I’m talking about. It was mostly for rural areas without reliable ways of delivering cooking fuels. [1] https://www.rudrasolarenergy.com/solar-cookers.html https://www.rudrasolarenergy.com/solar-cookers.html (parabolic mirror based “cooker”) https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/gobar-gas-plant-3976916133.html https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/gobar-gas-plant-3976916... (basically methane collected from composting)
  - yegle 4y ago
    Oh wow I vividly remember in the second grade there's a story of grandma cooking noodles using a solar cooker (it was in the Chinese textbook for Mainland China circa 1998). Searching for a couple keywords on Taobao and apparently you can still buy those things. E.g. https://www.taobao.com/list/item/wap/595475929092.htm https://www.taobao.com/list/item/wap/595475929092.htm
  - jxramos 4y ago
    ah it's gobar gas, I kept searching for bogar gas in futility just like 2 days ago from an idea an Indian colleague of mine shared with me some 10 years ago. Seems like bio-gas has become the preferred term for this technique.
- scoot 4y ago
  - googlryas 4y ago
    I'm a native (American) English speaker and with a quick search of my 15 year old reddit account comments, I can guarantee you that native speakers would use "situate" just like that.
  - arcticbull 4y ago
    You... don't think I'm a native English speaker? My guy, I was born in Canada, of British descent and live in San Francisco. I was just being highfalutin. And to head that one off, it was a self-referential joke. Technically English is my second language, but I don't think that plays into it these days.
    - poulsbohemian 4y ago
- photochemsyn 4y ago
  If there's enough sunlight to grow chiles locally in the region, there'll be enough sunlight to use this approach. Chiles won't really grow that well without good daily sunlight and relatively warm temperatures.
- surement 4y ago
  > and are satisfied with the safety profile of not putting your hand near it lest it become part of the dish that's not different from regular cooking, your home oven might not get that hot but lots of cooking implements do
  - qbasic_forever 4y ago
    Your range is cooking primarily through conduction though, it only heats what it touches. This is heating through direct electromagnetic radiation, if anything gets in the sun beam it will fry at 900 degrees. Move your hand in the wrong place and you will have massive burns in an instant without touching anything.
    - jxramos 4y ago
      that's no joke, you can check out this guy's channel and see all sorts of stuff instantly combust or begin to melt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drE54ctrHBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drE54ctrHBY. 1000W/m^2 can concentrate into some serious power. Scary and dangerous stuff.
    - dreamcompiler 4y ago
      At the Sandia central collector the main beam is much hotter than 900 degrees and it's not uncommon for birds to be cooked instantly and drop from the sky if they happen to fly too close to the beam's focal point. This is one reason why the heliostats are always kept defocused unless an experiment is taking place.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dendrite9 4y ago
There is a restaurant in Armenia that uses mirrors to bake dishes for customers. At least when the sun is out. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/solar-energy-cooking-armenia https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/solar-energy-cooking-a... "Armenian scientists Gregor Mnatsakanyan and Vahan Hamazaspyan originally created the satellite dishes with dreams of distributing them around the country. Hamazaspyan, a pioneer in the study of solar energy use, began developing the first prototypes in the 1980s, after the devastating Spitak earthquake. Satellite solar ovens, he hoped, would feed his countrymen affordably during hard times."

Totally, assuming you're able to situate the wok in the middle of the New Mexico desert, and are satisfied with the safety profile of not putting your hand near it lest it become part of the dish.

googlryas 4y ago
The sun is the same temperature no matter where you are on earth, so you could reach 900 degrees regardless of where you are, as long as you can see the sun. You would just need to make the reflectors larger as you got farther north.
8ytecoder 4y ago
I remember as a kid, in India, solar, gobar/bio gas and alternative ways of cooking and heating were all the rage. Then liquified petroleum gas became cheaper and everything just died. Here’s[1] an example of what I’m talking about. It was mostly for rural areas without reliable ways of delivering cooking fuels. [1] https://www.rudrasolarenergy.com/solar-cookers.html https://www.rudrasolarenergy.com/solar-cookers.html (parabolic mirror based “cooker”) https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/gobar-gas-plant-3976916133.html https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/gobar-gas-plant-3976916... (basically methane collected from composting)
- yegle 4y ago
  Oh wow I vividly remember in the second grade there's a story of grandma cooking noodles using a solar cooker (it was in the Chinese textbook for Mainland China circa 1998). Searching for a couple keywords on Taobao and apparently you can still buy those things. E.g. https://www.taobao.com/list/item/wap/595475929092.htm https://www.taobao.com/list/item/wap/595475929092.htm
- jxramos 4y ago
  ah it's gobar gas, I kept searching for bogar gas in futility just like 2 days ago from an idea an Indian colleague of mine shared with me some 10 years ago. Seems like bio-gas has become the preferred term for this technique.
scoot 4y ago
- googlryas 4y ago
  I'm a native (American) English speaker and with a quick search of my 15 year old reddit account comments, I can guarantee you that native speakers would use "situate" just like that.
- arcticbull 4y ago
  You... don't think I'm a native English speaker? My guy, I was born in Canada, of British descent and live in San Francisco. I was just being highfalutin. And to head that one off, it was a self-referential joke. Technically English is my second language, but I don't think that plays into it these days.
  - poulsbohemian 4y ago
photochemsyn 4y ago
If there's enough sunlight to grow chiles locally in the region, there'll be enough sunlight to use this approach. Chiles won't really grow that well without good daily sunlight and relatively warm temperatures.
surement 4y ago
> and are satisfied with the safety profile of not putting your hand near it lest it become part of the dish that's not different from regular cooking, your home oven might not get that hot but lots of cooking implements do
- qbasic_forever 4y ago
  Your range is cooking primarily through conduction though, it only heats what it touches. This is heating through direct electromagnetic radiation, if anything gets in the sun beam it will fry at 900 degrees. Move your hand in the wrong place and you will have massive burns in an instant without touching anything.
  - jxramos 4y ago
    that's no joke, you can check out this guy's channel and see all sorts of stuff instantly combust or begin to melt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drE54ctrHBY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drE54ctrHBY. 1000W/m^2 can concentrate into some serious power. Scary and dangerous stuff.
  - dreamcompiler 4y ago
    At the Sandia central collector the main beam is much hotter than 900 degrees and it's not uncommon for birds to be cooked instantly and drop from the sky if they happen to fly too close to the beam's focal point. This is one reason why the heliostats are always kept defocused unless an experiment is taking place.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

dendrite9 4y ago

There is a restaurant in Armenia that uses mirrors to bake dishes for customers. At least when the sun is out. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/solar-energy-cooking-armenia https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/solar-energy-cooking-a... "Armenian scientists Gregor Mnatsakanyan and Vahan Hamazaspyan originally created the satellite dishes with dreams of distributing them around the country. Hamazaspyan, a pioneer in the study of solar energy use, began developing the first prototypes in the 1980s, after the devastating Spitak earthquake. Satellite solar ovens, he hoped, would feed his countrymen affordably during hard times."