In our way of thinking, there are three important categories of solar cookers--panel cookers (such as the CooKit), box cookers and concentrating (often parabolic cookers). Panel cookers are not good for the flatbreads I know about. Most box cookers do not get hot enough, although they could be specially designed for the purpose. Parabolic cookers are the most likely candidates as well as cookers like the Devos Solar Cooker and the Scheffler Community Kitchen.

The most common type of parabolic solar cooker in the world is likely to be the "butterfly" type with two not-quite-parabolic reflectors. These are very common in China. For more information, see Yancheng Sangli Solar Energy.

The Ethiopians and Eritreans use a clay griddle for preparing their ingera. This type of griddle is not conductive enough to allow it to be heated hot enough and evenly enough by most solar cookers. We have received two reports of the use of cast iron griddles made in China. These worked much better than the ones made of clay. When ingera is cooked in the traditional way over a wood fire, the correct temperature of the griddle is 180°C.

Recent news and developmentsEdit

• December 2010: After he retired, Alan Gallagher, a physicist, decided to take his interest in solar energy in a whole new direction: He decided to design, build, and test a unique large-area frying pan heated by the Sun’s energy. The new parabolic solar frying pan, the Solar Injera Cooker, was specifically tailored to the cooking of injera bread in East Africa. Other types of solar cookers are not well-suited for frying. In villages, a typical “slice” of injera bread can be more than half a meter in diameter. The parabolic solar cooker can be used eight hours a day throughout the year. More Information...

See alsoEdit

• Solar Injera Cooker
• Devos Solar Cooker
• Sun Fire Cooking
• Scheffler Community Kitchen

External LinksEdit

• Wikipedia's article on flatbread
• Fuel efficient stoves for baking injera bread