Cooking Progress

Learn about the progress we've been making

Cooking in Malawi

Our counterparts in Malawi have been working in the local conditions to cook various meals, including rice, nsima, beans, and asian style vegetables. They have been extremely successful, but cook times have been on the longer side, which they have attributed to cloud cover. 

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Cooking in San Luis Obispo

We were thrilled to finally put our cooker to the test, and started by cooking rice. We have succeeded in generating heat with each test that we have conducted- but creating and storing enough heat to create an edible product is a different story. We were able to cook our rice slightly, but our final product was pretty al dente. We mainly attributed this to unfavorable weather conditions such as lack of sunlight and cloud cover, but are excited to try again when weather permits. We have also began using polyester insulation as a means to retain the heat that we do manage to generate.

Brewing tea in Malawi 

Sheilah, a citizen of Malawi involved in ISEC research, wanted to see if she could brew herself a cup of tea using an ISEC. The process took took about six hours but was successful. She is still critical of the weather, but is excited to keep trying. The key is trial, error, and improvement.