Guys, we are out here in the backyard
with our mega solar scorcher on this beautiful sunny, warm day.
And we want to find out if we can use this solar scorcher
to cook a steak.
[Captions by Judy V. at Y Translator] [Music]
[Music]
Here's the basic idea.
We're going to try cooking the steak in this pan in two different methods.
The first will involve finding a spot
where the solar scorcher is hot but not perfectly concentrated.
So it will heat the whole steak at once.
The second method will involve using the solar scorcher to heat up the pan itself.
And then using that pans heat to cook the steak.
Just to help out with the flavor,
we've got a little bit of salt and a little bit of butter.
We'll start with this smaller piece of steak in the pan,
and we need to find a point of focus to our solar scorcher
where there is a lot of heat but it's not so concentrated,
that it's just going to burn the meat.
To do that, I have an instant-read thermometer,
and I'm going to try to hold this in the beam,
and see if I can find a place
where it's putting out about 200 degrees Fahrenheit of heat.
At the moment, the focal point is so hot
that it's actually melting the paver stones down there.
And I don't want to cook our steak on that high of a temperature.
So let's find out if there's a spot in the beam,
where it registers on the thermometer as being hot,
but not so hot that it's just going to burn things.
I think that's leveling off.
Right about there.
So that's the height
that I need to get the steak and the pan to get a nice even cook.
[Music]
I think we're perfect right about there.
It'll keep climbing just a little bit,
but our pan is also going to be a little bit higher,
and then the steak is over an inch thick.
That should raise it up.
And mostly, I think this is going to work out great.
[Music]
Now, let's put this into our focused beam of sunlight,
and hope the temperature of the steak slowly starts rising.
It's not going to go very quickly.
It'll probably take at least 10 minutes,
may be considerably more,
to get up to the temperature we're going to be looking for,
which is going to be about 130 Fahrenheit.
[Music]
It's interesting that our oven thermometer
says that it's about 150 degrees Fahrenheit where it is,
but our instant thermometer was telling us that it was over 200.
I'm not sure which of our pieces of equipment is incorrect.
I think the oven thermometer is just on the very edge of the light
and so it's not heating up quite as much as the instant-read thermometer was.
I prefer a steak that's cooked just under medium.
So I'm shooting for an internal temperature of about 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
And then it will finish off cooking just a little bit more
as I try and sear the top and bottom.
[Music]
I'm getting about a 140 degrees Fahrenheit
read anywhere I put that thermometer.
So I think it's time to start concentrating this beam,
and see if we can get a sear on the outside of this steak.
To do that, we're going to have to drop our pan a little bit lower.
[Music]
That wood is now burning almost instantly.
So I think we've got a good concentrated bit of sunlight there.
Just have to keep this moving around.
About when we want to start adding some butter.
[Music]
I think we still need to go lower, to really get into that focal point of that beam.
[Music]
There we go.
That's the sizzle I'm hoping for.
[Music]
Okay, I think this side is done.
Let's try and flip it over.
Give the other side a turn.
[Music]
That's a steak.
Question is, is it a correctly cooked steak?
[Music]
Oh, overcooked.
[Music]
Well it appears that I have cooked this steak a little bit more than is ideal.
I like it to be a little bit more pink in the center,
but that doesn't mean it's not going to taste good.
[Music]
That is good.
That's really good.
Its very hot.
It's a good steak.
For the second part of the steak,
we're going to try heating up the pan directly in the sunlight,
and then dropping the steak into the hot pan
and see if that gives us any better of a sear.
Start out with just a little bit of butter in there.
We can see from the butter, the pan is nice and hot.
Which is what you want for steak.
[Music]
Pretty good sizzling sound.
I'm not sure if the pan was as hot as I was hoping for.
[Music]
Well we now have the focal point on one part of the pan,
which is supposed to heat up the rest of the pan,
but it doesn't look like it's getting evenly heated all the way through.
Looks like there's just one little spot where the butter is sizzling,
and the rest not so much.
The inside of our steak is still showing about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
I'm also concerned because one side of our steak
looks like it's getting a lot of heat,
and the other side looks like it's just staying completely raw.
[Music]
We've got a burn spot near where the sun was hitting the pan,
and now we're getting smoking,
which means we're approaching the flashpoint of the oil.
And I do not want to start a grease fire around the steak.
I'm afraid this method just isn't going to work.
So I think I'm going to try going back to the first method of
heating the whole pan and steak at once,
and see if we can get a slightly better cook job than the last time.
[Music]
Man, that is really good.
[Music]
Confirmed: you can cook a steak with sunlight.
[Music]
Yeah video's over. I'm just gonna eat steak now.
This is gonna be the whole next video.
Is just me eating steak.
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