The most prominent part of the Very Large Solar Crème Brûlée Burner is the “main dish”—a parabolic mirror, 3 meters in diameter, mounted on a fully articulated arm. The dish is aimed at the sun. The light from the sun is focused by the curved surface of the “main mirror”, and reflected by a series of smaller mirrors to form a super-intense, highly-concentrated circle of light on the “illumination platform”—a heat-resistant horizontal surface near the bottom of the apparatus.
The circle is 10 cm in diameter, so the light is 900 times the intensity of direct sunlight. (Remember to wear welding goggles while using the VLSCBB.)
Simply place a dish of cool custard with a sprinkling of sugar onto the “illumination platform”. Within seconds the sugar is caramelized to a sheet golden-brown crispy sweetness. Remove and eat!-- AO, Apr 08 2003 All kinds of solar cookers including parabolic http://solarcooking.org/plans.htm [FarmerJohn, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Challenge! http://www.google.c...rule+computer+modelGoogle, as always, finds links to whatever random terms you wish to put together. [Loris, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Like a large solar creme brulee burner, but even larger?
Solar cooking with parabolic mirrors is news to me, plus it sounds yummy. +-- snarfyguy, Apr 08 2003 So it's a solar furnace with a bunch of accented characters in its name?-- phoenix, Apr 08 2003 Can also be used for very large slices of toast.-- hippo, Apr 08 2003 Actually, phoenix, it’s a solar fûrnaçé.
hippo, it can be used for toast, but only regular-size pieces, since the region of illumination is only 10 cm wide. It would toast the bread very fast.-- AO, Apr 08 2003 //a parabolic mirror, 3 meters in diameter// At the very least, this is one specialized kitchen gadget that won't get lost in the back of a drawer.-- krelnik, Apr 08 2003 I saw this on some kid's science show a few days ago while flipping channels They used it (and one other design) to heat up s'mores.-- waugsqueke, Apr 08 2003 I have always fancied the idea of using a low powered CO2 laser to burn images in a creme brule.
You could probably manage the same with your dish, but you would need solar tracking and intensity measurement, a beam reflector servo and an accurate creme brule computer model to calibrate the beam as the solar intensity changes.
My prediction - 10 years from now, the only place you'll likely find the text "creme brule computer model" (or anything similar) is on HB.-- FloridaManatee, Apr 09 2003 random, halfbakery