It sure is hot this summer, huh? While the heat can be absolutely detrimental to one's health, some are turning lemons into lemonade with these sweltering temps. In Arizona, which let's be honest is a very hot desert, some park rangers are testing just how things are. They decided to use the triple digit heat wave to bake some banana bread.
"It's that time of year again! Cooking in the car, cue theme music!" wrote officials with the Saguaro National Park by Tucson in a Facebook post. They decided to use their car to do some baking. They placed the banana bread loaves on their dash at 11 a.m. on June 28. Things hit 97 degrees, but the inside of the car easily reached 163 degrees.
Several hours later, temps had reached 105 outside and 211 degrees in the car. Basically, the inside of the car was the same as an oven on low. That banana bread was beginning to turn brown. An hour later, park rangers in Arizona took the banana bread out. Did it cook? Well, the outside had definitely browned, but it was still a bit squishy in the middle.
Banana Bread Experiment
Besides banana bread, the park rangers tried to cook other food in the car. They decided that cookies was probably the best option for a nice car snack. However, the inside of your car could easily fry up an egg. Eggs fully cook at 158 degrees.
Having tried the experiment on other foods, the rangers deduced that cookies were "the most ideal option" for a solar oven on wheels. Banana bread fans loved the experiment. One wrote, "I bet it smells amazing in the car." Another wrote, "When is the dashboard cookbook coming out?"
However, things took a slightly darker turn when they used the experiment to remind parents about the dangers of leaving their kids and dogs in the car.
"You know what's not an ideal thing to cook in the car? People, and pets," they wrote. "Based on the previous 27 years of data from the National Safety Council, an average of 37 children die each year from heat due to being left in a vehicle. And hundreds of pets due to the same thing according to the American Veterinary Medical Association."
They added, "If you hear a cry, bark, or similar from a parked car, take action right away. It only takes 10-20 minutes inside a hot car to become life-threatening."
