National Park Rangers Attempt to Bake Banana Bread in Hot Car
How did it turn out?
Lori Andrews/Getty Images
How hot is it where you are right now? In Tucson, Arizona, it has been hot enough to bake banana bread in a car. We know this because rangers at Saguaro National Park have done just that and posted about it.
“dude I got some banana bread at work today dude…” the rangers wrote in a post dubbed on both Instagram and Facebook.
Having, in the past, attempted to bake cookies and bell peppers on their dashboards, the rangers this time decided to try their hot-car-baking experiment with banana bread.
“When in direct sunlight here in southern Arizona, with outside temperatures around 100°f, the dashboard of a car can reach upwards of 200°f in only an hour,” they wrote.
Charting the progress of the banana bread batter, which they had poured into two loaf pans, topped with chocolate chips and set on the dashboard of the vehicle-turned-oven, the rangers noted that at 11 a.m., the temperature outside the car was 97 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas the dashboard temperature had reached 163.
By noon, when the outside temperature was 101 degrees, the dashboard temperature had hit 200 degrees. At 1 p.m., the outside temp was 104 degrees and the mercury on the dashboard had climbed to 210 degrees. By 2 p.m., the thermometer outside had ticked up to 105 degrees and the dashboard, with the sun beaming down on it through the windshield, clocked in at 211 degrees and the banana bread had risen, baked and browned.
At 3 p.m., the rangers removed the bread to assess the results. “It was still a bit squishy on the inside,” they report, concluding, “So far, we think cookies make for the most ideal option for cooking in the car.”
Commenters responding to the post were generally encouraging.
“When is the dashboard cookbook coming out?” inquired one.
“I bet it smells amazing in the car,” another posited.
“But Banana Bread, Bro? At Work? Hell Yeah!” a third exclaimed.
But some had questions, suggestions and/or concerns.
“That oven’s still a little slow for banana bread, but flatten [the] batter into ‘muffin tops’ and it could work. I bet pancakes would be good to try, too!” one said.
“Banana bread 350 for an hour. how long did it take at 211?” asked another.
The rangers’ response: “We tried for about 4 hours. Was still gooey on the inside (similar to a thin cobbler). Ended up cooking [it] a bit more in a regular [oven] before eating.”
“I know this is meant as a joke, but is 211F hot enough to kill any bacteria in the eggs in a timely [manner]?” one wondered.
To which another apparently knowledgeable person shared, “Cooking food to a temperature of 165°F (74°C) or higher will kill most bacteria and viruses that are pathogenic to humans within minutes. The longer food is heated above this temperature, the more bacteria will be killed. However, some spores and toxins may still survive.”
Over on Instagram, the rangers asked for suggestions on what to try next. Among the ideas: brownies. We’d love to see the results for that one.
In the meantime, we’d be remiss not to let you know that the rangers were trying to make a broader point about the dangers of leaving kids and pets in hot cars.
“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 continue: “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. Call the authorities and proceed from there by following their instructions .… If leaving your car just remember, when it comes to heat, always check the back seat!”
Related Content:
