Using cooked meat or not, almost certainly not going to get hot enough to pasteurize and not airtight to prevent contamination.
So...sounds like a perfect incubator for bacteria.
I don't know where this is but it doesn't sound impossible to me. A quick Google shows that the FDA recommends 160 F for casseroles and that in direct sunlight a car can hit 160 if the ambient temp is >105 F. I know mailboxes aren't cars, but over a longer period in a smaller metal box, it seems like the math could check out
I live in Utah where it's been sinfully hot and dry for the last week. I fully intend to test this theory. I just bought a high temp probe that should get here tomorrow. I will provide an update once the testing has been completed.
Fuck yeah, I love this. I'm so excited to see your results
Alright, I have the sensor installed. It's a bit cooler and more overcast today, but I'll hopefully be able to get some good data.
I don't know if this could inadvertently dox you but I'd be curious to see an hourly outside temperature too to see how much hotter a mailbox gets than outside. Based off your first graph here I'm wondering if cars having glass windows makes a greenhouse effect that would make a car hotter than a mailbox, everything else equal?
Seems like a worthwhile thing to do! I'm not worried about doxxing, since someone would have to go to pretty extreme measures to correlate with the exact climate where I'm at. I installed the sensor after the hottest time of day had already passed, but here's what it looked like:
I'm pretty sure the spikes in the mailbox temperature were due to cloud cover.
In my opinion this pretty conclusively proves that you can't make a mailbox lasagna. This is the graph I looked but for my previous statement:
And it shows that a car can hit 130-140 at temps around what you posted. Which is so much wildly higher than what you posted I do have to assume cars have some sort of greenhouse effect going that mailboxes don't
Finally when you consider how much of the total volume of a mailbox a lasagna covers, I have to imagine that'll slow heating down even more! Great work!
As a follow-up, I have a new record temperature. Thanks, West Coast heat dome!
Here's with the ambient air temperature:
Damn. Even with the crazy high heat you're basically parking the food right in the danger zone for bacteria growth. Mailbox lasagna: busted
science! I'm very pleased.
By the way, just a quick tip, if you haven't already maybe try airgapping the sensor from the metal with some foam so you're measuring the air itself.
I have it positioned right now so that the probe tip isn't touching any metal, but I'll probably add a bit of foam. I have some incredibly irritating foam packing peanuts that would probably work well. I'll go do that now.
EDIT: here it is, in all its gloriously crappy, uh, glory:
Haha it's beautiful. Curious about the results.
Please, post it so we can see!
@[email protected] 2 days
Does that work?
I don't know. I've seen this used occasionally and thought I'd try it here. What's to lose?
So.. it might work great for posthummus?
If you make hummus in a mailbox, and eat it later, you are eating it posthummusly.
I pelt you with chickpeas.
Of course, you know the difference between a Garbanzo bean and a chickpea.
I’ve never had a naked Garbanzo bean in my mailbox while on the run from a police dog and high on meth
Do we all understand this is meant as a commentary on climate change, and not an actual recommendation to use your mailbox as a cooking implement?
...uh, folks?
Then explain "Dishwasher Salmon".
"Oh shit my oven isn't working and I have company coming over..."
glances at dishwasher
"hmmm...."
I would just assume you left me a lasagna when I delivered your mail
Imagine my anger realizing my free lunch isn't cooked
Just buy a damn solar oven and leave the mailbox alone.
Why would I spend all that money to buy a solar oven when I've already got a perfectly good mailbox?
Buy one? They're ridiculously easy to make yourself
In fact, if you have a mailbox then you already have one!
Full circle
No no, let him cook!
Oh look, I got a subpoena but it's drenched in grease. And here's a letter from Aunt Edna, also totally soaked. Mailbox cooking is the best though.
I hope there's no stray dogs in your neighborhood, or you might have trouble getting to your mailbox at all when you come home.
If the dogs are big, maybe the box won't be standing any longer.
Pretty standard hotbox cooking. It's not the cleanest, but nothing criminal except the act itself.
Put it in a box for hygiene
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