Interested to hear your OVEN thoughts
 

Does anyone have an oven in their set up - if so what kind and is it useful?
I suppose it depends on your cooking prefs, space and so on and most don't bother.

I've heard of 12/24v microwaves - I presume for a warm-up they're more efficient than something with gas which requires a vent and so on, but I get a feeling they're best for warming up than baking.

On one trip we had a bloke with a Coleman Camp Oven. This amazon.com review at the top seems to rate it as I remebered it. Nice idea but slow. I suspect it works ok for small/thin items? Their InstaStart Portable Oven seems to be hard to control.

A chunky Australian camp oven (thick cast iron pot) might work on a stove top but are made to put in coals I think.

Interested to hear your oven thoughts.

Ch

Just spotted this: [url=http://www.thewavebox.co.uk/]The WaveBox

I've used on of these, pretty good for small roasts, or BBQ, or grilling, kinda a one stop does all sort of unit.

OK for a meal for two, maybe three at a push.


The Cobb BBQ - AS SEEN ON TV!: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home

The guys on the Gadget Show liked them too!

Although I think you are looking more to 'proper' ovens.

You could save yourself the £100 and just dig a hole, drop a fireproof pot in it and cover it with hot embers!

If you've got the room a Cobb is a wonderful thing. With a bit of imagination you can cook anything in it. So far I've managed to bake an apple pie, pasties and sausage rolls and some mozzerella and tomatoe tarts. I've even cooked a Christmas dinner in there! Well a whole chicken and all the trimmings. Basicly it's a proper convection oven that just happens to be fuelled by charcoal.

It's made from stainless steel and looks and feels like it'll last a lifetime. I wouldn't be without mine.

I have also seen the Cobb in action and it's mighty impressive when a whole chicken is served up out of one. :thumbup1:

What about a dutch oven... chose your own fuel.. Brickettes, wood, gas etc etc !

Sooo universal if you can be bothered to get some experience with it. You can even bake bread in them.

I've just bought a 4.5L one and i'm just starting to cook with it.

We started out using a cast iron Dutch Oven maybe 30 years ago, it was ok but a bit slow and needed a good fire with coals to be of any use - then of course you had to have a shovel with you to dig the hole for the coals and put them on top of the oven, leather welder's mitts are handy to get the lid off and extract it from the coals. Great meals though. Can be used on a gas cooker for stews, curries etc. Broke it by dropping the lid onto a kitchen floor.

Next we bought a Bedourie Oven, similar to the Dutch except the whole thing is made of steel instead of cast iron and the lid fits over the pot so that dust and charcoal dont get into the pot. Same issues as above except its quick with convection heat entering the oven under the loose fitting top. Great meals again, not fragile, not heavy, can store plenty of other cookware inside it. Not too good on a stove top as the steel does not transfer the heat evenly from the flame, we bought one of those asbestos heat mats to try and get the heat more even - waste of money. We've had the Bedourie for at least 20 years.

A riding buddy used a wok and lid for years as his only cooking tool, great meals, cooked roasts, bread, cakes, etc.

Great idea, simple is always best. :thumbup1:

That sounds great. Lighter and more sturdy than cast iron. Probably not as easy to slow cook with because as you say, less of an even heat than thick cast iron..

I like the way you can fry on the top of it too.

I can't seem to find them on sale in the U.K anywhere though. Something for the future perhaps.

Gas
 

I bought a gas one for convenience, Plastimo 2000 2nd hand but not really used from ebay for £215. seems to be very good. 2 rings 1 grill 1 oven. oven has a thermostat but not really used it enough to say whether it is accurate.



Graeme

Cobb
 

We swapped our potje/dutch oven for a COBB and it was a great addition to our set up. Not only can you bbq, bake bread, potatoes, make roasts - you can make PIZZA on it. And in the middle of Tajikistan, with both of us ill this made a great cheer up.

Also, although we started using COBB recommended fuel, we ended up using local charcoal, with the only effect being you had to use more for a little less time. But could still bake on it.

A COBB would be close to nr one my packing list.

I read years ago about someone (or was it a company?) who'd been experimenting with a Landrover slow cooker consisting of cutting a hole in the floorpan just above the gearbox and slotting a pot into it to use the heat from the engine/transmission. Annoyingly I can't seem to find anything about it on the net but I did find this:-

How to Cook Food on Your Car's Engine: 9 steps - wikiHow

We have an old Baby Belling gas cooker with oven in our truck. I have had it about 20 years and used it in the house, workshop,caravan and now truck, freinds also have one. Its really good, but hard to get bits for now. The oven is good enough for bread and cakes and pies, but you could only have it in a truck due to the size.

Have also used an aussie cast iron cooking pot for doing damper, chicken and makes a good chip pan too !

Any competent metal spinner could knock one up in an hour or two.

Or you could buy one from Australia - sea mail is only about $40 to the UK.

As you mention the lid is a great frying pan - many a large fry up we've used ours for.

The other downside to them - they need oiling after washing if you dont intend using for a few days. They rust quickly compared to cast iron.

Our camper had a 24 volt microwave, but no longer. 255Ah at 24v wasn't enough when charged straight from the alternator and solar panels in northern Europe to use it effectively as well as everything else when wild camping. We're not really big fans of microwaves in the first place though, so wouldn't have even thought about fitting one ourselves. They're bloody expensive, need biggish batteries located close by with BIG wiring although remove a need for potentially more dangerous (in a camper) gas. A Sterling battery to battery charger gets more into your battery bank making the drain less of an issue.

Our gas cooker is not much cop. It takes too long to heat up and uses a fair bit of gas cos of that.

We had an ally Prestige pressure cooker, but sharp braking had it fly out of its home inside the little used cooker and broke the plastic handle/pressure control bit. So we now have a WMF steel version

Amazon.co.uk: wmf pressure cooker - Home & Garden

which has a detachable handle and works well although pricier. Chucking any meat, any veggies, a few spices and a few pints of water/wine/beer always produces something delicious with one pan on minimal heat settings. The pressure adds a margin of safety to dubious ingredients!

Steel billies, pressure cooker and a dutch oven with a three burner gas hobb inside suits us well at the mo :)

Still tempted by a Cobb though!

We are also very happy with our Indian Futura pressure cooker. It has served us well in high altitude cooking, saving fuel and you can even bake bread in it.

Adventurous greetings,
Coen