Tony replied:

Go to your local butcher and get hold of some lard of beef fat, heat up the oven with the fat in but don't let it burn, just get it hoe enough to fry a chip, tip it out and that shoul season it for roast's etc.

As for bakeing it needs to be dry of oil or fat other wise you will get that taste all the time. I have two camp oven's, one for roasting/stews the other for damper/cakes etc.

Spy replied:

Hi David,

I use the camp oven mate with a three ring gas burner and had a similar problem first off. What I discovered was that I had the gas burner up too high. This burned the oil that was used to season my camp oven and flavoured (smoked) the roast I was cooking. I find that only using the two inner gas rings and even then turning down the secon ring a little after 20 minutes or so does the trick.

I recently purchased a Bedourie camp oven and use this with the camp oven mate and find that as this doesn't 'absorb' as much oil as the cast iron ones that have been seasoned.

Overall it is a great gadget. Experiment a little with the temperature and you will soon be "cooking with gas!"

Member -BJ (Sydney) replied:

We have a spun steel oven from a different maker & i had to wash it 3 times to get it clean. When we do a damper i put a cake rack in the bottom & sit the damper on this no taste & not burn't on the bottom, i also put it in the sun for half an hour before using to preheat , it cooks a damper in 1/2 hr.Regards Bob
Where to next

Dmitri replied:

David,
I've got a similar problem with my camp oven (noname brand bought in the chinese shop)- as far as I understand the smell and bad taste comes from the silver paint (you can soil you fingire if you rub it - this means that you gonna eat it with meals:))

I put my oven into a good fire for about an hour (you can use fireplace or wooden BBQ) and it became a pure cast iron thing without any trace of paint. The only thing - you need to oil it often to prevent rust.

Cheers,
Dmitri.