Keeping a camp oven clean

I feel your pain. What we do once we get all the food out fill it up with water and a splash of detergent and put it back on the coles to boil and then it's pretty easy to clean

We use the alfoil oven tray's......Works a treat.......

no 'secret' really, it's all part of the love and care of a good bit of gear.

with hot water (no detergent) and a dish scrubber or the like, get the food off (don't forget the lid) and then heat up the oven with lid on the fire (or stove top etc.) until the pores have been dried of any moisture. Then get some olive oil and paper towel and carefully (coz the oven will be hot of course) wipe it around and into the oven and lid. Done.

Use sand to clean all the big bits off- then boil with water & detergent !!

Depends what you have cooked. Bread and damper should not stick. Basically just wipe it out with a damp cloth and make sure it is dry before packing. For stews etc you should just be able to put some water in it and reheat. Empty and rinse. Then wipe it out and dry as above. If stuff is really sticking it was probably getting too much heat from below. If you roast some foil on the base helps. I liked the foil tray idea but have never tried it. Once again, too much heat from the bottom will cause stuff to burn and stick. A trivet will also help to stop roasts sticking. Clean as above. If you do end up scrubing, you need to re oil the oven lightly.

I assume you are not sticking the oven into the fire. Place it on a bed of coals instead. Alter the depth of the bed to adjust the amont of heat on the bottom. For damper and roasts cover the lid with coals.

It takes some persistance but once mastered they are a great bit of kit and easy to look after. I admit that most of my problems were because I was getting it to hot. I tried the paper test and it just burst into flames!!

Steve

If it's cast iron, the secret is in curing the oven. If you scrub the oil our of the pores after use, re-cure it. Smear with oil and heat it on the coals before putting it away. As for other metals, don't know.

Use the oven, then we heat it up with soapy solution, ( morning fresh, dish washing solution ) Scrub it, dry it and re-oil it, and put it back on some hot coals, till it is re-annealed
Have used ours a lot ,, its not considered a chor, but it is a little slower,,,then whats better than sitting around a camp fire, for an extra 1/2 hr, having a beer, in good company.

Cheers Mate
Bucky

Leave it out for the foxes to lick clean. Just joking. Although we did get lazy one night and left it by the fire. Next morning it was absolutely shiny as a new shilling.

The Mrsmade me steralise it for about six months before she would ude it again.

Cheers,

Russ.

I use a wet cloth to rub mine clean as soon as I take the meal out of it.

I simply have a container of cold water beside the oven dip my cloth in it and rub vigorously, repeat until the oven is clean then put it aside to cool while I eat.

A few lumpy bits left in place won't hurt and they will come off next time.

Duncs

We all just put our dirty ovens upside down on the hottest part of the fire, leave until they have glowed red hot, take them off & just brush clean & re-oil in the morning ..... Easy!

Oven trays or baking dish, easy as.

I'm going to tak a different approach.

I have seven ovens and firmly beleive that any cleaning with detergrent or heating until red hot destroys the seasoning of the oven. Camp ovens are cast iron and the iron actuall absorbs the oil. I simply use a bit of hot water with a dish brush, no detergent, and then wipe with a bit of paper towel. A little oil at the end and put it away. This keeps the iron impregnated and seasoned.

Detergent, hard scrubbing and getting red hot will change the characteristics of the iron in the oven. I think anyway.

Toytruck

Preparing your new Camp Oven & cleaning

A camp oven must be seasoned before it is used. Being of cast iron, this material is porous, and the
inside of the oven has to be treated so as to seal the surface.
Before you first cook in the camp oven fill with water and slowly heat but do not boil. Wash the new
oven and dry. Rub cooking oil (I like to use olive oil) inside and outside of the camp oven with a cloth
or paper towel. Repeat this 3 or 4 times over the next 2 days and then place in a hot oven at home and
bake it for about an hour applying more oil to the inside of the camp oven and don't forget the lid. The
oil will glaze on the surface and give it a protective coating. Before storing after use always give the
camp oven a good wash and then an oiling. This will stop rust forming. If this process of oiling is not
done before you use it, food particles penetrate into the cast iron and will go rancid while the camp
oven is not in use.

My solution was to buy a Bedourie camp oven (pressed steel)
Problem solved and lighter too
Cheers Ray

Not all Camp Ovens are cast iron. The Bedourie and Hillbilly ovens are spun steel.

If the oven (whatever it is) has been properly seasoned, you should end up with a black, non-stick surface to which food should not stick.

All I generally use is a ball of newspaper while the oven is still warm (or heat it up a little) and simply wipe the surface out. Apply a little bit of oil and put it away.

On a rare occasion, I have washed the oven in hot water, but when you do this, you need to heat it up again to evaporate all remaining water, before applying the oil. And definitely, NO SOAP.

we use a round cake tray in the bottom when cooking roasts , nothing gets to the bottom to stick, for stews make sure it was rubbed down with cooking oil or olive oil when last used should not have a problem , we never have.( was it cured properly in the first place)

everyone knows that you should not use soap, don't they? I have many camp ovens, cast iron, spun steel, cast aluminum, and I used to use olive oil to season them which was okay, then I started using peanut oil and I find it is much better. I think it takes a greater heat before it burns and it coats the camp oven very nicely. You might think it would leave a different flavour, but I can't detect one.

thanks everyone for their ideas and thoughts, learnt heaps, very much appreciated

our ovens have been used for over 20 years and have never had water in them let alone soap or detergent. just wipe with paper towels when cool after use. before next use just warm them up and wipe again with olive oil and paper towels. we only use them for bakes though not for stews. when we cook scones or damper i use a stainless disc i made which is about 10mm smaller dia than the bottom of the oven with 3 x 20mm long feet welded to the bottom and put the scones on it, no burnt bases
Bob