Camp oven, I'm after the best quality

G'day macca
Try this forum

I love camp oven cooking and with practice and the right embers you will have the best of Aussie cooking in the bush.
Colin

Hi Ozymacca
Dont know if this is much help but i have 2 that i use a lot one is from well known camping store the other is from kmart they both produce identical results in my opinion , something i have been making latly are pizzas in the camp oven ,they have been a nice change to the normal camp oven dinners.

Regards Grant M

Hill Billy camp oven, love it

Check 'em out here

Cheers Kev

Look at Derek Bullocks site on the net. COCOI ? Something like that. He is something of a Guru on camp ovens It is very good and explains most if not all of the issues with camp ovens. We have a few and find that a 10 inch is adequate for most meats but for vegies you will also need a 8 inch. Dont cook both together if you want the vegies to brown. The meat as a rule needs 1 and 1 half to 2 hours and needs to cook slowly, and the vegies about half that but have the vegie oven and oil preheated before putting it on top of the meat oven. This is for 2 people. Enjoy and welcome to the world of camp oven cooking. You will never go back.

All camp ovens are good, but having used our Bedourie Oven for the past 20 years, we've grown attached to it. It does a great roast, and we use it as a "wok" for stir fries. Its made of spun steel, so is light and easy to store.

Its hard to do crispy potato - we do the roast first, remove it and wrap it in foil, then do the veggies separately, and with a fair bit of heat. Even so, its hard to crisp them as well as we would at home.

There is nothing wrong at all with the el cheapo made in China product providing you get off on the right track.

As it comes out of the camping store it will have a coat of some sort of grease over it ( probably tallow rendered down from some long extinct quadruped). Burn this off by putting the oven and lid (separated) over a slow burning (hot coals) fire.

Leave overnight, in the morning give a good wash out and dry. The inside is more than likely going to be very rough to the touch.

Beg, borrow, steal or just get the 4" angle grinder out of the shed and "carefully" remove all the roughness from inside the oven and the lid.

This makes the difference between your "el cheapo" and the very expensive ozz. made one. Once you have a nice smooth surface within the oven, then the seasoning can be done.

Either some lamb leg bones (with a bit of meat on) or a good slug of olive oil, lid on and a few hours over a very low (mainly hot coals) fire.

This is the start, its ready to cook in, but the more you cook in it, the better it gets.

When you have cooked your meal. give it a bit of a scrape around to get the solids out, about a litre of water, heat to boiling then let cool overnight.

In the morning, turn the water out, about the same of clean in, heat up, a scrub with a hard brush, empty out, dry, and ready to go again.

Please, no detergent, you want to end up with a nice black "patina"inside the oven and lid. Once you have it going well, the mearest smear of cooking oil will prevent rust between years.

I have about 6-8 ovens going, the oldest over 100, the newest only a year. All cook with the same result.
Good cracklin' on pork, crispy spuds'n'punkin just come with experience.

I say "Go for it Macca!"
furph

I started with a medium Bedourie (good overall) - now on the Hillbilly (very good overall) - the "billy' costs a lot more but has more features - worth having IMO - but hey, if you we had to, we could cook our dinner on a shovel :-o)...........

One handy little trick I learned from an old friend is to find out where the lid balances when lifting whilst it is cold and then use a three cornered file to put a small V in the lid handle (underneath of course).
Next time you lift the lid find the slot and lift without any worries about it slipping sideways and dropping coals into the meal.

Works for me.
I have used a few different ovens and they all cook the same.

(Very well)

Pooley