Spun Steel Camp Ovens - Bedourie vs Hillbilly

Gday John,

We've used the Bedourie ovens for the past 25 years, and travel with others who have the Hillbilly ovens.

They are both very good, seen some great roasts and casseroles come out of both (bread's a bit harder!)

Regarding the Bedourie: They pack easy - ours sits with the base inside the lid, and a set of 4 billies inside the lot making it all very compact. I had trouble finding the good trivets in the right size, so bought the larger size and cut it down.
If you want to use the lid as a frypan, it works OK on a stove or fire but its pretty thin, so easy to burn food. I prefer to use a thicker plate. To clean it, we remove what we can with a paper towel, the scrub with a Curly Girl (stainless steel scourer). Then dry off with paper towel. The trivet gets burned off in the fire.

Our Bedourie base also doubles as a Wok for stirfries etc. We use the smaller size Bedourie these days - its all you need for 2 people. Gave our large Bedourie away.

cheers
phil

John,

I started out with a cast iron oven. Very heavy, harder to clean and subject to breakage.

Then bought a Bedourie Spun Steel oven. OK, but the lid shape didn't appeal to me.

Now have a Hillbilly and very happy with it.
The shape of the lid ensures no coals will get into the food.
The fitment of the handle allows just the lid to be lifted, or the whole oven.
The lid doubles as a fry pan if you desire although I don't use it for this purpose.

A great range of accessories, such as the vegetable ring, and gas burner further extend the versatility and flexibility of the oven. Then there is the heavy duty pot stand which allows an air gap underneath the oven.

When the oven and lid has been properly seasoned, it won't rust and the black coating acts as a non stick surface.

I mostly use the Hillbilly with Heatbeads, as I find I get consistent heat whereas a campfire must be burning for a long time to produce sufficient hot coals.

I use an old large frypan to contain the bottom lot of Heatbeads, then sit the hillbilly over the top on a cake tin, (or pot stand) to leave a gap underneath.
As a rule of thumb, start with two less Heatbeads than the diameter of the base underneath and two more Heatbeads on the lid, then adjust if necessary.
For my 12" Bush King, that equates to 10 Heatbeads on the bottom and 14 on the lid.

Tip. Buy the bigger Bush King. You won't be sorry.
Another tip. Use genuine Heatbeads rather than cheaper alternatives.


Bill.

I have both the Bedourie (SA made :-o) and the Hillbilly - both spun steel, both good BUT simply put, the Hilbilly is much more versatile in the way it can be used. Well worth the extra $ in my view.

We have a cast iron oven, medium size, which we bought in 1977. Never had an issue with it.

I would say that the food preparation and method of cooking is more important than the type of cooking pot you are using. All you are doing is transferring heat into a semisealed area so as to cook your food

I have never had either of the other brands

My new invention for cooking with heat beads is to bend up a bit of steel mesh (gal ) approx 300mm square to keep the oven off the ground ( useful for campgrounds that don't allow fires on the ground..ie; in a barrel etc ) then for approx $3.50 buy an ant cap from bunnings ....put it on top of the mesh, add heat beads then whack the oven on top !!

Except for the heat bead heater ( I also made a cheapy from finer mesh ) it packs away fairly compact !!

Our well seasoned and used spun steel Bedourie lid is as good a non stick surface as the expensive fry pan we have at home and you don't have to worry about scratching it with utensils.

Cheers

Pete

Many thanks for the great replies team. Much appreciated.

Cheers.