Coleman camp oven

[ANDY1997]

I just got one to cook kid's type food(frozen pizza,shrimp,etc....).It sets over the burner of a Coleman gas stove. I have not tried it yet. Does anyone have any experiance with these?

[Bad Hand]

I have used one they work but they aren't that good. For camping I bought a Dutch Oven it works great.

[ANDY1997]

Does that mean that it takes a long time to bake?

[momof23goats]

the amish, wield up a box, out of heavy steel, and use them on top of kerosene , and woodstoves they work. you can also get them from lehmens.
just make and box, like the old time, bread boxes to set on your stoves. they wrok. use an onld cut down oven rack, or fridge. shelf, if medal, and yo uhave it.

[Freeholder]

I've used one of the Coleman ovens on top of a propane stove in a camp trailer, and it worked just fine. Anything of this nature isn't going to be automatic 'set it and forget it' like a modern electric stove. You'll have to keep an eye on things, and make adjustments as needed. And you may have to learn some new cooking skills. But yes, they do work. I wish I still had mine.

I like dutch ovens, also -- used to have quite a collection of them (pre-divorce). But they also require watching and possibly learning some new skills. I prefer dutch ovens (the kind with legs and flanged lids to hold coals) when cooking with an open fire -- a campfire. The Coleman ovens are good for stove-top cooking.

Kathleen

[momof23goats]

I bake small pies, and cakes in my dutch ovens, they work fine. but you have to watch.

[Doc1]

Speaking of Coleman products, I have a suggestion for a nice post-shtf cooking setup. We used this very extensively after Katrina.

First, understand that I do not recommend Coleman's white gas stoves. The stoves themselves are fine, but I do not like gasoline in a survival environment. The camping fuel is too expensive and in MNSHO, represents an unacceptable fire hazard for a true survival environment. Think about it. You may not have phone service, running water, fire services or working hospitals. Gasoline stoves do have a pretty good safety record, but other stoves are safer still and cheaper.

The stove we used (and still have two of) is also a Coleman product. It's their two burner propane camp stove. These use the little - and expensive - disposable propane cylinders. That would disqualify them, but for one important alteration: For around $12 to $15, you can buy an adapter hose allowing you to use the stove with a five gallon or larger standard propane tank. Thus freed from the disposables, the little stoves suddenly become very inexpensive on a per-meal basis. If you keep your tank(s) free of rust, propane lasts indefinitely, making it an exceptional prep fuel. It offers the advantage of burning odor and smoke-free, which might be important in keeping your cooking activities discreet.

Other cooking options we keep available are Butterfly and Petromax kerosene stoves (which can also use diesel and other fuels), as well as our woodburning stoves.

Best regards
Doc

[lillybear]

Does that mean that it takes a long time to bake?

To cook evenly and at a high temperature, you need to be able to retain the heat evenly throughout; that is why the cast iron is a good choice. But there are many ways to bake successfully over a flame of any sort...

Way back when, when I was homesteading, I used a variety of pans on top of a wood stove as an oven. A small turkey rooster pan, cast iron skillets with a lid, aluminum foil creations, etc. Let your oven preheat well before adding your food. If your food will be in a separate pan, preheat it as well. I used nuts (as in nuts & bolts) to create a space between bottom of oven and a pan set on top of the wood stove. Then if making biscuits or bread, it kept the bottom from burning.

Now I have a wood cookstove. Life is good. :wink:

- Lilly

[momof23goats]

LILLY, I think life is pretty good my self. I have a homecomfort, one of the last ones made, and it is worth its weight in gold, for sure.

[BeWell]

I've had two or three Coleman camp ovens and used them for cakes, potatoes, biscuits, yeast bread and cookies. You do indeed have to watch them carefully and often move things around. I seem to recall that I retrofitted one with two racks (or do they come with two racks? It's been years..!), and more recently DH welded another box around one of them so it held the heat better.

If you use it outside, you have to protect it since any breeze or wind will blow the heat out from under it. I've used it on a two burner Coleman propane stove, a three burner RV stove but camping outside with it, and a two burner propane four legged stove.

I much prefer larger ovens since I usually make 7 loaves of bread at a time, but it is WAY better than no oven at all!

[Ruckmanite]

http://www.foxhill.net/

I've used these in our camper for years. Very good product, uses standard 8"x8" pans, and you can cook 2 pans at a time.

When you bring out a great big pan of biscuits and gravy when a bunch of people are tenting it, they look at you with big eyes, watering mouths, and the always asked question, where did you get that oven?

The trick with these types of ovens over a burner is to go slow, with a low to medium heat. When they reach the desired temp, typically 350 degrees, insert the pan(s) into the rack(s). The temp will immediately drop on the gauge, tempting you to turn up the gas.

Don't. The temperature will moderate in a short time. To get them to cook evenly, you may have to rotate the pans from top to bottom, and back to front once.

For a backup stove, these things are the berries. No, they don't fold up, but they are tough and built well.

[Cascade Failure]

Just had the Coleman up to the range last week. Good shooting, good friends and hot fried Spam sandwiches on a cold morning = good times.