Posted: 9/30/2008 12:43:59 PM EDT
| Am wondering what is out there to buy for emergency baking. Thinking something small that I can bake bread with firewood or coleman fuel. Any ideas besides a Dutch oven? any other products available? |
Have you used one? if so how efficient is it? |
  I like that. Little pricey, but man- would that be NICE if SHTF.  I've seen some amazing things baked up in dutch ovens when folks know what they're doing. I haven't practiced enough myself. I should do a bunch of that this winter. OP, what are you looking to bake? Rolls? Cakes? Bread loaves? I know rolls and cobblers are pretty easy in the dutch ovens, but I don't know about the other stuff. |
Very impressive, think that would do very nicely. Looks heavy duty enough to last for a long time. Would be worth its weight in gold if the SHTF IMHO!  Thanks everybody for the great ideas. Getting that Cabela oven and a Dutch Oven would pretty much cover everything. |
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I still say dutch oven. Yes they are heavy, not ment for backpacking. BUT if you are going to bug out to some sort of location, then a DO has plenty of resources. The stove/ oven thing by campchef listed above is nice. I was looking at picking pne up last time I was in there, but opted not to just yet. The oven weights over 30 lbs and needs propane, I own probally 20 differnt types of dutch ovens now, and use them regularly. The main camping one is a 8qt 12" deep, campchef that has the 3 leg design on the bottom and on the lid, that way I do not need to try and balance the lid on a stand for using it as a frypan/ griddle. This DO weights about 20 lbs. Yes charcoal is nice since it burns pretty even and for approx 1 hours, but in TEOTWAWKI, you can use the coals from the fire to heat the oven. Yes you should have a small straw broom to clean ash around the lid before opening, a set of heavy leather gloves, a lid lifter, a set of metal tongs, and lid stand, but each of these pieces also serve additional purposes, so I do not mid the little bit of space and weigt they take up. My cast iron collection can easily be passed down to my daughter, and a few of my pieces came from my grandparents. The weight issue is offset by the fuel issue in my case. Byrons DO recipes is a good place to get started since he has a pretty well documented site on not just cooling, but choosing, cleaning, maintaining, restoring, and using cast iron. His site is here |
WHat's wrong with a Dutch oven? That's what the pioneers and colonists used. It works great and it's a lot of fun. I've baked cakes, casseroles, roasts, bread, etc. in my backyard and at the campsite. Once you learn to control your heat you can bake anything over the open fire that you can in the oven (given a large enough Dutch oven). Here's a few shots of me preparing a Black Forest Ribbon Cake in my back yard (yeah, I had a bit too much top heat and burned the top a bit. I cut off the crunchy parts and the cake was delicious):   |
I have one of these. It works great and anyone can use it, but it is not light. I also have a duch oven, but I'm the only one I know that knows how to cook with it. For a short SHTF I would use the stove, but for a long SHTF nothing is better then the duch oven. |
Sorry couldnt help myself |
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Check out this dutch over design. Has two tiers and a "convection cone". Anyone use this style before? Dutch Oven Pro |
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I baked some things on boyscout camping trips many years ago in a "reflector" oven. Tricky and you have to rotate the item fairly often, but it works. What might work better is to store some bricks or the like and build an oven. Start a fire inside till it gets hot, then brush out the fire and cook the item. Never tried it, but long history of this approach. |
Well, like I say . . . Once you learn to control your heat . . . |
Nothing wrong with D.O.'s at all, am already planning on getting one or two or three! Where can I get the best deal on one? |
Amazon.com . . . discounted prices, full selection and free shipping or orders over $25 . . . free shipping is a big deal when buying cast iron. You'll need something to hang the Dutch oven over the fire and adjust the height. Try ebay . . . search for "cowboy cookset" I paid about $40 for mine . . . you can see it in the photo above. |
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What has worked well for me is a small crockpot [I've only made corn bread], a 75w solar panel, 300 watt inverter and a battery. with a good deep cycle battery you can cook, corn bread 1.5 hour@ 75 watts, and then dump it out and[without cleaning it] make pea soup 2 hours @ 75 watts, or pintos 3.5 hours at 75 watts. With a two temp pot and an insulated box you can cut the energy in half. Other methods mentioned are fine as long as you have fuel, but this will work every day, add another panel for washington, unisolar works best in cloudy weather. If you have more people add another pannel and get a larger pot. |
Thanks for the heads up, just made a order from Amazon, 7qt oven, DO cook book, lid lifter and stand for lid all for $80 and no shipping!
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Wow, Cool idea! Thanks!  I've been getting into the slow cooking scene lately. My latest is going back to my fathers days using vacuum bottles, Thermos cooking. Beats a cold sandwich that's for sure. Tj |
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Here's a GREAT cookbook for Dutch oven cooking: www.campfirecafetv.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=08OTOF&Category_Code=BD&Product_Count=0 |