Camp Oven recipe

Romy5152 · Guru

Camp Oven recipe

HeadnHome · Senior Member

Hi Romy5152, found this site to be pretty good www.aussiecampovencook.com

Firefly · Guru

Ours is roast lamb and vegies mate. We even use it at home to cook them on the stove top, beautiful. The best bit is to throw some sweet potato in with the vegies, when cooked, spread a smear of butter over it and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, mmmmm. smile

Romy5152 · Guru

Thanks HeadnHome - and Firefly, you're making me hungry and it's only 9.45am!

I don't know, everything I seem to cook in the camp oven seems to burn. Oh, wait, I tell a lie, I have made one good damper and one good topside roast. They were really nice, but I don't know why everything else I cook is either burnt or undercooked. I think I have the right amount of coals. I even took a camp oven cooking class the the Milmerran Camp Oven Festival a couple of years ago. I'm beginning to think that you either have the knack or you don't. Any tips, girls?

Firefly · Guru

Its the other half who is good at it at our house mate, he has been using one for years and me only a short while.

I know it works better with a trivet in the base to keep the food off the bottom and with dampers etc, a cake time works well to keep it off the extreme heat.

We don't use heat beads, only coals, I can't seem to make the beads work at all.

Romy5152 · Guru

Thanks Firefly. I actually used a trivet for the topside roast and that did work, but when I used a cake tin for the damper - well, are you ready for a story?

Back in 2005, we had stopped to camp for the night beside the Arthur River in the NT. The river was dry, and there was plenty of wood around, so we collected some for a campfire and I decided to make a damper to have with our Savoury Mince dinner. I had made a good damper in the camp oven the last time I tried it only a week or so beforehand, so thought it would be a cinch this time too. To cut a long story short, the damper ended up with the ar-- and top burned clean out of it and damn near melted the cake tin I had it in! Fair dinkum, when hubby went to lift the tin out of the camp oven with a pair of pliers, he almost took a piece of of the cake tin. It promptly buckled it was so soft! We threw that one out for the birds, and put anothery on - just the SR flour and stubby of beer recipe - but this time we erred too much on the side of caution, and it was still soft and doughy in the middle. We weren't going to waste good beer, so we put that damper back in again twice more before the dashed thing was cooked! We laugh about it now, but at the time it was so frustrating. We now know that different woods burn differently and have different heat qualities, so perhaps that was what the problem was - then again we could have just had too many coals under and on top of the camp oven!

Firefly · Guru

biggrin biggrin

biggrin

We did that with a lamb roast on the Mitchell Plateau. I insisted on using the camp oven but then we got talking and had an extended happy hour and the roast was disgusting. We laugh now, as you say, but we were hungry.

There are a couple of very simple damper receipes in this section, SR flour and pumpkin soup and I think cream of corn soup as well.

Also Sheba's lemonade scones are to die for. I'm sure it was Sheba who posted that one.

Romy5152 · Guru

Good old happy hour, hey! Gotta love it! Will have to check those recipes out. Thanks Firefly.

-- Edited by Romy5152 on Saturday 28th of May 2011 08:03:40 PM

goinsoon · Guru

Don't laugh, just try it.

leg of lamb, cup of tomato sauce, cup of coke and cook as it was a roast - beautiful

Romy5152 · Guru

That would be good, goinsoon - if I ate lamb.

I took an aversion to anything lamb or mutton when I was pregnant with our son 26 years ago, and still can't stomach the smell or taste of that particular meat. How's about I try it with beef? I can handle that.

goinsoon · Guru

Romy, try this, nice piece of roast. ie. topside, blade, etc. wrap in nice bacon strips and secure with toothpicks, place in camp oven, couple cloves of garlic, an onion quarted (if you like) pour in a can of stout and cook - yumm

Romy5152 · Guru

Now THAT'S more like it, Goinsoon! Beef and beer - love it! Thanks. Will let you know if the camp oven (and I) redeem ourselves.

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

Garlic cheesy damper in Lodge 10" camp oven:

KD

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 04:05:22 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 04:07:30 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 04:33:43 PM

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

The above Damper was, in part, the reason I came home from 2012 The Leeton Show Camp Oven Cook Off with the Champion Cook ribbon and apron!
Pea and Ham soup was the other part.

Dead easy will post recipe below:

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 04:11:57 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 04:12:47 PM

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

GARLIC CHEESY DAMPER

2 cups SR flour
1 cup milk
2 desertspoons minced garlic
handful of grated cheddar cheese
fine Parmesan cheese

Mix milk into flour with a knife, mix in minced garlic, throw in grated cheddar and stir in. Do not handle.
Turn out into a cake tin, make 3 slits on top with a sharp knife, sprinkle Parmesan into slits and all over the top.
Place cake tin in 10" camp oven and bake.

KD

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 04:30:20 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 04:32:50 PM

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

Leeton Show Camp Oven Cook Off champion winning Pea & Ham Soup:

Cooked in a Falkirk Potjie Pot from South Africa, using a Tripod from a Melbourne blacksmith who is currently listing on ebay........

Simply follow the recipe on the back of a packet of McKenzie's green split peas!! Add Thyme from the garden!

KD

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 07:01:02 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 07:02:15 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 07:07:06 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 07:13:24 PM

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

Pea and Ham recipe at:

http://www.mckenziesfoods.com.au/recipe/163/Traditional_Pea_Ham_Soup

KD

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 07:15:49 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Saturday 5th of January 2013 07:17:33 PM

Romy5152 · Guru

Ooooooh, yum-my!

Romy5152 · Guru

Well, David, the recipe will be gratefully received, and congratulations with your championship! Well done!

Romy5152 · Guru

Very nice! Pea and Ham Soup recipe - please? I love soup in summer as well as in winter.

Atm, have a pork steak and veggie casserole in Mum's slow cooker. Smells wafting in from the kitchen are delicious!

Romy5152 · Guru

Now that looks good enough to eat!

Been into the website. Thanks for the link - the recipe is different to the one I use in my slow cooker. Yours look pretty thick and filling though. Mmmm.

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

I did a "cheat" for the Saturday Leeton Cook Off!

Friday night I took off the skin and fat from the hamhock. Then I took off the meat, fine diced it and reserved it in a Chinese take-away container, keeping the bone.

On the day I got the soup going, added the bone, then the diced meat.

So all I had to do at the finish was remove the bone before judging.

Chefs tricks!

KD

Romy5152 · Guru

How is that 'cheating'? Did you have to prepare the whole thing in front of the judges? The last time I cooked anything in a camp oven, I burned the ar--, sorry bottom, out of what was supposed to be a nice beer damper - when camped about 30 minutes out of Urandangie.

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

Not the Judges, the Camp Oven Steward who was pretty easy going.

The only criteria was that the food had to be cooked in a camp oven. How you did it was not the concern of the Steward or Judges.

I did think of using Heat Beads, but that was not appropriate so used real coals from the fire provided:

The prize! A kiss from Miss Showgirl!

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Sunday 6th of January 2013 04:25:54 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Monday 7th of January 2013 01:36:10 PM

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

Anybody else use South African Potjie Pots?

Pronounced Poikie Pot!

I have several and use them a lot, great for wet dishes like soups & stews:

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Sunday 6th of January 2013 04:33:33 PM

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

Heat Beads are a good way to become a confident camp oven cook, real coals take practice and can be a bit hit and miss, the number of Heat Beads under and over can be calculated in advance for a particular temperature.

Aldi Turkey breast Christmas Day 2012 in 10" Lodge camp oven:

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Sunday 6th of January 2013 04:41:31 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Sunday 6th of January 2013 04:45:01 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Sunday 6th of January 2013 04:58:34 PM

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

Lodge cast iron baking temperature chart, 350F would cover most cooking:

http://www.socaldos.org/dutch_oven_chart.htm

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Sunday 6th of January 2013 04:54:09 PM

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Sunday 6th of January 2013 04:57:46 PM

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

A Heat Beads Starter Chimney speeds things up.
From Barbecues Galore or Bunning:

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Sunday 6th of January 2013 05:15:32 PM

Romy5152 · Guru

That explains it. Well, it seems you're very adept at camp oven cooking.

I struggle with how the coals are supposed to be and with cooking times - and although damper seems to be what I am more successful with, I have cooked a couple of topside roasts that have been pretty good. I don't do enough camping to get enough practice in. I know camp ovens can be used in a conventional oven, but what's the point of that.

Gotta love that wood smoke.

Kingsthorpedavid · Senior Member

Making a Potjie (Slow Cooking) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfVPl4sRaJk&feature=related

-- Edited by Kingsthorpedavid on Monday 7th of January 2013 02:16:42 PM