Otis good to see you having a go and learning by mistakes and experience. Playing around with Camp Ovens is a lot like distilling in many respects, The senses and being able to improvise play a large part in success. I might wander a bit of topic here but will try to help with a few hints / ideas that I've seen used or used my self.
What sorts of things are you cooking ? wet dishes like stews, curries, ? roast meats and vegetables ? Baking things like breads, buns or cakes?
Im just interested to know.
OtisT wrote: ↑Thu Mar 13, 2025 2:09 pm
The wind is a challenge. To get to a recipe’s target temp I’m using a chart that I downloaded from an Australian Dutch oven cooking site someone here shared with me. At first I thought I could compensate for the wind by adjusting the number of briquettes, but that gave me very inconsistent results and was a bit frustrating.
That chart was made by one of the members of that forum, he was a pretty good cook and Ive met him in person at one of our get togethers / cook ups.
Its much more accurate than many that you will find out there on the net........there are some real shockers around that are made by folk with NFI.
It is the one I recommend to people if they ask.
Wind can be a problem when your using BBQ type briquettes, as you will have learned , some brands burn better and hotter than others , some are bigger and some are smaller. I tend to find one or two types that I like and stick to using those.
Its also worth noting that wind or a breeze isn't always the enemy, if you are cooking on wood coals that you have shoveled out of a camp fire wind or a breeze can be useful in keeping those embers alive if you have shitty poor quality wood. That is often the case where I live , wet climate , trees grow fast, makes shit coals. Out west in the dry country trees grow slow , very hard wood ,coals will burn without help till all that is left is white ash.......damn that stuff is good to cook on.
OtisT wrote: ↑Thu Mar 13, 2025 2:09 pm
What I found works well for me is a wind shield. In my case I put the oven inside a recessed metal fire pit that has side walls to block the wind. Once I started using the wind shield, my temps were consistent with the chart and were stable. My meals started looking great and finishing in the prescribed time.
Here it would be called a "Wind Brake" not a wind shield , same, same it does the same thing.
Ive seen them made from alsorts of things , rocks , bricks , logs , bushes and branches your imagination and ability to improvise is the only limit.
As a small boy I at times saw workers , Ringers and Stockmen...our Aussie version of cowboys ,cooking this way through necessity, later in life I spent time in similar situations.
When these people had time they always used a few steel posts driven into the ground and then sheets of roofing iron were wired to those as a wind break. Easy , quick and did the job. If you scroll back through this post till you find a photo of a stack of different sized ovens you will see a windbreak like that in the background.
OtisT wrote: ↑Thu Mar 13, 2025 2:09 pm
Are there any tricks or advice you can share regarding hitting/maintaining a target temp under different outdoor conditions?
Experience is about the only one I know of.
Having said that I will add , that as I have learned more over the years , I've released that exact target temps are not that critical, close enough is mostly good enough. Its more about looking , smelling , listening to the sizzle
A bit like distilling some folk want to have 5 thermometers on a still, that's not for me. One on a reflux still is enough to tell me whats happening.
I'm the same with Camp ovens , NO thermometers is the right amount on a camp oven , Ive seen folks in competitions pointing those fancy lazer type thermometers at their ovens, only to be beaten by those who just use their senses.
For what its worth I tap my finger tips very quickly on the side of the oven to judge temp. If you use that heat briquettes chart for long enough and at the same time tap finger tips often enough, the two will start to make sense. Tap when cooking wet dishes , Roasting , Baking , Baking you wont leave the finger tips there long, , just long enough to know.
Your finger tips travel with you , they dont need batteries , you dont need to remember to pack them.
OtisT wrote: ↑Thu Mar 13, 2025 2:09 pm
I need to find/make a portable screen to use. I am car camping, so I can tolerate carrying more stuff/weight, but I do want it to be as compact as possible. One idea that came to mind was getting a stack of identically sized cookie sheets that I can clip together to form a metal wall around the oven when cooking then stack them back up when not in use.
The best portable ones Ive seen for hobby / camping use were made from 3 or 4 maybe 5 pieces of sheet metal that were hinged together so that the whole apparatus sat / packed away flat when not in use.
Hope I havn't waffled to much and have been of some help.
I would’ve gone with a cast iron one from that place in SF but it would’ve been too heavy for Fraulein to “encourage” me with…