RV Oven Cooking

Cooking in an RV is always a challenge. A tiny oven, no air circulation, and a rack that sits almost on top of the flame. We've tried a variety of tactics to increase our cooking success both with the oven and by using other means. Here's some of our favorites:

1. Use stoneware (Pampered Chef). The stoneware absorbs the heat more evenly and helps keep the bottoms of things from burning. It can be used for biscuits, bacon, chicken, potatoes, and anything else you'd normally bake in the oven. Sometimes rotation is still needed to brown the tops of things evenly. For some foods, adding a foil lid will help with the top browning.

2. Reduce the recipe's required temperature by 25-50 degrees.

3. Experiment with preheating or not preheating. So far, breads and cookies seem to do better with preheating, but everything else does great warming up with the oven.

4. Use the microwave or stovetop instead. Using the Deep Covered Baker (from Pampered Chef) allows you to cook a huge variety of meals in the microwave that come out tasting like they're from the oven. Chicken, pork, meatloaf, enchiladas, dump cake, and so much more. On the stovetop you can make skillet pizzas and a variety of one dish skillet meals.

5. When the weather allows, use the grill. Meats, veggies, and even breads can be cooked on the grill. Find a good grilling cookbook or search online for grill recipes.

6. Begin the practice of Dutch Oven cooking. It's not as complicated as it sounds and can be quite fun and rewarding. Plus, the extra iron in the diet can be a benefit for a lot of us. A great cookbook for beginners (and not so beginners) is Loving' Dutch Oven Cooking. Available from Cabella's: http://www.cabelas.com/

In this photo:

Coffee brewing in percolator from Sportsmans Warehouse, gravy from mix made in small microwave bowl from Pampered Chef, biscuits baked on Medium Bar Pan from Pampered Chef.