Cobb Cooker

[baldyhead]

Has anyone used one of these and if so what do you think of them. Any fors and againsts?
baldy

[Derek Bullock]

Baldy

Check back a few pages. There was a post on this once before.


Derekl

[baldyhead]

Thanks Derek read all 17 pages and although good info nothing conclusive. I think that I'll stick to my camp ovens.
I'm researching ways to cut and modify an old 20lb lpg bottle so that I can put a camp oven into/onto it and use heat beads as the heating source. This is so that I can use camp oven @ home (council fire ban in backyard) and also when bush when total fire ban is on. baldy

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Hi Baldy,
You might have seen my previous comments about the cobb if you have read every page; if not a search should bring them up.
In a nutshell I reckon they are good for some things but wouldn't make it your only cooking device.

Pros:
very ecconomical on fuel - 7 beads do a 2hr roast with enough heat left to do a loaf of bread
brilliant for roasts - my olds do roasts in it rather than the home oven nowdays
insulated - can sit it on plastic tables or anywhere
portable - you can take it down the beach with you fishing for a couple of hours whilst it cooking and then back to camp.
NOT SURE ON THIS (Check it out) but I think it may be leagal to use during a fire ban as its enclosed. Derrek or someone might know better on this (please comment, don't crucify if I'm wrong #)
It can be used as a smoker - add water soaked hickory chips to the head beads. You don't get 100% smoked food, more half cooked half smoked. Only seen it done once with some fish and it wasn't brilliant, but then again the guy didn't seem to soak the chips for long enough and had too much heat, so it was more like it was just plain cooked fish with a slight smokey flavour. Need a bit more experimentation.
Can get various other accessories - think there is a wok and pizza tray available.

Cons:
Bit messy to clean up - example: after a roast you have to wait for it to cool down, then clean out the congealed fat and ash from the base.
Limited space - wouldn try and cook a whole meal for more than two despite the pretty pictures on the website with enough sausages to feed ten.
Fiddly if you are cooking on top and in the moat - example: if you were doing a roast on top and vegies in the moat, you would have to lift the cooking roast off occassionaly to get to turn the vegies.

So there you go, probably seems like its still inconclusive.

Attached it pick of a recent roast whilst camping. Sorry a bit blurred. Roast potatoes and pumpkin were done in a camp oven and peas and carrot boiled in a billy - combo cooking is the go.

Cheers
Jeff
PS I will post up an alternative to the cut down LPG bottle idea if you are interested.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Mate did the roast vegies in the camp ovens.
Better him messing around on top of that fire place than me, but came out good.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

The result!
Tough life roughing it in the aussie bush.

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

I was going to put this up on a separate post in case anyone was interested in a portable fire. May as well go here.
Mate from Sydney showed us one and the old man has since made his.
Pros:
Much more ecconomical on wood, especially when you have to use those semi dried sawmill off cuts supplied at national parks.
Much better than the supplied fire places which are often warped or rusted to bits.
You just sit your billy or camp oven on the two tent pegs you see going through the tin. Steaks are done on a hinged type grill that sits on the top of the tin. (Some of the best flame chared grill steak I've ever eaten)
Portable - your not stuck using the existing fire places if its too crowded or they are trashed. Sit it up on couple of blocks of wood or some bricks and you aren't going to leave a big burnt fireplace on the ground (like some do). If you are cooking part of a meal and going over to a mates camp, you can carry the whole thing over whilst buring and have a few beers while it finishes.
Cheap as chips to make - its just an old 20lt paint tin with a couple of holes with tent pegs shoved through.
Cons:
A bit buky to pack.
Messy and sooty - but rather than scrubbing it down every time you want to pack it, my old man just cleans most the ash out and shoves it in a hessian sack - no worries [smiley=2thumbsup.gif].

Cheers
Jeff

[baldyhead]

Thanks Jeff very informative posts, just what I was after. The paint can is the go, will start mine Monday. The beauty of the can is its weight as the lpg bottle is bloody heavy and has a narrow base. The cobb is now being made in China and I wouldn't touch one after finding that out. My camp ovens would crack if they knew I was after a cobb hahaha
Once again thanks M8. baldy

[Derek Bullock]

Hey Baldy

Just remember that in a fire ban, a fire in a drum like that will still be breaking the law, particularly if you are in a National Park or State Forest.

There are a couple of products on the market at the moment that use Gas. One I have been using for a couple of years now is the Camp Oven Mate made by Southern Metal Spinners in South Australia.

Check it out at http://www.southern-metal-spinners.com.au/camp_oven.htm

My 9 qt oven fits in it just lovely.

Cheers


Derek

[baldyhead]

Thanks Derek I wasn't aware of that. The C O Mate looks interesting, i will follow that one up.
I read on a post earlier that you cook using heat beads, well a new post with a page or two of your methods / successes wouldn't go astray and I'll bet you will have a captive audience. How about it M8?
cheers baldy

[Derek Bullock]

Baldy

I have been using heat beads now for years and find them the way to go. A while back I did do a story for Bush 'N Beach Fishing about using heat beads. I have conducted a number of cooking demos using them and one day soon I hope to write a small book on the subject so I dont know about posting "all my secrets" on here.

May even look at putting together a website one day.

Just to give you an idea of something you can cook in a camp oven, here is a pic of a loaf of bread and a batch of bread rolls cooked in a Bedourie Camp Oven using heat beads.

The bread was made with a product, thats no longer on the market unfortunately, called "No Knead Bread Mix". #As it's name suggests there was no kneading involved and it was the greatest thing on the market for breadmaking in the bush. Most of the bread mixes you buy in the supermarket will work though.

Anyone making bread would be aware that you need a warm place for it to rise. The answer to that is the car sitting in the sun. Even in winter the car will warm up.

In the photo there are 15 heat beads on top of the oven and 9 under it (you can't actually see the ones underneath). I have found that will generally give around 180 to 200 degrees in the oven. Thats a good heat for most baking.

So keep an eye out for 'Camp Oven Cooking with Heat Beads' by Derek Bullock. Hopefully, coming to you in the future through all good camping stores, newsagents and booksellers. (Even the not so good ones to)

Cheers


Derek

[Derek Bullock]

This one is an ordinary old cob loaf cooked in a cast iron camp oven.

[Derek Bullock]

And of course you all love my famous pumpkin fruit muffins. These were cooked using the traditional old coals off the camp fire but also in a Bedourie camp oven.

[baldyhead]

Thats pretty good Derek thanks. I have never used heat beads before but would like to try them, can you advise what type to get and is there a special way to light them and is there any not to use. A M8 told me that he used some once and they tainted his tucker with a kero type taste on the char grill.
The oven with the beads on the lid, did you sit the oven on beads placed on that wire rack, as after a while wouldn't the beads crumble and fall thru?
cheers baldy

[Derek Bullock]

Hey Baldy, have a look at the attached photo. It's a photo from a recent display I did.

I use the Heat Bead brand and I buy the easy light ones because you dont need fire lighters with them. There is a faint kero smell with these but it goes when the coals burn down to ashes.

Yes I light them up on a wire rack and all I do is pile them up and light them. The trick is to let them burn down to coals before you start cooking. When they burn down I use a pair of tongs to place them on the lid of the oven.

I have found that they give a good heat for well over an hour and thats generally plenty of time to cook most things. If you need more then just light a few more as you go.

All I can suggest is you get a packet of them and try.

Cheers


Derek