Thread: Camp Oven

Never used aluminium, always cast iron. Never liked the look of the old pitted ali pots and wonder where all that aluminium has disappeared to... while cooking your food?

The pot you choose, if you only want one, is dependent on what you want to cook most, how many you are cooking for, and what heat source you use.

I have both of the units listed above.
The 4.5 quart is a great general purpose pot that will easily feed 4-5 people a stew or a soup if you have no extra side dishes like rice. You can easily bake a nice round loaf of bread in it, and it will roast a decent sized whole chicken.
The 10 quart is just over double the volume so approx. 8-10 people, will bake an oval loaf of bread, and you can fit two whole chickens side by side, or a small leg of lamb if you cut the knuckle and fold it back. Will also fit a couple of venison shanks.
These pots have the raised lipped lids, which are the only way to go if you are looking to cook over an open fire as it lets you put coals on top of the lid to make it into an oven (heating top and bottom at the same time - very important if you are looking to 'bake'). It means you can lift the lid to check the cooking without ash falling into your food.

I also have a #3 Potjie with legs, a #3 without legs, and a #8. The #3's have a max capacity of 7.8L, and the #8 is 18.5L, and weighs about 19kg!
Pots with legs work best for open fire or lpg gas ring, no legs best on stove top (wood or gas or electric) or in the oven. You can also get (or make) leg stands for the pots with no legs which makes it more versatile. I use all of my pots with no legs in the wood fired pizza oven depending on what's being cooked.
Where the potjies come into their own is the all in one pot meals (as opposed to baking or roasting). They have a curved bottom on them that makes it super easy to stir your food off the bottom to stop it burning. The curved bottom of the pot makes it super efficient to heat, and once up to a boil, event the #8 filled to the top will stay on the boil with just the inner most ring of a three ring LPG burner set to less that 1/2 fire, or a couple of coals rolled under it on a regular basis.

I have fed 40 people vegie soup in a single sitting out of the #8 filled to the gunnels when accompanied with fresh bread buns, fed 20 teens a beef stew with it 3/4 full.

They are great pieces of kit, and once you master the art of using them, you will want more than one.

#3 Potjie sitting on a home made LPG bottle fire place.




Venison stew




As served

A couple of ovens in the WFO .......




........ baking bread

#3 no leg Potjie in the WFO




Venison stew

Venison shanks cooked in the 10 quart in the WFO

The 10 quart with a couple of chickens ....

The mighty #8 in its purpose build cooking stand with its 3 ring lpg burner. Best way to feed a crowd.

Wow! Very well thought out cooking stand. Never managed to find a #8 to buy when over there. Looks like the business.

A couple of my pots are enamelled. The flat bottomed versions. Makes cleaning them super easy, and they never rust when cooking a tomato based casserole.

The hardwoods in Africa maintain a flame so well that in many campsites we stayed in, there would be a #8 burbling away with just three long sticks poked inbetween the legs. Meeting in the centre of the pot they would just glow away all day cooking the meals. Every onw and then someone would walk past and kick the sticks back into contact with each other under the pot. Super simple, and left more time for telling lies and drinking beer

Originally Posted by XR500

Wow! Very well thought out cooking stand. Never managed to find a #8 to buy when over there. Looks like the business.

https://www.biltongplus.co.nz/product/3-leg-potjie-8/

CI is the way to go I made my own years ago.

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Originally Posted by Bent Barrel

https://www.completeoutdoors.co.nz/c...10-quart-12366
This camp oven has got my attention

If I needed ( maybe I do ) another oven that oval design would be the way to go. Sometimes the roundy isnt just quite long enough.

That's a skill not many have mastered. I see what you did there, used an old alloy camp oven as your pattern and cast it in Cast Iron. Nice!

Originally Posted by XR500

That's a skill not many have mastered. I see what you did there, used an old alloy camp oven as your pattern and cast it in Cast Iron. Nice!

Yip I did my trade as a moulder in a foundry.
We made alot of this sort of thing but the best and most used is this also in cast iron

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Originally Posted by johnd

If I needed ( maybe I do ) another oven that oval design would be the way to go. Sometimes the roundy isnt just quite long enough.

Clever

Originally Posted by hotbarrels

Attachment 147099

#3 Potjie sitting on a home made LPG bottle fire place. ............

Now that IS impressive.