OutBack Oven baking

How many of us actually BAKE (as opposed to steaming) when we're backpacking?

I have an OutBack oven hood. It neatly covers my 1.5 L. pots and does double duty in winter as a heat conserving item to melt snow faster. But, with the aneroid thermometer built into the lid handle I can bake whatever I want.

Howsomever, I MUST have a stove with a remote fuel container. It's not safe to use the OutBack Oven with a SVEA 123 or an on-the-canister stove like an MSR Pocket Rocket or Vago Jet-Ti. The fuel container will absolutly overheat with disasterous results.

I've baked cinnamon rolls, Bisquick jelly-filled biscuits, pizza and muffins in my 1.5 L. pots. And on a cold winter evening that is the "piece de resistance" of the meal.

However you must have a stove that will simmer low enough (MSR Dragonfly or Wind-pro, for ex.) A SimmerLite white gas stove may not be able to go low enough W/O a diffuser plate. Backpacker's Pantry, who sells the OutBack Oven, also sells the steel (yeah, heavy) diffuser plates or you can make one from 1/8 thick aluminum by drilling lots of 1/16th in. holes in it, as I did.

My experience is that the Dragonfly is the only liquid fuel stove that will simmer low enough to bake with. We tried my buddy's Simmerlite stove with no luck. I owned a new Optimus multi-fuel stove that, no matter how much I tried, would not simmer low enough. I took it back and got the Dragonfly.

Virtually all canister gas stoves will simmer low enough to bake with the OutBack Oven in my experience but, remember, they must be remote fuel stoves.

I have no experience (yet) with a BushBuddy stove but I'd bet that, with hardwoods, it could bake also. Maybe a diffuser would be needed 'til the flames died down to coals. Then you could feed one or two sticks in at a time to keep it going.

Alcohol stoves likely would not burn long enough to bake with. Otherwise they may be Ok, especially if they have a flame control mechanism. (Ye Gods! I just said mechanism in the same sentence with Alky stoves. Slap my face!)

Let's hear your tales of baking. This is a perfect topic to talk about freezer bag baking ingredients prepared at home and mixed in the bag with water at camp.

Eric

I haven't tried this yet but here's a guy who has..
http://minibulldesign.com/vidbaking.htm

I finally coughed up the cash for a MSR Windpro canister stove last year - which I can use with my Outback. So I will be playing with it more. I got the Outback UL Oven for a screaming deal awhile back, at a Trailfest, a dealer deal thing.

Otherwise I steam back. I don't mind not having the brown/crust. Though one thing I have used from the Outback setup is the heat diffuser. It works without the parka when I am doing one pot stuff. It is a great tool for making pan biscuits, etc. Adn I can use it on my regular canister stoves as well.

So you CAN bake with alcohol. I'd recommend a Backpacker's Pantry aneroid thermometer lid handle instead of the "sizzling water" method.

I do like the corrugated heat diffuser idea inside the pot but I'd be tempted to try it UNDER the pot, where most heat diffusers go.

I noticed the alcohol flame was going out just as the biscuit was done. Hmmm...good timing - or luck?

Eric

Sarah,

I never used my Outback heat diffuser B/C I felt it was too heavy. I've used my aluminum diffuser made from a strainer and had good luck with it. However I did have to use 5 aluminum bolts W/ spacer washers & lock washers & nuts to raise the pot bottom off the diffuser. (4 on the perimeter and one in the center) But when I began using my JetBoil pot W/ its Flux Ring bottom corrugated ring I didn't need the bolt risers anymore.

The Outback Oven hood is great for winter camping and fuel savings, esp. when melting snow for water.
I now own two hoods, on the off chance they go out of production or the Russians invade... (Hey, even paranoids have enemies.)

Eric

ERic

I occasionally bake for one over alcohol. For a lid use aluminum foil with a small, regtangular slit cut to allow steam to escape. Put the bread on aluminum plate (I use a childs cake pan from a kitchen set) and raise it above the bottom of the stove with a ring of metal (I use a 1/2 tall piece cut from a coke can with all the coating sanded off. Now cover the air holes in your stove so it works like a chaffing dish and voila - an oven!

I remember Gardenville enjoy baking with an alcy stove:
http://www.backpacking.net/archive01/sho...amp;o=&vc=1

A few years ago I went on a snowshoe trip with a few other folks. One of the guys brought an outback oven and made rolls for supper and cinnamon rolls for breakfast for everyone. That is the best way for using an outback oven. Eat the results and have someone else carry the weight and do the actual baking. LOL

Barry,

Good pictures. However this is a setup for steaming, not dry, oven baking as I'm describing. Steaming has its uses, for making dumplings and rice cakes for example.

This can also be done in a lighter way by putting a few same-sized pebbles of about 3/4" thick on the bottom of the pot and placing a light circular stainless steel screen over them and then putting just enough water in so that it does not quite touch the screen.


ERic

Gord,

What's bad, very bad, is when the "baker" carries all the ingredients and oven, makes a great cake... and eats it all himself because the other little hens wouldn't help carry the stuff. (Hee, hee, a Henny Penny tale.)

Eric

How about solar ovens? Maybe I will make one a try it out.