Base for box oven?

[AnaMaria]

I'll be with my Webelos this weekend at a Webelos CampORee. We're planning on using a box oven (upside down box style) for a couple of things, but will not have a cempfire ring/dirt area to set it up. Can I use a piece of cardboard covered with foil for the base? Would that also work as a spot for charcoal for foil dinners?

[GKlose]

I'm not sure I follow completely, but if what I think you're asking is if a foil-covered piece of cardboard can be used as a base on which to hold lit charcoal, I think the answer is no. Foil is not an insulator.

 

Guy

[Greaves]

would a cookie sheet work?

We made box ovens once, but we did the box-flaps-make-the-door model.

 

My Webelos den made 8. One burnt the cookies, one caught on fire, and the other 6 turned out tasty tollhouse cookies. THAT was a fun meeting.

[artjrk]

Cardboard would not be a good idea.

 

I would suggest an aluminum drip pan for a water heater, elevated by rocks or bricks. I saw a 22" diameter one for around $25 in local Home Depot.

[AnaMaria]

Guy,

 

Yes, that was the question essentially. If the answer is no, what can we use? We'll be at a CampORee, no fire ring and we'll have to get whatever it is to our campsite.

[AnaMaria]

It's sounding like some type of aluminum pan and a few bricks will be part of the plan.

[jhankins]

I use a copier paper box put on its vertical side as my box oven, so the only base is the cardboad covered in foil, but the coals are put inside pie pans.

[SSScout]

If you are asking for ideas about how to build a wood fire (on what to build a wood fire) when there is no official fire ring, here are some ideas:

 

First, make sure from the PTB that open fires OF ANY KIND are allowed.

Second, contact your local Boy Scout Troop. They may/can provide Scouts to help, equipment to borrow, ideas to use.

 

The usual idea is to not damage the existing grass and to protect against fire spreading, so

Third, make sure you have the means to put the fire out, BEFORE you light it (buckets of water, shovels, etc.)

 

A BIG steel trash can lid on bricks can work.

 

An old cookie sheet is good, fire kept small, insulated with dirt or bricks.

 

The biggest you can find aluminum turkey roasting pan can work, if the fire is kept small enough and you insulate the bottom from the grass below with sand/clean dirt/rocks.

 

No, not cardboard wrapped in foil.

 

Have fun. Safely.(This message has been edited by SSScout)

[Mom2Scouts06]

We also do what jhankins said and put our coals inside aluminum pie pans!

[Stosh]

My suggestion:

 

1) Protect the grass - some sort of heat reflective material, foil covered cardboard would work.

 

2) Heat insulation - (air) 3 small spacers, i.e. rocks, whatever...

 

3) Charcoal holder - some sort of fire holding item - pie pan, but make sure it is not just the flimsy aluminum kind in that they don't hold up to heat very well. Old steel pie pans work great or even an old obsolete fry pan would work too if the handle wasn't a problem.

 

4) Pop cans to hold the baking items.

 

Remember one is baking so depending on available resources, indirect heat is better than a pie plate directly under the baked good.

 

Tin cans with air holes poked in the bottom will hold small amounts of charcoal in the 4 corners of the box oven. Just make sure the holes are not blocked for circulation to the coals. If you do it this way make sure your baked good is still elevated. It needs hot air to circulate all around the baked good. Remember the larger the box the more charcoal is needed. A probe meat thermometer would be nice. You're looking for 350-degrees for most baked goods. Just poke the probe into the box and take a reading. If you get pretty close to 350, you ought to be able to bake right off the directions on the recipe.

 

Stosh

[CHLees3rd]

I recently went camping with my Daisy Girl Scout troop and used a box oven I made to cook the meatballs for our pasta dinner. The place we camped had a fire ring where I would going to get the charcoal ready; however, before the campout, a wind storm knocked a huge tree over right on top of the fire ring. The owner of the property would not allow anyone near the fire ring until the tree could be cleared. Since I did not have a fire ring, I bought a couple of 4 inch deep aluminum trays to use as a fire place. I set the trays on the ground (one inside of the other) after clearing the area and lit my charcoal in the chimney inside the tray. I had the box oven nearby on a bunch of level bricks. When it was time to cook, I took the charcoal and placed them in a small aluminum tray for the oven. I wrapped the garlic bread in foil and placed them in the trays of hot charcoal near the edges. Dinner was great.

 

Since I had kept the charcoal hot by putting a third tray over the coals during dinner, I decided to add wood and have the campfire in the tray. When the campfire was done, I just flooded the tray with water until the fire and all embers were out. The next day I drained the water, sealed up the wet coals and wood in the tray by folding/rolling sides together, and brought it home to dispose in the trash.

 

Chazz Lees

[Scoutfish]

Okay, my suggestion is dependant on wether you have a truck or not.

 

In BALOO, we learned how to make a LNT fire pit.

 

Buy a cheap tarp. Maybe a 5 X 8 or so.

 

Bring along about 3 or 4 5 gallon bukets of dirt or sand with you too. Put the tarp down and then spread the dirt on the tarp at least 3 or 4 inches deep.

 

That is your base for your fire. Afterwards when the fie goes out, you can scatter the ashes into the wing or carry them back home with you.

 

Granted, we used charcoal for duutch ovens, not a big raging log fire. With a big fire, the heat might still transfer through the dirt/sand and to the ground/ grass underneath.

[Basementdweller]

Hauling dirt?

 

Ridiculous. It could work, but way too much work. Of course I have done stuff like that too. Setting up 126 Tiki torches for a 15 minute ceremony falls into that category.

 

I found Baloo pretty worthless. One of those things to be dealt with to comply with the rules.

 

We use a dutch oven table, which is all metal and for the really big dutch ovens we use XL pizza pans and bricks under them.

 

Cardboard with foil over it for a fire base would just catch on fire.

 

 

My Webelos????? Not The Webelos?????(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

[Scoutfish]

Well, hualing the dirt isn't that big a deal to me. Of course, I own a 3/4 ton pickup. About half the parents in our pack drive pickups regularly.

 

In the BALOO class, they actually suggested scattering the ash dust around after it was completely out and cool. Scatter it thin enough, it still falls under leave no trace as compared to older traditional scout practices.

 

Makes sense too, at least in the type of soil and foilage around here ( pine forets, white acidic sand) the dirt could also be scattered or carried back home. If you camp alot, I'm sure that dirt might be in a pile at home easily accesable.

 

AS far as BALOO...well, half of it was just common sense : Don't let the scouts run around with sharpened sticks - don't let scouts play with gasoline around the fire pit while juggling shotgun shells - etc...

 

But there were a few great ideas such as Smores burritos! Take a fajita wrapp, spinkle 8 or 7 mini marshmellows and about the same number of chocolate chips in the fajita, roll it up and wrap in foil, then sit in coal for 2 minutes. Remove and let cool for 1 minute.

 

Why? Because one scout at the instructors pack grabbed a marshmellow from his stick, burnt his hand..and while screaming, flung the super hot gooey mess onto the face of a scout behind him.

 

No, that doesn;r happen too often, but now it doesn't happen at all.

 

My point? You can still learn a afew neat things at BALOO...even though 75 % or so would actually be common sense.

 

Too bad common sense isn't always so common!

 

 

[Scoutfish]

My Webelos den made 8.

 

Not "My Webelos". Big difference. I take it as - He meant his den as compared to another Webelos den in the pack he belongs too.

 

Really, it means more based on the originators meaning than what you or I take it to mean. When I say my boys...everybody in my pack ( including the parents ) understands that it means the boys who I work with as compared to all those(other dens) who I don't work with.

 

 

One more thing.... I so like the DO table. Think I might buy one wheh I have the extra money to spend on it.

 

At least for me, it would mean I wouldn't have to bend over so much!