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Posted By: Jim1611 Reflector oven - 01/26/24
Any of you use one of these? I'd like to hear some first hand experience about them.
Thanks
Jim

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Posted By: steve4102 Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
You have to load and unload from the fire side, pain in the ass unless it swivels.
Posted By: flintlocke Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
One of the best bbq'd fresh split salmon I ever ate was cooked in one of those basket clamp things in a reflector oven built from aluminum diamond plate scraps sitting in front of a driftwood fire. Perfection.
Posted By: UltraMAGA Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
saw a German transplant cooking hot dogs with a polished pieces of stainless rolled into a curve once. Took about four minutes on a summer day.
Posted By: steve4102 Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
Originally Posted by steve4102
You have to load and unload from the fire side, pain in the ass unless it swivels.
Oh, looks like the top opens up, might help, might not
Posted By: Jim1611 Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
Originally Posted by steve4102
Originally Posted by steve4102
You have to load and unload from the fire side, pain in the ass unless it swivels.
Oh, looks like the top opens up, might help, might not
This is just a picture of one I found online. I don't have on yet. Could make one myself or buy it. I suppose a swivel base could be made to turn it. A handle on top would also allow you to move it too.
Posted By: Mannlicher Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
I used to use a solar reflector oven on camping trips, and it worked fine in sunny weather.
Posted By: Jim1611 Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
Originally Posted by Mannlicher
I used to use a solar reflector oven on camping trips, and it worked fine in sunny weather.
Was yours a fold up type?
Posted By: ol_mike Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
Originally Posted by Mannlicher
I used to use a solar reflector oven on camping trips, and it worked fine in sunny weather.
You live in Florida - you can cook a meal on the roof of your 4runner.
Posted By: ol_mike Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
Jim,
Howdy.
There's a bunch videos on YT- the fold up ones look handy.
Posted By: Okanagan Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
Fun and good baking outfit if you want to spend the time and experiment.

I have cooked on backpack campfires with a reflector oven, but not the one in the pic. I made my own each time, using a lightweight campfire grate for the center and heavy aluminum foil for the reflector. I curved the reflector in an eyeball attempt to focus the heat radiation on the center of the oven, like a crude flashlight reflector. I used some stiff wire also as a frame for the foil reflector, rolling/bending the edge of the foil onto the wire and then shaping the whole by bending the wire.

That oven cooked one of the best alpine huckleberry pies I've ever tasted and some good bisquits. Overall however, it was more time consuming and trouble than I wanted to spend when backpack hunting, but fun on a summer hike with no hunting. The heat was usually a bit uneven, wanting to char the front edge of the bisquits on the edge of the oven close to the fire. A baking pan that can be turned a few times during the baking helps. A good method is to put the baked goods on a foil platform wider than the dough. You can grip the edge of the foil "pan" to turn it or bend the foil up on the edge near the fire to deflect too much direct heat from the fire. A huge bed of coals is the way to go. My kids loved the process and hot biscuits in the snow.

I acquired a thin sheet of stainless steel to make a true roll-up reflector oven and never have built it. Obvious cooking "tools" are a pair of pliers and non-melting gloves.
Posted By: Jim1611 Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
Originally Posted by ol_mike
Jim,
Howdy.
There's a bunch videos on YT- the fold up ones look handy.
Thanks, I have seen some of them. Good comments on here too and much appreciated! This almost running out of propane at my house has got me thinking more like the preppers. I've got a wood stove and one of these little ovens might be handy.
Posted By: Hogwild7 Re: Reflector oven - 01/26/24
In Louisiana they call those a coonass microwave.
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