Cooking in your RV? Yes or No

[BobB]

Don't wintercamp, so have not faced those issues yet.

Generally, cook outside on portable propane if weather is nice, but coffee in the morning is usually inside.

Too much wind or rain, inside and use the fan in the pop-top.

Seafood - Never inside, always outside. If it is forecast to rain, we don't buy seafood

[saenzm]

Originally Posted by talktodean

I live in NM. Where ru headed for boarding?

Ahh sorry I missed this post. I went to Ruidoso. Had a GREAT time.

[saenzm]

Originally Posted by BBQ

snow boarding and in van cooking?

do you plan to sleep in the van as well?

cooking breakfast? or all meals?

Sorry I am just now getting back to this post. I didn't receive alerts that people were responding

So I slept in the van. I did go snowboarding and it was great! I took the advice of GerryM about soups and sandwiches. Stuck with that and acouple stops for some local food.

Learned a lot about my van and had a great time!

[floydj@me.com]

Does anyone use an electic hot plate? We have an Ascent so it has a small propane tank.

[Davydd]

We use our microwave/convection oven, Keurig coffee maker, an Instant Pot, and a portable induction cooktop which are all electric but then we have 800ah of lithium ion batteries. Otherwise to use that stuff you would need shore power or fire up an Onan generator. If most people are like us, we cook outdoors every chance we get and we can with the Instant Pot and induction cooktop. We also carry a two-burner propane Coleman grill-top for grilling outdoors and we also use charcoal for grilling if a campsite has a decent fire ring. Of course a good ol' wood fire if cooking hot dogs and brats. I've made pizza a few times in a cast iron Dutch oven over charcoals.

[InterBlog]

Thread resurrection!

Since the time of my original post in which I mentioned taking a lot of frozen food on the road in order to avoid having to cook from scratch in the van, we've been tooling around with how to preserve food for *even longer* while in transit.

Rather than using cube ice or dry ice as we had originally done, I came up with the idea of freezing vacuum-packed meals directly into monolithic ice blocks. My husband built a thin plywood box that conformed to the internal shape of our cooler so that I could line it with plastic, and build two such blocks by adding successive layers of meal chunks and water (pics here). Then we max'd the freezer out to take the completed blocks to temperatures that were as far below zero as achievable.

It worked very well indeed - the blocks were still solid 8 days later, and in August to boot. Except then it became a real female dog to free the individual meals from them. I'd even put wax paper between the layers to ease disassembly, but it didn't work very well. I had to use an ice pick and getting into those blocks was like trying to hack open the gates of hell itself.


Hassle aside, if someone were traveling in colder weather instead of mid-summer, this approach could ensure meal provisions for a long, long time indeed, without the need to cook (gently warming stuff up does not produce the same issues with odors, splattered grease, and whatnot).

Here's a pic of ice block 1 of 2 from last summer:

[BBQ]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

Thread resurrection!

Since the time of my original post in which I mentioned taking a lot of frozen food on the road in order to avoid having to cook from scratch in the van, we've been tooling around with how to preserve food for *even longer* while in transit.

Rather than using cube ice or dry ice as we had originally done, I came up with the idea of freezing vacuum-packed meals directly into monolithic ice blocks. My husband built a thin plywood box that conformed to the internal shape of our cooler so that I could line it with plastic, and build two such blocks by adding successive layers of meal chunks and water (pics here). Then we max'd the freezer out to take the completed blocks to temperatures that were as far below zero as achievable.

It worked very well indeed - the blocks were still solid 8 days later, and in August to boot. Except then it became a real female dog to free the individual meals from them. I'd even put wax paper between the layers to ease disassembly, but it didn't work very well. I had to use an ice pick and getting into those blocks was like trying to hack open the gates of hell itself.


Hassle aside, if someone were traveling in colder weather instead of mid-summer, this approach could ensure meal provisions for a long, long time indeed, without the need to cook (gently warming stuff up does not produce the same issues with odors, splattered grease, and whatnot).

Here's a pic of ice block 1 of 2 from last summer:

+1

[BillsPaseo]

We generally cook breakfast inside and dinner outside unless the weather is bad. But we buy the precooked bacon that just needs a quick heat up in a pan so not a lot of grease splatter.

[Hondo]

I use the microwave and occasionally the stove inside my Roadtrek. There is a dedicated exhaust fan & hood right above the burners that is vented outside...it's the small, uppermost vent on the side-



I just ordered a small, butane canister powered, Japanese Iwatani Fired Burning (ABURIYA) CB-ABR-1 grill on Amazon for outdoor grilling-





Here is a Japanese review- not in English but he shows the grill in detail -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li8WvQLGGqI

I bought it for it's small size and ease of use. I also ordered a 4 pack of butane canisters for $25. They reportedly will run the grill for 90 minutes.

[JohnnyFry]

Nonsense, we cook inside all the time. We also have an induction cooktop we use inside or outside if we have a picnic table. We also use a crockpot on the inverter when traveling, dinner is ready when we arrive, and it smells great for the last 4 hours. We also use the convection microwave a lot. We tend to avoid using the propane burners if possible...we use the induction preferably.

[GeorgeRa]

We use the following ranked from mostly used down:

1. Outside - my favored – Optimus white gas stove https://www.optimusstoves.com/us/us/...mus-hiker-plus or butane stove with easy spark ignition https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2. Outside - small barbeque - Trailmate

3. Indoor - marine Origo single burner stove electric burner with shore power or alcohol

4. Indoor - microwave on shore or inverter’s power.

[jon]

My favorite is a small rice cooker/steamer.
The kind with a steamer tray in the top. My wife can cook the whole meal at once.
Cooks eggs, meat, or rice.

Sent from my LG-TP450 using Tapatalk

[Davydd]

We now have a 3 qt. Instant Pot pressure cooker that we got over the holidays. We will leave our crockpot at home since the Instant Pot acts as a slow cooker also. It does many things. Tonight we will try meatloaf of all things. We done just about everything else. There is a huge Instant Pot group on Facebook that I haven't bothered to join.

[fwdanielson]

We cook most of our meals in the van on the stove. Everything from shrimp and grits to chicken parmigiana to poached fish. Our van is an older Roadtrek with a proper vent hood and a stainless steel backsplash around the back and side of the stove which may work better for cooking than newer vans. We generally only microwave to warm things up and steam vegetables just like at home.

Smells haven't been much of an issue. We normally have the van fairly well aired out anyway.

If you bought a van with a kitchen, why not use it?

[richpress]

We never use the propane stove. We never use the propane at all come to think of it. All of our travels are at RV parks. We have outgrown dry camping and tent camping. That all ended when our kids grew up and moved out.

When we cook, which is all the time, it is indoors on an induction cook top or the microwave. I prefer the microwave as there is little or no cleanup required afterward. I am looking for an instant pot and the afore mentioned facebook page is something i will look at. Can anyone recommend a "low Power" instant pot that will fit in the sink of my 2002 roadtrek 190V? I am well used to a slow cooker at home, and of course normal cooking, but it is hard to do complex cooking in a B with that small kitchen.

[Jon in AZ]

Keep it simple for inside cooking. No heavy grease, long boiling (condensation), or odiferous foods. Eggs and ham (less messy than bacon), oatmeal, pancakes all work well for breakfast, Sandwiches (cold or grilled), soups, chilies, and stews (canned or make-ahead), stir-fry all work well for inside lunch and dinner.

I like the idea of a small slow cooker if you have power. Coming back after a day’s activities to hot chili or stew ready to eat sounds great!

We also like to grill meat and veggies outside in the evening. Then we chop and sauté the leftovers with eggs to make simple breakfast burritos in the morning.

Cold pizza reheated on the grill or in a frying pan is surprisingly good. Buy a Costco pizza, (or your favorite pizzeria pie), chill and package in individual slices, and reheat as needed.

Using the full plumbing system in winter requires an RV that is designed to protect all the components- not all are- AND it requires maintaining continuous heat, which can be kind of wasteful. Then when you get home you have to re-winterize or keep some heat going between trips...

For short trips in winter it’s usually easier to use the camper dry (plumbing shut off and winterized). Bring bottled water and use restrooms elsewhere. As suggested, you can use straight RV antifreeze to flush for emergencies (#1 only). It’s cheap.

[richpress]

Jon,
Thanks for the good tips. Thats all similar to what we do. Keep it a simple as possible and just relax. Where in AZ are you? We are in Prescott Valley.
Rich

[Mendo]

I full time in my Coachmen and cook at least two meals a day in it. Shrimp, Fish, Bacon...Never had a problem with smells or anything else. Just open the windows and turn on the overhead fan. People really don't cook inside their RV?

[InterBlog]

I pulled up that image on my phone which requires a deliberate URL tap with no indication as to what the linked content is.

As it was loading, I was thinking to myself, "New forum contributor, not many posts... please let this NOT be a pic of Jeff Bezos' lower anatomy..."

Whew - thankfully not. Nice job. Care to share the recipe?

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Mendo

People really don't cook inside their RV?

Yes, really. There are also people who don't use their bathrooms and showers.