Cardboard box cooking is a lot of fun. It’s really a cardboard version of a "Weber" barbecue which means you can cook just about anything in it and its a lot more portable.

Materials Required:

A large cardboard box. An apple box is the ideal size, about 450mm square.
A roll of aluminium foil.
5 or 6 metal skewers or wire coat hangers.
A couple of foil pie or baking dishes.
Masking tape.

Construction:

  1. Cut the lid off the top of the box about two inches from the top. This becomes the lid.
  2. Line the lid and the bottom half of the box with foil, overlap and wrap around on the outside with tape. To secure the foil to the lid make rings with the masking tape and press the foil into place.
  3. Insert skewers or wire through the sides of the box about half way up. These serve as a rack to place the pie or baking dishes on.

Adding Heat:

Place about 15 heat beads and 3 firelighters in a round foil pie dish, allow to burn until the flames have died out and they have turned white. Some new heat beads do not require firelighters. Once white hot the heat beads will provide about 2-3 hours of good heat. But be patient, it takes about an hour for the heatbeads to really start working, so get the fire started early.

Putting it all together:

  1. Once the heat beads are ready place the bottom half of the box over them, leaving one end propped up about half an inch to provide ventilation and keep the heatbeads burning.
  2. Place your roasting dish full of tucker on the rack of skewers or wire. Long thin tent pegs can also be used.
  3. Place the lid on, foil side down.
  4. Sit down, have a drink and wait!

You can successfully cook roast beef, lamb, pork (with crackling) and potatoes, even pizzas, muffins, etc.. In fact just about anything you can cook in your oven at home can be cooked in a cardboard box. Give it a go and experiment at home. When you are finished you can just dump everything in the rubbish bin, no mess, no cleaning up.

You can cook a delicious roast dinner on the ground under your tent awning or tarp or caravan annex - a great saviour on a wet day.

This oven is especially suited to vehicle based campers like us - it folds flat, can be stored in the car easily, and above all requires no firewood, and you know that’s getting hard to find these days.

The Kamp C�ook