RV Ovens, hate them, love them, or just meh?

[invmartyc]

At the risk of starting a battle here I have to ask what do people think of ovens in RVs?

I have read that they are notoriously hot on the bottom and cooking is not "even". Is that why they seem to have been taken over by convection ovens?

Or is it that they seldom get used and people look at them as unnecessary weight?

I am an old tent camper and have never owned an RV so I have no experience with there ovens. We are planning to get our RV next year and travel the country. My lady says that she has to have an oven and one that works like at home.

I would sure hate to have to leave her home while I travel. Can anyone let me know how I can solve this oven issue?

[hilldude]

Put a cheap cookie sheet from walmart over the burner, helps to prevent burning.

[skrams]

I use it regularly. Once a year is regular, right (Thanksgiving, I need all the cookspace I have)? PITA to light, but works okay after that. However, I have rubber non slip shelf liner on top of the stove top, and a 2x3 foot ish piece of wood on that as a countertop, so to use the stove means removing all that and having no counterspace. Plus, 99% of the time, I'd rather cook outside. I bring a toaster oven that takes care of most of the oven baking we need. And I don't want to heat up the rv in the summer.

[cmsm]

I use the oven regularly. I bake bread, cookies, pies & cakes, roast chicken & pork. We boondock regularly so a convection oven would not work, unless I ran the generator(a whole other love it or hate it topic:). I bought an oven thermometer so I know exactly what the temp is and I put an unglazed tile on the metal tray above the burner. The oven works great & I would not be without it.

[Us_out_West]

Roy&Lynne wrote:
I'm really thinking about a NuWave when we head out next year. Just have to find room for it.

Love ours and store it for travel (otherwise it's on the counter all the time) in a drawer below the oven.

[Roy_Lynne]

HATE mine cause half the food is burned and the other half is raw. I'm really thinking about a NuWave when we head out next year. Just have to find room for it.

[TOOBOLD]

Use it all the time for biscuits or cinammon rolls. Another family favorite is Lasagna and garlic bread.

[JiminDenver]

We love our oven and uses it every trip. Nothing like tossing a roast or rack of ribs in there on a cool rainy day. Warms up the trailer and smells wonderful too.

[happybooker1]

I would use mine more (or attempt to learn HOW to use it!) if it didn't vent DIRECTLY into the TT!!!! Makes the TT MUCH too hot for the AC to recover from during the Texas Summer.

Might try it if I camp during the winter though.

[time2roll]

My oven pilot is a PITN to light and the oven takes forever to preheat.
Stuff takes 45+ minutes longer than it should.
Generally I avoid the oven unless something is compelling to make.

[Katdaddy]

Crawfordville wrote:
We use ours occasionally. I made canned biscuits the last trip and the bottom of every biscuit was burned. We had to cut the bottoms off. But the top of the biscuit was just right. But I'll continue to use it occasionally. It does the job for heating a ham or a casserole.

Canned biscuits are what we usually cook when camping. We have found that cooking them half way and then flipping them over to finish makes perfect biscuits.

[ADK_Camper]

To oven or not, at the end of the day is a personal decision. We boondock often so a microwave/convection would not be a good substitute for us. We use a pizza stone and found that, with a little experimentation, we can bake pretty much like we do at home. We put the pizze stone directly above the burner and it cracked. I think a wire cooling rack on top of the burner shelf and the pizza stone on top of that might be the best chice. As to lighting the pilot: it is a PITA, but it's only 30 seconds out of your life so my advice is just DO IT and move on. We leave it on for the entire trip so it's lit just once per trip.

[Scottiemom]

I was holding out for the RV oven, but when we found our current rig, it didn't have one. I'm glad I didn't waste the time and effort to put one in. The convection does it all. I don't find a learning curve with it. It is a regular electric oven with a fan to circulate the air. No big deal. I usually bake the "minimum" time for the recipe and everything is good. No other adjustments needed. Doesn't heat up the coach either. Love it.

Dale

[down_home]

They're alright as long as I don't have to light it and fool with it. They do tend to burn on the bottom so a heavy baking pan, or stone, on bottom shelf and then you have to watch the top, of the cornbread etc as heat rises and a burnt top ain't no better than a burnt bottom.

[Quality_Johnson]

I like the oven in my TT, but it is rather small, and takes quite a while to heat up to temp. I haven't tried the pizza stone or tiles for evening out the temperature in the oven, but might try that. I have a lot more fun with a Dutch camp oven than the indoor oven, but it will bake my cornbread.

I use the microwave to store bread and snack items in. Seriously considering removing it and adding cupboard shelves and doors to that space.