Shopping for RV...Great options but where is the gas oven? Cooking alternatives?

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bucks2 said:
After reading the other posts on the issue of gas ovens burning the bottom of most things cooked in them the score is now 326 to 1. 326 ovens that burn and 1 that doesn't. Pizza at the Mermaids tonight.......
ken

Call me a liar, I really don't care.

I am VERY curious how so many people have trouble burning things with their oven when I don't and I've used mine a lot in the last 3.5 years especially in the winter when it's almost in daily use.

I did explain my oven was NOT assembled right when I bought my used RV. The oven had never been cooked in before. The insides were brand new looking.  The parts were out of order. I removed them and put them back in the correct way. Matter of fact, I can't recall whether it's because I did burn the first thing I cooked or if I looked at the way the parts were in there and decided if I cooked in it, stuff would burn. But either way, it's a Magic Chef, it came to me all wrong, I fixed it right and since then nothing has burned.

I do make pizza often from scratch and I preheat the oven first.  Trying to cook pizza without preheating the oven is pretty  much guaranteeing you will burn it.

In my case, I am talking about home made pizza (well I often buy the dough premade but not frozen) but I have never made a premade frozen pizza in my RV oven, just the home made ones. It takes about 5 minutes to prep a home made pizza once the dough is ready and I've had frozen pizza before in the dark ages and it was horrible so I've never tried one since.

Also, I cook on the baking rack, not the metal bottom of the oven shelf which is right over the burner, which would surely burn everything.

Maybe the folks burning their stuff should look to see if their oven is put together correctly. Two if they are using the rack, and three if they are following the directions for whether their item needs preheating or not.

Most things baked in the oven do require that it be preheated. For some silly reason, a thermometer is not included with the oven. I bought one. It works. It tells me when the oven is preheated and it tells me the oven is cooking at the right temperature.

Maybe my oven isn't the only one that was installed with the oven parts all wrong. Maybe they had a batch of them assembled wrong. I thought it was really odd that mine was not assembled right.


 
DearMissMermaid said:
Maybe my oven isn't the only one that was installed with the oven parts all wrong. Maybe they had a batch of them assembled wrong. I thought it was really odd that mine was not assembled right.

Can you tell us exactly how your oven was installed with the oven parts all wrong? Our oven looks OK but may be put together wrong, since it tends to burn the bottom of some dishes. I do preheat to the recommended temperature and use an oven thermometer to check the preheated temperature. Thanks.

L
 
Mermaid, I did not call you a liar, nowhere in my posts will you see those words. I did point out that you are the only one I've ever heard of that says the oven doesn't burn the bottom of things. I have over 30 years of Magic Chef oven experience in 3 different RV's, they all burned the bottom of the food unless I use some type of buffer to reduce the heat coming thru the thin metal diffuser above the burner. Many, many others have the exact same problem.

Ken
 
You just need to spend some time reading or learning directly from an old chuck wagon cook. The things they can do with an iron skillet and a cast iron dutch oven including baking! No LP or electricity required, just some hot coals in a grill or in a fire pit.
 
It is also the case that the knob on the oven gas control is often not calibrated, even though it may indicate temperatures in degrees. We had one that was off nearly 50 degrees!  The knob is usually adjustable (pull it off, loosen the screw underneath and turn it) to match an oven thermometer, which of course you must buy. Before you start adjusting either the knob or your recipes, try the oven thermometer in several spots in the oven, and with some different things inside. One of the quirks of these little gas ovens is that they heat unevenly and change hot spots depending on the shape and density of the stuff inside.

I too would be curious to learn how Mermaid's oven was assembled all wrong. They are pretty simple and it's hard to imagine how they could go together much differently. Maybe the bottom plate on some models can be inserted wrong?
 
I can add these 2 cents.  First cent: we have never had an issue with burning the bottom of foods in our propane ovens.  We have had 2 different motorhomes and no problems with either.  Maybe we are just lucky?  Second cent: no one seems to mention that when you have a single microwave/convection oven and no gas oven, you can't use an oven and the microwave at the same time?  This is a significant issue for us.  We may put something in the oven that takes 2 hours to bake, so for 2 hours you have no microwave.  Does no one else have this issue?  We would NEVER even consider buying a MH that didn't have a propane oven and a separate microwave. As I stated, JM2C.

Steve
 
Steve, your second cent is the exact reason why every one of our motorhomes has had a propane oven.  I can't imagine having only the microwave/convection oven!  We use both simultaneously.  I think RV manufacturers think RVers don't cook, but a lot of us still do.

ArdraF
 
"This is a significant issue for us.  We may put something in the oven that takes 2 hours to bake, so for 2 hours you have no microwave.  Does no one else have this issue?  We would NEVER even consider buying a MH that didn't have a propane oven and a separate microwave."

I'm sorry, but no microwave for 2 hours hit my funnybone. Having lived a significant portion of my life without a mircowave oven, and having camped and RV'd without a microwave oven even when I had one at home, I'm not sure that 2 hours without a microwave is a deal-breaker for me. I take car trips sometimes that take 2 hours just to get where I'm going. Then I'll do whatever I went to do and drive 2 more hours home, all without a microwave!

Ken
still chuckling........


 
Ken, you are onto something.  If you are married and your wife hates cooking....you need a microwave.

If your "cook" loves the cooking ritual, an oven is required. I guess that differing folks have different strokes.  ::)
 
Ken, I think you missed the point Steve made.  He's talking about RVs where all you have for cooking is a convection/microwave and the range top with two or three burners.  That means you can't, for example, bake a casserole in the oven and cook something else in the microwave because you can only do one or the other.  It makes meal preparation a real hassle.  Maybe you cook outside on the grill but some of us don't use the grill.  In fact, we ditched our BBQ because we never used it.  This makes having another cooking source really important.  Yes, when you're driving somewhere in a car for a few hours or even camping in a tent you certainly don't need a microwave, but if you're parked in the desert for a week in an RV and need to bake something you need an oven and probably a microwave if you're cooking a full meal.

ArdraF
 
Ardra, I actually do at least half the cooking in our 6 month MH journeys each year. I find that cooking for only two people is not all that difficult with only a micro/convection oven. I guess maybe we don't have quite as fancy meals as some do. Generally if we're having a casserole it would be a single dish meal or maybe we'd cook some vegetable which can easily be done on the stove top.

Yes I do understand that when I cook a roast in the "only" oven, I can't bake the biscuits at the same time. I have to let the roast sit for 12 minutes while the biscuits cook. But then people got by for literally thousands of years without two ovens, much less a microwave to cook it faster.

How did Mom ever cook for us three boys and Dad with only one oven? Wish I could ask her......  :-[

Ken
 
Last night I prepared a three-ingredient dinner.  One item in a pouch was on the stovetop thawing and warming.  One item was in the microwave cooking.  And one item was baking in the oven.  All to be served hot at the same time!  Alhough at home, I've done it the same way in the motorhome and used all three cooking methods simultaneously.  It certainly wasn't fancy, but we all cook differently and some us need and use our propane ovens.  I've tried some of our meals in just the microwave/convection oven and something is never hot.  Shall we agree to disagree?!?

ArdraF
 
I am new to cooking and I am very content using my outdoor bbq grill for the main dish. It is a huge plus for me to be able to cook outdoors and not stink up the interior of the RV. But so far no one has mentioned my very favorite cooking method. When i want a pizza I pickup the phone and have one delivered. It amazes me that it is possible to get a piping hot pizza delivered to my door in the middle of a National
forest.





 
I have used a small gas grill by Holland Grill called "The Companion". It is very portable and works with the small camp LP bottle but can be adapted to work with a larger tank. It looks like a grill, but works like an oven for baking or smoking. They are very well made and versitile. The only drawback is that it should be used outdoors only. I cook most of our meals on ours when we rv.
 
I think the whole point of the matter is this.  To some, the 3 extra drawers you can set by not having a gas oven is paramount.  To others, like me and Ardra, the gas oven is far more important than anything I could need 3 extra drawers for.  Again, just a difference of taste in floorplans and amenities.  Nobody is right or wrong, just different.  :)

Steve
 
I'm good with that Ardra. Life would be boring if we all liked exactly the same things.

Ken
 

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