How To Make a Box Oven For Camping? What Can You Cook Using A Box Oven?

Camping is such an exciting activity. It exposes you to a beautiful outdoor experience and also teaches you a different way to do a lot of things. 

When you go camping, you experience different sides to cooking, such as open-fire cooking, sun cooking, and camping gas cooking. There is also an interesting way to make your meals when you go camping, and it is cooking with a box oven.  

If you’re not familiar with box ovens, follow me through this post as I can take you through what a box oven is, how to create a box oven, and what you can cook with it while you’re out camping.

What Is a Box Oven?

A box oven, as its name implies, is a cooking oven made from cardboard boxes. Some other common materials are also used in the process of creating a box oven, but we’ll get to that soon.

This oven is used to explore and expand your cooking techniques, materials, and options, and can cook a whole lot of things using charcoal as a source of fuel.

A box oven can be used at home and away from home to bake and make your meals. 

Is A Box Oven Useful for Camping?

Yes. A box oven is very useful for camping as it improves your cooking experience when camping.

A box oven is a perfect oven for those times when you’re away from home and want to have your kitchen with you. It also comes in handy when there’s no power to use your regular oven, which makes it perfect for camping.

If you’re camping and you want to bake your meals rather than cooking on a camping stove or an open fire, then the box oven is the perfect solution for you.

It isn’t only a convenient kitchen but it also helps you warm your meals while camping.

How To Make a Box Oven?

I’m sure you might have guessed, but box ovens aren’t sold in the market or online shops. So, you’ll have to make the box ovens that you use when camping.

However, there’s nothing to worry about because the process of making your box oven is simple. You can also get all the materials around you without stress. Let’s get to it!

Required items

• Two medium-sized cardboard boxes (they should be close in size, with one slightly smaller)
• Four empty aluminum cans
• Charcoal briquettes (without lighter fluids)
• Heavy-duty aluminum foil
• Aluminum pie tin 
• Multi-purpose foil tape

Procedure

Of the two boxes, the inside box will serve as the oven, while the second box (often the smaller one) will be cut and resized. Make sure that the box you set aside to use as your oven is large enough to contain your baking pan, aluminum cans, and pie tins.

Create a hinged door by cutting up one top flap from the box and attaching it to the other flap. That extended flap will serve as a door and cover the entire opening of the cardboard box.

If there are any cracks or holes, cover them properly with foil tape to avoid exposure and fire risks.

Then, cover the entire box with heavy-duty foil, making sure that the reflective side is out.

Now, we proceed to cut the second box, and we will be cutting it into five pieces that will be placed inside the oven to insulate it. When you have cut out the five pieces of cardboard from your cardboard box, wrap them with foil paper with the shiny side facing out. Then, use the foil tape to ensure that all holes and cracks are covered. 

At this point, you have one whole box that is wrapped in foil completely, and also five cardboard pieces wrapped in foil.

The next step is to place all the foil-covered pieces inside the box. Place one at the bottom of the box and the other four pieces on all four sides of the box. Now, your box is insulated on all sides, while the door protects the box from the top to prevent heat loss.

Then, place the box in a standing position where it’s standing on one of its sides and not the bottom. What you’ll get is the box looking like an actual oven with its cover raising upwards.

You can now set up the four empty aluminum cans on four sides at a suitable distance, and fill them with water so they can stand firm.

Cooking With the Box Oven

When it’s time to cook, heat your charcoal in a campfire until it starts to turn grey. Then, remove them from the fire using tongs and place them in the pie tin.

Use between 8 and 10 pieces of hot coal depending on how much heat you want. Bear in mind that one briquette generates about 50 degrees of heat. 

Carefully place the tin of coal in your box oven, in between the aluminum bottles. Then, proceed to place the food you’re baking in a metal pan that fits the size of your oven. Place the plan atop your aluminum cans and close the box.

Cover the door of the box oven with rocks, but leave little space for the charcoal to get air. 

 Add charcoal as you cook if needed, and bear in mind that the coals should give you at least 1 hour of baking time.

What Can You Cook Using a Box Oven?

The beautiful thing about box ovens is that you can use them to cook anything that you can cook with your regular kitchen oven. There’s adequate insulation and a great heat source, and that’s all you need.

So, there are no restrictions when cooking meals in a box oven. However, these are some common meals you can cook in your box oven when at a camping ground.

• Brownies
• Banana pudding
• Cookies
• Chicken
• Casseroles
• Mac n Cheese
• Muffins 
• Ham 
• Pizza
• Pork 
• Sausage 
• Vegetables

Final Words:

Cooking during your camping expedition just got more exciting, thanks to box ovens. You can explore more meal options, eat baked meals while camping, and do all these comfortably with just a few items that you can afford to purchase.

Be careful when using a box oven to avoid burns from the hot coal and never leave the oven unattended while you’re baking.

You’re all set to enjoy the benefits of a box oven.