Hi All
Its been awhile since I last posted very busy anyway. My beautiful wife and myself had my son ( from another marriage ) and his partner and my beautiful 7 month old granddaughter the ( second grandchild) over our house for a xmas get together. I roasted the lamb in my camp oven as it was my first lamb in the co it turned out absolutely great tasting the meat fell off the bone. Sorry I have no photos it didn't last long enough. I used 15 beads ontop and 9 underneath I have a little question if anyone can steer me in the right direction please.
After about 1 hour I had to replace some beads so I put some new beads on top of the ones burning but they didn't start so I tried to light more in the chimney 10 beads but they didn't start either any better advice on how I can get them going in the future much appreciated thyanks
en
Chris

Sorry I can't answer your question about the heat beads but congrats on the success of the roast lamb dinner. :)

Jeff

Hi Jeff
Thats okay I will probably put more beads in the chimney next time as I think there was not enough beads to cover the fire lighter flame.
en
Chris

I use a trick I learnt from Derek.
Mix a few (say 4-6) Easy Lite Heat Beads under the regular Heat Beads above the fire lighters under the chimney.  See:
http://www.heatbeads.com.au/product/heat-beads-easy-lite-barbecue-briquettes/


KD

Hi David
Thank you for your input I will try that .
en
Chris

I seem to remember that Derek nearly set fire to his house the first time he used the Easy-Lite ;D ;D ;D

KD

Congratulations on a successful camp oven feast. 
It's great to be surrounded by your loved ones.


...passing on yet another of Derek's tips (no wonder the man is called King!)

If you have a gas ring burner and need ashed up heatbeads in a hurry... put your heatbead chimney on your burner.  It gets them fired up very fast! 



Another thing that I often do...
If I need 24 heatbeads, I put 30 in the chimney.
I leave the extras in the chimney, then after a while I add some fresh heatbeads to the ones already in there, allowing up to an hour for them to get ashed. 
A bit later on when I need to top up the heat on the camp oven I have heatbeads in the chimney ready to use.   


My question is ... why did you have to replace some of the heatbeads?  Had they gone out or burnt away?

Hi LG
Thank you for all your input the next time I wil do just that light up say 10 extra. When I was cooking the lamb I sort of worked it out that I would need about 1 - 1.5 hours but instead it took an extra half hour and I kept a close eye on the beads and at about 45 - 50 minutes into the cook the beads I had on became smaller which I thought I would replace a couple of the beads as the heat seemed to be getting to low. in the end the beads I put on top of the burning ones didn't catch so the burning beads ended up being enough to finish the cook I was just a little worried that I was loosing to much heat so I tried to boost the heat a bit more. Next time I will do extras but probably not use them all.
en
Chris

Have you got one of those little thermometers that look like a travel clock?  I consider this one of the best investments for anyone new to camp oven cooking.  Think of your home oven - the first thing you see in a recipe book is "pre-heat your oven to BLAH temperature"   Well, it is the same for the camp oven - but you can't turn a knob to the required temp.  The thermometer will tell you when you have reached the temp.
 
If you use one of those inside the camp oven (before you put the meat in) you can get the right number of heatbeads for the temperature you need for that particular oven on that particular day (chilly wind vs hot sunny day etc).  Then you know the meat is going in to an oven at the right temperature and you don't have to check it for at least an hour.  Sometimes you need a bit more heat underneath rather than on top.
Leave the thermometer in the camp oven with the meat - when you check the meat you will see if the temperature is starting to drop off or holding steady.  That will help guide you about whether you need more beads or not.

Remember though, each time you lift the lid the temperature inside the oven drops, so you have to add extra 5 minutes or so for the temp to come back up.  If you are checking every 20 or 30 minutes, the meat could be cooking at 120° the whole time instead of 180° - thus requiring a lot more time to cook (but by crikey it will be TENDER!)



It's all experimenting - try this, try that - until you learn what affects your heat etc and then you learn to trust your instincts.  Each time you cook you discover something new - a wetter marinade may need more heatbeads, a drier damper mix may burn or whatever the case may be.  It is a steep learning curve to start with, but worth every crunchy mouthful   :)

When you have guests/family around, have a second small camp oven going with a damper in it. Then if you have to wait an extra half hour for the meat to finish cooking, tide them over with damper and cockies joy    ;)

One final hint - get your meat out of the fridge/chiller/icebox/esky in advance so that it can come up to an 'unchilled' temperature before you put it in the oven.  Otherwise the first part of the process is the meat trying to get warm rather than cooking.   If it is a warm day, get the meat out when you first light the heatbeads.  In chilly weather you may want to allow a bit more time.

HTH    :)

The above is my opinion only and any advice followed should be done with caution and common sense.   :D

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Quote:

One final hint - get your meat out of the fridge/chiller/icebox/esky in advance so that it can come up to an 'unchilled' temperature before you put it in the oven.

Totally agree, that is what I do.

KD