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I am using a campervan 3 nights per week, 40 weeks per year. I have a single gas powered hob (like most camping stoves), a sink with running water and am seeking advice to cook efficiently with as minimal cleaning as possible.

Caveat: I don't have a fridge/freezer but median temperature in the UK is extremely low (my olive oil froze today! haha)

  • Ingredients
  • Techniques for protecting the pan from cooked food residue
  • Efficient cooking and storage techniques without a fridge / freezer
Venture2099
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    One of my office mates used to have a small thermoelectric fridge that could run off of 12v. It looks like there's a few different brands that make them, but a significant percentage of online reviews mention early failure. – Joe Jan 26 '17 at 04:02
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    @Joe the TE fridges are really inefficient. They draw around 4A constantly (they don't have a thermostat and rely on running flat out, which end up too cold in the OP's case). If the OP is running a typical 100Ah leisure battery that means the battery would be discharged enough to shorten its life in a day, so only really suitable while driving or plugged in. I have a 12V compressor fridge with a thermostat. On average it draws about 1/4 of that on a hot day. But they're expensive. If you don't have electric hookup in a camper the best alternative is a gas fridge (usually 12V/gas/mains) – Chris H Jan 26 '17 at 07:37
  • Thanks Chris; at present I am running a standard leisure battery with switch relay and a 250 inverter to power a phone and a laptop nothing else. Planning to pipe in solar in a few months. – Venture2099 Jan 26 '17 at 10:17
  • related (some cover the issues individually): http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/77701/67 ; http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/41675/67 and http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/3565/67 – Joe Jan 26 '17 at 11:26
  • @ChrisH : another alternative is adding deep cycle batteries. I once modified a van to add 8 extra batteries, as it had 2000W of power inverters in it to run computers (in the days of towers & CRTs) and a laser printer. I admit, they're heavy and running the power from the engine compartment to the batteries. (we used 4ga. cables, run under the van and back in) ... but as you're only going to be out for 3 nights at a time (assumed, I guess it could be 6 nights over 14 days), you could also trickle charge the batteries between trips so you don't need to do creative cabling. – Joe Jan 26 '17 at 11:33
  • @Joe I can't imagine where you'd fit that many batteries inside a camper. Also weight and cost. The cost of the proper deep discharge ones would probably exceed the extra for a more efficient fridge (e.g. [compressor coolbox at £350](http://www.waecofridges.co.uk/freezer/cdf18.htm) while you'd pay around £50 for a TE coolbox). True deep cycle (not leisure) batteries seem to be around £1.50/Ah &you'd need 200--300Ah for the 3 days, so £300-£450 and 60-90kg for the batteries. – Chris H Jan 26 '17 at 11:55
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    I know nothing about your work situation but if (like here) you have access to a freezer and shops, you could easily go old-school and use ice packs plus a cool box/bag or two. Or daily shopping of course. Exact approach would vary depending on how you get from the pitch to work (in my case it was 7+ miles by bike). – Chris H Jan 26 '17 at 11:58
  • Choice of where to pitch is important. Assuming you're not in the car park at work and are paying for your pitch, you may be able to find somewhere with washing up facilities and ice-pack freezing for little or no more, even putting aside electric hookup. – Chris H Jan 26 '17 at 11:59
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    I have water, fridge and cleaning facilities at work. At present I am pitching in the gym car park (member). The routine is *Up, *Coffee, *WorkOut, *Shower, *Breakfast of Porridge/Protein,*Drive to Work, *Work, *CleanUp pots etc at work, *Drive to Climbing Wall, *Climbing Wall, *Snack, *Drive to Pitch/Gym, *Work Out, *Shower, *Evening Meal, *Sleep, *Repeat. – Venture2099 Jan 26 '17 at 12:03
  • @ChrisH : I made boxes to hold 4 batteries each, and cabled the set up with a circuit breaker on the outside ... then bolted them down to the floor. (plywood that I had tied into the bench mounts, then reinforced in a few places to mount two of the 4 benches sideways). Of course, in my case, the batteries were leftovers (this was a chase vehicle for the 1995 Sunrayce, and these were batteries that were past their peak charge ... and not the best power/weight.) – Joe Jan 26 '17 at 12:20
  • @Joe very nice. In my van at least space is at a real premium but I've seen plenty of more basic vans where that might be an option – Chris H Jan 26 '17 at 13:37
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    You have a couple of factors that you can use to your advantage by the sounds of it: Dinners can be stored in the work fridge until not long before cooking (at this time of year you probably don't even need a coolbox), you should get a battery top-up from the driving – Chris H Jan 26 '17 at 13:42
  • @ChrisH you are not wrong; my olive oil froze two nights ago just sitting on the shelf and has not thawed! haha – Venture2099 Jan 26 '17 at 14:25

2 Answers2

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I've done a lot a single ring camping cooking. My camper van has a bit more kitchen than yours but I still take a similar approach when staying in it and going to work. Here's a typical example that worked for me.

  • I cooked a curry at home and put a portion in the fridge (freezing is also an option).
  • When camping I boiled water and put it in a vacuum flask.
  • Then I heated the curry in my larger of two pans, with a lid on but stirring frequently. Heating gently meant it didn't stick.
  • Cooking the rice (using the recently boiled water, and an excess of it rather than measuring) took place in the smaller pan, using the larger as a lid to keep the sauce hot.
  • Then I drained the rice water into a mug or similar, added the sauce to the rice, and poured the cooking water into the sauce pan with some washing up liquid so it could soak while I ate and would be easy to wash up. (I used mess things to cook in and eat from when in the tent, it's easier with a few more containers).

The same thing works with pasta. Noodles (ramen) cook much quicker than spaghetti, saving fuel, and make a perfectly acceptable substitute. The principle of keeping one thing hot over the top of the other is key, as is a vacuum flask. Washing up in starchy water doesn't work very well, but soaking and prewashing do, allowing you to wash up in a minimum of water.

If you don't want to rely on taking home made ready meals there are plenty of books and blogs devoted to one-ring recipes (recipe requests are off topic here anyway).

Pasta, rice and noodles all work quite well, needing no preparation. Frying can be a pain if you're cooking in the van - it makes things greasy and the smell lingers, but in dry weather it works outside (if you can take the stove out). A canned (jar/packet etc. ) sauce can be used with something like tinned tuna if you don't have fridge space. Defrosting in a cool bag can take 24 hours or more and it uses a lot of gas to defrost on the stove.

Chris H
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Good answer above. I would respectfully add that the pot that you use for cooking is of great importance. The very best pots have a "flux ring" attached to the bottom of the pot around the outside edge. This ring captures any heat that would have escaped around the bottom of the pot and transfers that heat to your food. There are several flux ring pots on the market. And more coming. The ones I use are made by JetBoil. I have the stew pot, the frypan and the original boiler. All of these make efficient use of your fuel.

SolarJimmy
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  • One should be cautious of using heat exchangers in enclosed spaces. There are reports of the HEs being so efficient they cause insufficient burning due to the flame temperature being reduced, leading to higher carbon monoxide production. – RoboKaren Jan 27 '17 at 09:13
  • Thanks for the heads up. This thought had never occurred to me. I would love to learn more about this phenomenon. – SolarJimmy Jan 29 '17 at 04:00