How often do you cook inside?

[ae6black]

I've camped out of tents, Popups, Travel trailers and a Teardrop. I typically cook outside with a coleman stove, over the fire pit or with dutch ovens. I've never done much cooking inside. I am getting a Casita and am wondering how often people actually cook inside? I can see rainy day cooking and using the microwave to warm up food that's already been cooked, but how many actually cook inside and do most of their food preparation inside their camper? Seems like I see more people putting cutting boards over the stove and over the sink to add more counter space. In bear country, is cooking inside a camper even a good idea since the smells will linger for a long time? I am sure this has been hashed over many times, but I am new to the forum and haven't seen the posts.


Art

[BobH.]

Art,

We have a 13" Scamp, we cook inside. A large portion of our trips are in excess of a 1000 miles one way. When we are on the road, we seldom use RV parks. Most of our one the road meals are modest, prepared, and cooked in the camper.

We try to think ahead and not cook meals that messy and have a lingering aroma. There is a lot to be said for simple foods, small portions, and no left overs.

BobH.

[Casita Greg]

About the only thing we ever use the trailer stove for is to boil a pot of water. We don't want the cooking odors and grease getting into the carpeting on the walls. We do all our meal cooking outside on our portable Camp Chef double burner propane stove, set up next to the campground picnic table wherever we are. Some people don't mind the odors, but some people smoke in their trailers too. It's your trailer, so whatever you want to do with it is up to you. I enjoy cooking and eating well, and I also enjoy a good cigar once in a while too, but not in the trailer. It's all done outside. YMMV

[C&G in FL]

We never cook inside, unless it is raining, and then we use the microwave, not the stove. The stove has only been used to heat water for pour-over coffee. Just me, but I consider outside cooking as quintessential to the camping experience. Sometimes, to avoid nuked food on rainy days we use the rain as an “excuse” to go to a local restaurant.

[Jon in AZ]

So far, never.

We sometimes bring our plates inside to eat when it's cold and/or windy, and I always pack a few simple-to-prepare emergency meals just in case. We've been known to grab to-go meals from a restaurant when we're arriving late to a destination.

But in camp we enjoy more elaborate, made-from-scratch meals that involve frying, grilling, seafood boils or other messy and smelly operations that don't adapt well to a tiny trailer. I'm with Carl on camping and food!

I love having the inside kitchen, though. We never have power, so the propane cooktop is our back-up. Options are good.

[mary and bob]

We almost never cook inside. The stove in our Uhaul has been removed and the Casita stove has a cover on it that is screwed down. If we have to heat up anything inside because of bad weather we use a small electric hot plate.

[Alli]

We've only cooked inside twice...once to try it and once because we had no other choice. It works, but it's a tiny spot to work in and makes a mess. We much prefer to cook outside.

[Steve L.]

I frequently cook inside. Not counting steaks or brats which get grilled outside. Such an old topic, but whatever. Breakfast and dinner gets cooked. Lunches are almost always just a sandwich and pop.

[Brian5305]

While we are fairly new to our Scamp (purchased fall of 2017), and have only used it for a couple dozen days total, we do cook inside. Stove top, oven & broiler. I guess we are not particularly concerned about lingering odors - the food we prepare smells good, and we haven't noticed lingering offensive odors! We do have a range hood. We also cook with a single burner butane stove outside as well as over the fire (pit).

[Carol and Mike]

We grill outside most of the time. In bad weather we cook inside, using both the stove top and microwave. The inside of the Oliver is fiberglass and odors are not an issue.

[thrifty bill]

99% of our cooking is inside. If the weather is good, I'll make coffee outside, as I am up before my wife. Everything else is cooked inside.

[Glenn Baglo]

We tend to cook outside, at home and camping.

[CarlD]

Cook odoriferous foods outside and only boil cook items inside (oatmeal, string beans, peas, etc). My wife has to make coffee inside, its my alarm clock!

[Branklins]

We've only used our Scamp 13' a few times so far, but we cooked inside multiple meals. My wife is of the mind that we got a camper that has a stove, so use the stove! That's what it's for!

[ZachO]

I cook inside 99% of the time. I live in Montana (aka Bear Country).

Even storing dry goods in the camper is possibly as much a bear attractant as cooking inside.

[Glenn Baglo]

I'm thinking I'd rather have a bear trashing the BBQ over at the picnic table than checking out the trailer for food scraps ( me ).

[FRED SMAILES]

We stay mostly in RV parks on extended winter getaways and cook almost exclusively in the boler. I'm no good at BBQ and Mar doesn't use it. Every so often I'll mess up a perfectly good steak serving it red or black,,, lol
SO,,

[Donna D.]

I cook inside 95% of the time. The only time outside is I'm using the BBQ... and that's if I even pack it. I bought a FSC (fully self contained) trailer for a reason. I got tired of schlepping stuff out of the garage to go camping. Gave up the tent, Coleman stove, etc. when I bought the trailer and have never looked back. YMMV

[Poodlesrule]

Almost always cook inside- but we've only been camping in chilly weather. Its really the main reason we got the camper. I became very tired of trying to cook in rain, snow, 50 mph winds, dust storms, pitch dark etc. with the tent.
We cook pretty basic, (left over from tent camping I guess) with a stove top coffee percolater & a Coleman stove top oven- no microwave.

[Mike Magee]

Mostly inside. Hauling all the stuff out to cook (with multiple trips to get the thing I didn't think of at first, or at second!) gets tedious. Easier to do it inside where everything is stored. But grilling that will create smoke is done outdoors. Also, if it's really nice outside and no bugs (so I can leave the door open for an extended period), I'm likely to cook outside.


Note: I don't have carpet or rat fur on the walls, to hold the odors.