How often do you cook inside?

[David B.]

We always cook inside, shower inside, etc. We live in the Lil Snoozy for 5 months straight during the summer in various cooler states, and about a month (several long weekends) in the winter here in AZ. We did the same thing when we had our 13’ Scamps, except for the shower part, as neither of our Scamps had one. Perhaps it’s because we find carting everything outside to cook and eat so much bother, when we can just use everything inside in comfort.
Happy Camping
Dave & Paula

[Gerry]

Maybe 10% of the time. Other then boiling coffee in the morning or getting boiling water to make some hot cereal I would much rather cook outside. Mostly it is a matter of room to cook and counter space in my Boler 1300 or even my Casita 16 ft.

[Gerry]

Originally Posted by 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.

Wife and I have a system where she will stay in the camper and get all the things needed to cook and serve a meal and hand it out the door to me taking it out to the pic-nik table where I have the grill going and a propane stove to cook on.
I carry an extra 20# propane tank and have the proper hoses to hook up 3 different appliances and a lantern, called a Tree, but believe me if you have just 2 cooking appliances and a lantern it will not handle the usage.
But the chore of getting things out of the camper works great.

[hts1190]

No one has mentioned how VERY efficient is Casita's range hood at keeping smoke, odors and vapor outside. Bacon? No problem. Boil water for coffee or eggs? The steam goes outside. Why not???

[NW Cat Owner]

100% inside cooking. I got a small Coleman grill but have never used it. Seems too much hassle (for me) to haul out of the truck and set up and then put away. I use the propane stove inside when I don't have shore power, otherwise I'm using an electric cooktop for all of my cooking needs.



I always bring items that are already cut into smaller chunks (fish, shrimp, chicken, etc) that I put in small baggies and shove in the freezer. All are one-person size portions. I defrost them in the fridge the day ahead. I also bring baggies full of chili, rice and other cooked items. That way I don't have a lot of steam from letting things simmer. I just reheat in a pan on the stove as I don't have a microwave in the trailer.


I also use my small Shuttle Chef thermal cooker for corned beef from time to time.


Due to all my food restrictions (low FODMAP diet), I very rarely eat out at restaurants or fast food joints. One of the reasons for getting the Escape was the size of the kitchen and all that counter space! And cabinets! Since I have to haul most of my food with me, they get well used. :

[NW Cat Owner]

Originally Posted by hts1190

No one has mentioned how VERY efficient is Casita's range hood at keeping smoke, odors and vapor outside. Bacon? No problem. Boil water for coffee or eggs? The steam goes outside. Why not???

I have the vent fan on all the time when cooking. Very rarely do I smell food odors when I come back inside from being out and about during the day. And if I do, I have a bottle of white vinegar and will boil it for a bit.

[skalywag]

We cook all the time in our Ollie. I do use a Weber outside for Steaks (Salmon and Beef) and chicken while DW does veg etc inside with overhead fan pulling out. We do eat well as this is quality time. As previously stated, the Oliver's fiberglass interior limits any residual odors.

[PCO6]

I'm rebuilding / modifying a Cadet. It came without a kitchen which is fine with me as I would have removed it anyway. I might put a kettle and small microwave in but that would be it and they would only be used in the worst of weather. As is, I plan to do all cooking outside ... and enjoy the extra floor space.

[MK Evenson]

I cook inside our Casita every time we camp, not exclusively however. I generally set up outdoor cooking facilities if we are staying longer than overnight. We do use our trailer as overnight accomodations frequently on our way to a camping site that is farther away and I cook water for coffee in the am and water for Cheryl's tea at night. If you got it, use it, if you want to.
Mark

[Jon in AZ]

Looks like it's running about 50-50, so clearly no strong consensus about exactly what constitutes "camp cooking." Since there are no moral issues at stake, do whatever you want, and feel free to change your mind as often as you like.

I enjoyed reading everyone's rationales for their choices. Among them, perhaps, the OP will find one that screams, "That's me!"

[floyd]

I have never "cooked inside" but my wife has had a "bun in the oven" a few times!

[WizWid]

Not cooked inside since last nights ribs and stuffed mushrooms in the oven if that counts as cooking. Smelly veg were steamed outside...

[John in Santa Cruz]

We use the oven on our Escape a lot. Baking premade frozen casseroles, warming meatballs and french rolls to make meatball sandwiches, warming breakfast pastries, etc etc. hardly ever use the microwave.

[CindyL]

Inside almost all the time. We have a Silver Cloud with a stove, including oven which we have not used except to store stuff. We do cook on the burners though. We carried our Instant Pot and new Air Fryer with us on the last Xmas trip to TX. Most of the time we were there, the weather sucked, so we were glad to have them. I know that this is not camping in the eyes of lots of people on this forum, but I more or less consider our camper to be a hotel suite on wheels anyway.

CindyL

[ZachO]

I don't think it's relevant to the OPs question, but since the oven thing has come up a few times, I'll add that I do use the oven. Back when I was looking for a camper, if you had asked me if I wanted one, I'd have said no. But I do have one, and though I don't use it that often, I'm really very glad I have it.

I live out of my camper in the spring/summer/fall and so I don't really cook like I'm camping. I cook like I'm at home. I mostly use the oven as a very inefficient toaster, but also bake hashbrowns, sweet potatoes, and once or twice a frozen pizza. If I'm going to a potluck or something, I'll bake cornbread in it.

So yeah like Jon says there's no "right" answer, just what works for you. I think good points are:

If you cook hot and splattery, you're going to have a grease-splatter covered, smelly camper.
If you spend time in bear country, take extra precautions. The bears around here are pretty shy. Bears in places like Yosemite are a whole different deal. They'll tear the door off you car for a stray potato chip that fell under your seat. Not cooking inside the camper wouldn't be enough; you'd need to keep all food storage out of there too.

People do it differently. When I backpack, I just use the freeze-dried, pour-on-boiling-water-and-you're-done meals. They aren't great, but they're pretty darn good and really easy and clean. But I've backpacked with people who bring cans of chicken, peanut butter, noodles and spices and cook like some people cook at home, and definitely fancier than a lot of people cook when they're car camping.

The easy answer is that if you want to cook in your trailer, it is absolutely set up for it and a legitimate thing to do. Like I said, I live out of mine a lot of the year and cook most meals inside. Last summer was my third season doing that, and I don't see any adverse effects from it.

[Mike Magee]

Originally Posted by floyd

I have never "cooked inside" but my wife has had a "bun in the oven" a few times!

I suspect you had something to do with that.

Actually, I hope you had something to do with that.

[Rzrbrn]

We boil water on the stove and reheat food in the microwave, sometimes canned soup, but don't really cook.

We take a table(s) and cook outside.

[steve dunham]

We have a portable gas grill , a large portable electric griddle and a crock pot
We seldom cook in our trailer except to reheat something in the microwave or bake muffins in our oven
The electric griddle is great when you have to cook breakfast for a crowd .

[Civilguy]

Originally Posted by 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

Art,

When we had the Casita, we mainly cooked outside. It was cramped and even with an additional ~20" x 24" solid surface placed on the bed beside the stove, "counter" space was very limited. Our cooking in the Casita was substantially limited to using the microwave and the electric coffee maker. Our stove use occasionally included boiling water, and much less often cooking in a skillet. In general, we used a Coleman stove outside on the campsite picnic table, which generally meant dragging quite a bit of food and gear outside to slice and dice and season and prepare and serve and eat and heat dishwater and cleanup. Following this, we'd move most all of it back into the trailer. While it was nice to be outdoors, it was sometimes tedious and very time-consuming.

Now that we have the Escape, we mainly cook and clean in the trailer. We make full use of the range/oven, and also the coffeemaker and microwave when we have power available. Dishwashing is now accomplished in the sink using the trailer's hot water. Our Escape is much larger and has quite a bit of counter space. Everything we need is now readily at hand and it takes a lot less time to prepare meals and cleanup afterwards.

So, we miss some outdoor time mealmaking, but in turn gain time for other outdoor activities.

Yosemite allows food to be stored in hard-sided campers. I worked and lived in the Valley one season and have spent quite a bit of time in the park overall and have witnessed some of the extreme measures bears will take to get at our "imported" food supplies. So, if the park allows food to be stored in RVs, I'd say they are the experts and it should be safe to do so. (As you are not allowed to store food in cars at night, I'm guessing the rationale is based on the idea that we are sleeping in the RV, thus serving as the deterrent.)

"Food may be stored out of sight in hard-sided trailers and RVs, as long as windows, doors, and vents are closed when you're not there. Food may not be stored in pop-up or tent trailers, or other soft-sided campers."

https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/bears.htm

[Mike_L]

My wife and I are avid boondockers and almost never visit an RV park. Bears are common where we camp but we've never had a problem.

We bought our unit new on '05 and have never cooked in it. Every morning we boil the kettle for coffee but that is the only thing we have ever heated on the stove. If we have shore power we sometimes use the microwave to heat water for coffee right in the cup. The gas oven has never been used.
The first season we had our unit we camped next to an older couple who had an identical unit to ours. They made french fries in a pot of oil on the stove. Their unit was full of steam and grease smoke. It smelled terrible!
When they left the bear came. They had closed the door but it didn't matter. The bear made his own door, went inside and completely trashed the trailer.
Bears often come at night. I've always wondered what would have happened if those folks were in bed asleep when the bear came to visit?