Heat Beads BBQ Briquetts

Gas bread looks good, maybe have a practice in the back yard with briquettes, I'm sure they'll work ,just need to work out how many needed.
Cheers

Google camp oven cooking using heat beads and you will get lots of results.

Here is one that gives the number of beads required.

Hi laurie,
I cant answer your question directly, but why dont you have a few trial runs at home?
A bit of trial and error before your trip. (over a refreshing glass of something)
I know from personal experience whenever I get a new BBQ or whatever I use heat beads on, it takes a few goes to get it close to right.
William

OK, thanks Fellas!

Yes, I've Googled and got a bit of info. Seems at least 20 heat beads for a large camp oven, maybe less for a small one.

I see most people use a special starter to get the heat beads burning well. Getting them started is what I'm most unsure of.

Maybe if I put some small stones over the ground with the heat beads and firelighters on them it will get enough draft to get going.

I'll give it go down the back yard when the drizzle takes up.

I've been using heat beads with my camp oven for quite a few years with great success.

It takes surprisingly few, I use the self lighting ones or have a few fire starters to make things easy.

One thing I did notice is that the ones underneath oven can sometimes get smothered so I sit my camp oven on some tent pegs that I hammer into the ground to lift the oven off the heat beads a fraction.

I use the guide on this web site.
http://www.aussiecampovencook.com/heatbeadsbbqbriquettes.htm

At the bottom is a link to a PDF that I have printed laminated and goes with me. I stick to the guide and it works a treat usually only have to adjust a little bit for weather conditions.

Have done roasts, damper, cakes, pizza, nachos, the list goes on

Cheers
Stephen

Can't help you with the heat bead side of things, Laurier, but when I worked in the Kimberley, I had some of the best camp oven bread cooks, as camp cooks. Won't go into their less desirable traits though. :-)

When using larger Bedourie ovens, they always had a tin, usually an old pea or bean tin, in the centre of the dough. This allowed the heat to get into the middle of the mix, and I rarely, if ever, saw a failure from their efforts.

Bob

Hi Laurie,

As a general rule of thumb use the diameter of your camp oven as a guide.
For a 12" diameter oven, add two more to the top (14) and two less on the bottom (10)

When using heat beads with my camp oven (a lot of the time) I place an old cast iron frypan on the bottom, add the heat beads, then a "pot stand" or trivet and sit the camp oven on this. this gives an air gap between the heatbeads and the base of the oven so the beads are not smothered. Always works for me.

I love baking bread in the camp oven. Actually, I love cooking anything in the camp oven.
I have a 12" Hillbilly Bush King camp oven with some additional accessories to enhance the flexibility of the oven, including veggie ring, pot stand, folding wind shield and a gas ring, (which I use on rare occasions), as I prefer the heatbeads to cook with. All this fits into a canvas carry bag.

I also have a heatbead starter, a tin with handle and with holes in the side and base to allow good airflow. This speeds up the process of igniting a bunch of heatbeads.

I have more success with heatbeads than using coals from the campfire, as the heat required is easier to control and burn for longer than coals, which you need to keep replacing.

One tip I can offer is to ensure you have dry heatbeads. A bag that has been opened for moths, tends to absorb moisture, thus making the burning process harder, if not impossible.
Heatbeads "easy-lite" product and while these are easier to light initially to speed up the ignition process, suffer considerably from moisture degradation if a previously opened bag is used some months later.

Another product I have and use in place of, or in conjunction with my camp oven, is a Cobb Cooker. these are absolutely brilliant when cooking for one or two people and only require 6 to 7 beads to cook a great roast with veggies at the same time.
A bit small for my bread making tin though. I have used it to bake a bread "cobb" rather than a bread "loaf".
I prefer a loaf as left over bread toasts up extremely well the next morning for a scrumptious bacon and egg on toast brekkie.

Enjoy your next camping trip and just keep experimenting until you are happy with your cooking prowess:-)