How To Use Heat Beads With A Camp Oven

Using Heat Beads or briquettes with your camp oven is becoming more popular. One reason is a lot of camping areas have banned open fires these days but head beads with your camp oven are still in allowed in a lot of them. Another reason is it’s a great way to regulate the heat in your camp oven accurately and just as important with consistent, repeatable results. We have been doing it for years!

Camp Oven Heatbeads On Top Of Camp Oven

Camp Oven Heatbeads On Top Of Camp Oven

Use A Camp Oven Heat Bead Cooker

We use a camp oven heat bead cooker beneath our camp oven. The camp oven heat bead cooker allows for great airflow and helps prevent your heatbeads going out. We sit our heat bead cooker inside an old electric frying pan with the electrics removed. The frying pan stays relatively cool underneath, cool enough to allow us to use it on top of a table. The frying pan also collects the ash that the heat beads create and makes clean up a lot easier. You can get a heat bead cooker online – this is the bloke we ordered ours from. We’ve been using it for years and it’s still as good as new.

Camp Oven Bread Heatbeads In Camp Oven Heatbead Cooker

Camp Oven Bread Heatbeads In Camp Oven Heatbead Cooker

How Many Heat Beads Or
Briquettes Should You Use?

We use a different quantity of heatbeads or briquettes underneath our camp oven to what we have on top. And this also varies depending upon whether we are roasting a piece of pork, baking a damper or even a cake, making a stew or frying up some breakfast. The number of heat beads we use also depends upon the size of the oven we are using. A big oven needs more heat beads or briquettes than a small one.

We’ve put together a chart that shows you how many heat beads we use for the different cooking types and temperatures we are trying to achieve. You can download it here or you can view it below.

Heat Bead / Briquette Camp Oven
Heat Guide Chart

22″ CAMP OVENCAMP OVEN TEMPERATURE (CELSIUS)
120°135°150°160°175°190°200°220°230°
BAKINGTOP272830313334363739
BOTTOM9910101111121213
ROASTINGTOP202122232425262728
BOTTOM161718192021222324
STEWINGTOP9910101111121213
BOTTOM272830313334363739
FRYINGTOP000000000
BOTTOM363840424446485052
20″ CAMP OVENCAMP OVEN TEMPERATURE (CELSIUS)
120°135°150°160°175°190°200°220°230°
BAKINGTOP242527283031333436
BOTTOM88991010111112
ROASTINGTOP182920212223242526
BOTTOM141516171819202122
STEWINGTOP88991010111112
BOTTOM242527283031333436
FRYINGTOP000000000
BOTTOM323436384042444648
18″ CAMP OVENCAMP OVEN TEMPERATURE (CELSIUS)
120°135°150°160°175°190°200°220°230°
BAKINGTOP212224252728303133
BOTTOM778899101011
ROASTINGTOP161718192021222324
BOTTOM121314151617181920
STEWINGTOP778899101011
BOTTOM212224252728303133
FRYINGTOP000000000
BOTTOM283032343638404244
16″ CAMP OVENCAMP OVEN TEMPERATURE (CELSIUS)
120°135°150°160°175°190°200°220°230°
BAKINGTOP181921222425272830
BOTTOM6677889910
ROASTINGTOP141516171819202122
BOTTOM101112131415161718
STEWINGTOP6677889910
BOTTOM181921222425272830
FRYINGTOP000000000
BOTTOM242628303234363840
14″ CAMP OVENCAMP OVEN TEMPERATURE (CELSIUS)
120°135°150°160°175°190°200°220°230°
BAKINGTOP151618192122242527
BOTTOM556677889
ROASTINGTOP121314151617181920
BOTTOM8910111213141516
STEWINGTOP556677889
BOTTOM151618192122242527
FRYINGTOP000000000
BOTTOM202224262830323436
12″ CAMP OVENCAMP OVEN TEMPERATURE (CELSIUS)
120°135°150°160°175°190°200°220°230°
BAKINGTOP121315161819212227
BOTTOM445566778
ROASTINGTOP101112131415161718
BOTTOM67891011121314
STEWINGTOP445566778
BOTTOM121315161819212224
FRYINGTOP000000000
BOTTOM161820222426283032
10″ CAMP OVENCAMP OVEN TEMPERATURE (CELSIUS)
120°135°150°160°175°190°200°220°230°
BAKINGTOP91012131516181921
BOTTOM334455667
ROASTINGTOP8910111213141516
BOTTOM456789101112
STEWINGTOP334455667
BOTTOM91012131516181921
FRYINGTOP000000000
BOTTOM121416182022242628
8″ CAMP OVENCAMP OVEN TEMPERATURE (CELSIUS)
120°135°150°160°175°190°200°220°230°
BAKINGTOP679101213151618
BOTTOM223344556
ROASTINGTOP67891011121314
BOTTOM2345678910
STEWINGTOP223344556
BOTTOM679101213151618
FRYINGTOP000000000
BOTTOM81012141618202224

Conclusion

Using heat beads or briquettes with your camp oven is a great way to cook. It gives you consistent, repeatable temperature. It’s also great for caravan parks, at home or any time where you aren’t allowed an open fire but are still allowed to use solid fuels.