For many new camp oven chefs, the trivet can be a mystifying object. There are many different views as to why you should use a camp oven trivet and when and they will be explored throughout this post.
I’ll also discuss some natural trivet alternatives you can use.
What is a camp oven trivet?
A camp oven trivet is a shallow rack designed to keep the food raised off of the bottom of your camp oven. Primarily used for cooking large pieces of meat, you can also sit other food on them as well.
What is a camp oven trivet for?
Prevent Burning/Sticking
The main benefit of a trivet is that it raises your food off the bottom of the camp oven floor to prevent burning and sticking. It can be tricky to control the temperature of a camp over (especially for beginners like me!) so it is quite easy to overdo the level of heat and burn the bottom layer on your food inside the camp oven.
Using a trivet keeps your food raised off the floor to prevent this from occurring. But there are multiple other reasons people use a trivet.
Let Fat Drip Through
A camp oven trivet allows fat and meat juices to drip through to the bottom of the camp oven and keeps your meat elevated so it is not sitting in the fat while cooking.
Personally, I don’t know why you would want to do this, as I love my meat being cooked in its own fat, but each to its own…
Steaming/Moisture
Some like to add a small layer of water to the bottom of the oven to keep the food inside very moist as it cooks and prevent it from drying out.
Using a trivet, you can do this easily without waterlogging your meat and veggies. When using water in the bottom of your camp oven, your trivet can also act as a steam rack.
Better Airflow
Lastly, having the food raised off the bottom of the oven can create provide better convection airflow to aid with the cooking process.
Should I use a camp oven trivet?
Whether you use a trivet in your camp oven or not, depends entirely on personal preference.
I’m personally trying to hone my skills by taking better control of the heat around my camp ovens, so I don’t use a trivet to prevent burning/sticking.
By using fewer coals, and putting your camp oven away from the direct flame you should achieve better heat control and minimize the chance your meat and veggies will burn. But it’s a very understandable reason.
Secondly, as discussed above, cooking meat in its own juices is where I think most of the flavor comes from, so I definitely o stop that from happening. But again, I know that’s important to some people so I can understand that.
However, I definitely have one and keep one in my kit for those occasions where we do want to try and get more of a steaming effect happening, and cooking some different types of things.
How To Make A Camp Oven Trivet
There are many ways you can either create a trivet or achieve the same effect without buying one. Below we list the different things you can use as a camp over trivet and ways you can make your own.
Cake Rack
Many people use a cake cooling rack, you buy from the supermarket, and sit that in the bottom of their camp oven and find that it works just fine.
Steel Fabrication
If you are handy with metal you can fashion a piece of rust-resist mech steel with some folds, or legs attached to raise it off the ground. You can cut it to the exact shape you want, and experiment with different heights.
Some inventive people have even been able to twist a wire coat hanger into a shape that supports the meat and props it up off the bottom of the camp oven floor.
Alfoil
Many people screw up fist sizes balls of alfoil and place those in the bottom of the camp oven. Not pretty but it achieves the desired effect.
Potatoes
If you have a few extra spuds you can slice one into a few thick chunks and spread it out across the bottom of the camp oven floor. The bottom of the potatoes will get burnt, but it will raise your meat off the surface.
Onions
Putting a layer of onions on the bottom of your camp oven not only protects your meat from the direct heat but also gives you a great stock to make gravy afterward. Yum!
Stock
If you add stock to the camp oven and cook in that, you prevent the burning and also the possibility of drying the meat out and end up with a tasty, and most delicious piece of meat.
Rosemary Shoots
One I haven’t tried yet, but will soon, it to get some stalks of rosemary, lay those on the floor. Protects the meat from the heat while also permeating those amazing rosemary flavors into the meat.
Slide of Bread
Though a slide of bread won’t add much flavor to your meat, if that is all you have sitting around, it can definitely be used to create a buffer between your meat and the floor of your camp oven if needed.
Buying a Camp Oven Trivet
If you are looking to buy one, Tentworld has a good range or camp oven trivets at decent prices, and their customer service is always solid.
Or if you are in the market for a new camp oven, you can buy camp oven sets that include trivets or steaming racks designed to fit neatly inside.
