Chosen for its durability when used over hot coals, cast iron is as much a part of the campfire cooking experience as cold beer.  Some people love it, some people loathe it.  It's heavy, it's labour intensive and it's hard to master the art of using it to cook, so what's the fuss?  Well for me it's all a part of what we refer to as the 'Industry of Camping'.  'What's the Industry of Camping?' I hear you ask.  Well, it's the stuff you do that makes camping, camping.  You know the setting up of the tent, working out where you're going to build your fire, where the kitchen is going, chopping firewood and indeed cooking in your cast iron camp oven.  Some people try and make camping as simple as possible, whereas we embrace the work that comes along with the camping experience and that's when the love of cooking with cast iron began.  Anyway, I've digressed, again.  This review is supposed to be about the Barebones 10" Cast Iron Camp Oven.

The first thing I noticed with the Barebones Camp Oven compared to what I'd used in the past is the attention to design detail, the quality of the casting looks good and it's certainly more than just a vessel with a lid and a handle with which to lift it.  Of course, it's heavy at 6.4kgs but it's not beyond what you'd expect and lifting the thing when it's full of food requires care around an open fire.  Speaking of lifting, the handle is going to last the life of the oven.  It's a really solid unit constructed from high-grade stainless steel and has a heat dispersing spring but I'd still recommend using some heat resistant gloves unless you're wanting to prove your worth in an early evening drunken stupor.

The vessel of the oven has feet cast into the bottom that allows you to place it over coals or briquettes without the fear of extinguishing them and are long enough to allow you to use the oven on a grill or cooktop situation without them going through the cracks if that makes sense.  Some ovens have feet that are as thick as a tent peg, which fine for the campfire but inadequate for any other uses really.  The top of the vessel has a keyway type of arrangement running around the circumference that marry up to the corresponding keys cast on the underside of the lid which means you can have the lid sealed closed for steaming veggies etc, or you can simply rotate it a few degrees and allow the keyway to hold the lid open, giving you a perfect roasting environment.

The underside of the lid has a handy briquette temperature guide cast into it that gives you an approximate number of briquettes required on the top and bottom of the oven to give you a perfect roast every time, well almost, you will need to keep an eye on your watch.  Ask me how I know.

The Barebones Cast Iron Camp Oven comes from the factory preseasoned and ready to use but I chose to clean and reseason it anyway as I'm a little bit suspicious of any contaminants that may still be present from the manufacturing process with any cooking equipment I purchase.  I have written a guide as to how I season cast iron ware and you can read it here.  There are lots of theories out there on how to do it and I suspect many of them are correct, but the article linked is my method and it seems to work fine.

The Barebones Cast Iron Camp Oven is not the cheapest 10" oven around at $129.95 R.R.P but compared to some other brands I've used I feel it's money well spent.  The Barebones range of Cast Iron Ware is available on our Gstove Australia & New Zealand store. 

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Travelling with the Gstove 'Heat View XL'
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We road test the amazing Jetboil cooking system
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Cooking up a storm on Colemans Even Temp stove
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It's hard to not see the value in this budget-priced hot plate
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The quintessential gas BBQ?
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The portable char griller
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A cast Iron Camp Oven is a Cast Iron Camp Oven, right? We find out
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It's lighter than cast, but is it better?
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Take your craft beer with you, on tap, anywhere...
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A modern take on the plough disc barbeque
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The most versatile BBQ grill we have used
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Lightweight and robust, this high-quality folding grill is perfect for those that want to travel light.
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We test the new 'Leave no Trace' fire pit from Supapeg

Product Reviews

We use a bunch of camping and travel related products in our day to day lives, find out what we think of them here.

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Here you'll find a range of reviews on Camper Trailers on Tents we've owned and used
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From Campfires to Cast Iron, to Gas & Wood Fired stoves...
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We sample a variety of different tech gadgets
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We talk about the stuff we use when we're making camp
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Head to our destination reviews and travel stories
Wee Jasper Reserves in NSW's Brindabella Ranges
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Bronson shares his Tips, Tricks and Adventures
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Our online store has a range of products that make life on the road easy, fun and enjoyable.
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Simple, Fun & Tasty
The Pinnacle Way
Pelican Feeding
Sign of the Times!
Camel Train
Argyle Dam