# Cooking Consistency Problems In Oven



## BluegrassRV (Aug 14, 2012)

Hello, we have tried cooking in the stock oven of the outback a few times. Each time we've had problems... one time with a hand-made pizza on aluminum foil that got burned on the bottom before the top of the pizza even got done. Another time was with a 9"x9" glass casserole dish filled with brownie mix... that time one half of it got burned on the bottom in a much quicker time than the recipe called for.

Is there a trick to using the oven? Does anyone have any experience dealing with this?

I think it would help to get the travel trailer more level so it cooks evenly. Other than that, if the recipe calls for 400 degrees at 30 minutes, what do we if it burns withing 15 mintues? Are we supposed to just half all of the cooking times?

Thank you so much! Kevin


----------



## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

We found the same issues with the oven in our 2008 21RS. Ended up buying a rectangular pizza stone to help distribute the heat. Preheat the oven with the stone on the surface above the burner. It helps quite a bit. Haven't tried it in the 2013 250RS yet.


----------



## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

We got our store from Papered Chef and it does make a difference. Not near as many burnt biscuits!


----------



## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

I have often wondered about using a glazed ceramic floor tile in place of a pizza stone. It would be much less expensive and if it cracked it would be no big deal. Since there would be no direct food contact I don't think the glaze would be an issue except I don't know what kind of gasses the glaze can give off. I would use an unglazed quarry tile but I don't think they are large enough to be useful.


----------



## Chief901 (Dec 18, 2011)

thefulminator said:


> We found the same issues with the oven in our 2008 21RS. Ended up buying a rectangular pizza stone to help distribute the heat. Preheat the oven with the stone on the surface above the burner. It helps quite a bit. Haven't tried it in the 2013 250RS yet.


Times 2 on the pizza stone from Pampered Chef.


----------



## Leedek (Nov 28, 2010)

TwoHappyCampers from www.heartlandowners.org had this to say about uneven cooking and their fix.

"I was having the same problem. Before I had a chance to go out and buy a pizza stone or whatever I tried this: I wasn't able to use my old cookie sheets for baking in this oven anyway, just a tad too big. I had to buy smaller ones. But I noticed I was able to insert the old cookie sheet onto the bottom rack of the oven. How can I say this? hmmmm ... okay, instead of putting the oven rack on the lowest setting in the oven, slide the cookie sheet in its place instead. And just leave it there permanently. It's a bit of a tight fit, but that's good, it won't move. It's taken care of the burning-on-the-bottom problem quite nicely for me. And I got to recycle my old cookie sheet. Of course, not every cookie sheet out there will be the exact fit as mine was, just so happens it worked for the size I had."

I am going to try this because I actually have a cookie sheet available. My guess is the heat from the burners collects under the cookie sheet. The collected heat spreads evenly under the sheet and radiates evenly up into the baking chamber where your food is. Hey... sounds like the meatloaf will be nicely done the next time out.








*Let's eat!!*


----------



## KTMRacer (Jun 28, 2010)

pamper chef pizza stone helps a great deal but IMHO the biggest problem is that in most TT, including the outbacks, they install the shorter (16") oven rather than the taller (21") oven that most 5th wheels get. The shorter oven has the burner to close to the racks and we found really hard to be consistent.

Since DW likes to use the oven, we (well, DW decided I) should install the 21" oven. Got a decent (for RV parts) price on a bigger oven, sold the old one on consignment so it didn't hurt the wallet to bad. All we can say is what a HUGE improvement. now you can use the middle rack, much more consistent heat.

Installation did take a little extra modifications to accomidate the extra height but really was a pretty easy job.

And finally, the oven temp seldom matches the knob. use a good oven thermometer and "calibrate" the knob to the real oven temps.


----------



## Leedek (Nov 28, 2010)

KTMracer - A picture is worth a thousand words.







Please!! I like that idea and I think I just might investigate further.


----------



## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

We've used a porcelain floor tile for years in the oven and it makes a big difference. Just place it on the rack and put whatever you're baking on top of it. I think it cost all of $5 and a trip to Lowe's.


----------



## Lmbevard (Mar 18, 2006)

Insomniak said:


> We've used a porcelain floor tile for years in the oven and it makes a big difference. Just place it on the rack and put whatever you're baking on top of it. I think it cost all of $5 and a trip to Lowe's.


We have put 4 6" unglased tiles on the bottom of the oven so that the holes are left open around the outside edges. It helps but still the oven does not cook as well as a big one. the oven is too small and not well insulated. Also have to preheat the oven a long time to get everything hot and so that the flames on the element will turn down. It's good enough for briskets but I don't think I would bake a cake in it. Have had better luck with a dutch oven and have recently bought a crisping plate for the microwave to try on pizza. Good luck.


----------



## BluegrassRV (Aug 14, 2012)

Everyone, this is great information. We have the pizza stone and will try it out on our upcoming trip! Thank you again, Kevin


----------



## BluegrassRV (Aug 14, 2012)

Update: We did modify a pizza stone we had by using a Demel to grind the sides down for a perfect fit.

As far as the function, its great. I would recommend this fix.

Thank you


----------



## deepvee16 (Jan 27, 2014)

I found a pizza stone online at Staple's (of all places!)
Without any trimming, it is a perfect fit and doesn't slide around. Except that it covers the holes in the sheet metal above the burner. Flame doesn't seem to be affected, so I'm tempted to try it as it is. (Provided it's safe to cover these holes.


----------



## deepvee16 (Jan 27, 2014)

robertized said:


> I would think that covering up the holes in the sheet metal above the burner could lead to some potential problems. The oven was designed to have the heat from the burner to be able to freely flow from the lower compartment up and out the upper vent of the oven. Covering up the holes could possibility lead to poor combustion of the flame, and trap too much heat in this lower compartment. We are currently using a Pampered Chef brand of pizza stone, but we place it on the wire shelf for now as a friend of ours placed there's directly on top of the sheet metal and it cracked and these things aren't cheap. My original idea was to get a simple unglazed floor tile to be place directly on top of the sheet metal to help slow down the heat produced by the burner, and allow more if the heat to come out of the holes to get a more even displacement of the cooking heat. We haven't used the oven enough so far to see just how well the DW's current configuration is going to work. Good Luck.


Good suggestion, thanks.


----------

