There seems to be two popular commercially available reflector ovens, the Svante Freden Swedish made one, and the Old Scout model. For those familiar with both of these, is one any better than the other? The Svante Freden seems to run about 75 to 80 bucks, while the Old Scout seems to be about 65 bucks and includes a canvas bag to pack it in. For those that would suggest I build my own, you wouldn't make that suggestion if you knew me...LOL.

The Old Scout has served me well.  I don't know about the other one.  I am going to add a thermostat in the back of it to get a better sense of the temp, but I've baked brownies and casseroles in it.  Easy to assemble and lightweight. No negatives.

prouboy

Just to confuse you I'll say the same thing about the Svante Freden that Prouboy said about the Old Scout.  I love the Sven, works perfectly and it really is well designed -  lightweight and easily folds away (I made a simple case to carry mine in.)  In either case, if you've never used a reflector oven you'll be delighted, lots of fun and good eatin'.

Thinblueline -- Here's the solution: buy 'em both.  Support the economy.  Then sell the one you don't like as much  here on the "gear" thread, thus extending the underground economy as well.

prouboy

The Svante Freidan stove is smaller than the Old Scout oven. Also the Old Scout comes apart into more pieces than the Svante. I Svante also sits lower then the Old Scout so you need to have some fire down low or prop it up on a log to get heat to the bottom part of the oven. Otherwise you'll end up with stuff not cooked inside but the top will be done.

Well I got the Old Scout model and it worked well for me so far. I just don't appreciate my new title in camp of Benny Crocker. I sort of got a homemade one from a nice guy on another forum as sort of a raffle winning. It worked ok but was to much to portage in. The Old Scout one stashes in the pack quite nicely. I'll be bringing it in a lot for pizzas and muffins and such. It'll give me something to do on layover or wind bound days. So far I did pizzas using pizza crust mixes, lemon poppy seed muffin mix and brownies. Kind of burnt the brownies not believing they were done. but everything else turned out perfect... r close to it. :)

nctry -- I have an old scout too.  Use if mostly for brownies and muffins.  (And one failed breakfast casserole.) 

I'm curious, what do you put on your pizza, and what kind of pan do you use?   We make "camp pizza" which is like a quesadilla with tortillas fried in a frying pan.  But real pizza intrigues me.   

puckster

I've just used the same pan that I do for biscuits which is a small rectangle pan with low sides to it. I have also used an 8x8 brownie pan too.

Puckster wrote on Jun 20^th, 2014 at 9:09pm:

nctry -- I have an old scout too.  Use if mostly for brownies and muffins.  (And one failed breakfast casserole.)  I'm curious, what do you put on your pizza, and what kind of pan do you use?   We make "camp pizza" which is like a quesadilla with tortillas fried in a frying pan.  But real pizza intrigues me.    puckster

Hey Puckster, I've done the tortilla thing with Suncatcher. It works well, but I thought the pizza dough worked pretty well too... Just one more pan to clean, but worth it I thought. I found my GSI 8" fry pan worked good, but not befor buying a couple SS MSR plates from Piragis. They all work well... I dehydrate plain spaghetti sauce for the sauce and I got some freeze dried cheese from Honeyville that worked good even though a little expensive. Peperoni... mushrooms ... black olives and I did put some dehydrated Venison hamburger in the sauce. Oh geez, now my mouth is watering...  ;D

nctry_Ben wrote on Jul 4^th, 2014 at 6:53pm:

Puckster wrote on Jun 20th, 2014 at 9:09pm: nctry -- I have an old scout too.  Use if mostly for brownies and muffins.  (And one failed breakfast casserole.)  I'm curious, what do you put on your pizza, and what kind of pan do you use?   We make "camp pizza" which is like a quesadilla with tortillas fried in a frying pan.  But real pizza intrigues me.    puckster Hey Puckster, I've done the tortilla thing with Suncatcher. It works well, but I thought the pizza dough worked pretty well too... Just one more pan to clean, but worth it I thought. I found my GSI 8" fry pan worked good, but not befor buying a couple SS MSR plates from Piragis. They all work well... I dehydrate plain spaghetti sauce for the sauce and I got some freeze dried cheese from Honeyville that worked good even though a little expensive. Peperoni... mushrooms ... black olives and I did put some dehydrated Venison hamburger in the sauce. Oh geez, now my mouth is watering...  ;D

Why freeze-dried cheese?  Wouldn't real cheese be much better?

[quote author=Snow_Dog link=

Why freeze-dried cheese?  Wouldn't real cheese be much better?
[/quote]


About the same... I had to try it... I'm always looking for stuff for longer trips so I tried them out. Worked fine.

We usually just use string cheese that we cut up and pull aprat for pizza. they last quite a long time with little to no refrigeration

Oldfingers57 wrote on Jul 7^th, 2014 at 8:17pm:

We usually just use string cheese that we cut up and pull aprat for pizza. they last quite a long time with little to no refrigeration

Those Baby Bell cheeses wrapped in wax keep for along time and you could use a mini-grater to make "pizza" cheese.
A added bonus is the wax envelope they come in, makes a great firestarter. ;)

Oldfingers57 wrote on Jul 7^th, 2014 at 8:17pm:

We usually just use string cheese that we cut up and pull aprat for pizza. they last quite a long time with little to no refrigeration

I'm not recommending this but a few years ago I had a half dozen individual (what?) single serving rods of both sharp cheddar and string cheese left over from an august solo. I found them at the bottom of my food pack in december after my wife got tired of seeing it in the hallway outside my office.

The cheddar was oily and the string was milky but that happens once they get warm. I stuck 'em in the back of the fridge for testing purposes at a later date. About a week later I noticed they weren't in the fridge anymore… Turns out my kid ate 'em all with no ill effects.

---
On july group trips, one guy used to always brought a Boboli pizza crust and sauce, shredded mozzarella, pepperoni, green pepper, onion, mushroom…. He'd make it in the big kitchen frying pan with lid he'd always bring. He'd unscrew the handle and cover the pizza with the upside down lid lined with foil and coals on top. The guy made great "camp omelets" as well.

One trip he decided one pack of shredded mozzarella was too generous for one pizza so he nibbled a bit along the way. A few days later, that particular pizza night began with a group decision after which we picked out the greenest shreds and used the rest because pizza isn't pizza w/o cheese.

What we've taken to doing is having 100 gram portions of various hard cheeses individually shrink wrapped at the cheese shop.  100 grams is about the amount the two of us would use in a day.  We've found doing it up like this keeps the cheese fresh (if not a bit oily) for the three weeks we're out there.

Yeah, just seemed odd to me to use freeze-dried cheese when a regular brick of unrefrigerated mozzarella will keep for weeks unopened and once opened, for several days.  If it stays open a week, you might need to cut off a bit from the outside but the inside is still perfectly fine.

I know, grating warm mozz is not the easiest thing to do but then again, it's not an insurmountable task, either.

Snow_Dog wrote on Jul 9^th, 2014 at 6:08pm:

Yeah, just seemed odd to me to use freeze-dried cheese when a regular brick of unrefrigerated mozzarella will keep for weeks unopened and once opened, for several days.

Like I said... I found some and had to try it.

nctry_Ben wrote on Jul 10^th, 2014 at 7:28pm:

Like I said... I found some and had to try it.

I get that. It's kind of a weight/volume/convenience/preference/purpose type thing. I honestly had no clue there even was such a thing as FD cheese before this thread and I'm the guy taking instant coffee and a thermos these days, so thanks. As far as I'm concerned, it's all good.

Freeze dried ice cubes tinkling in a cold glass as a well deserved reward would seriously make me smile on a hot afternoon a few more portages deep.

Will someone please let me know when there's an app for that?