Cooking in the Van

[billwilson]

I make coffee inside
Wife cooks:
Inside mostly, propane and micro
Outside
Wood fire or volcano stove
sometimes coleman two burner

FWIW
we did 2 weeks southern utah over xmas/ny this year
rain and snow
all cooking inside

My wife cooks ALOT
note- she is Thai, so lots of funny stuff to cook

My rig does not / did not hold the smells

We cook with fan in rear, blowing to the front of the rig
passenger window open or barn door open

thats my story and i am stickin to it!

 

[Toolman]

I might boil some water for coffee or oatmeal inside when it's cold morning, however I go camping to get outside and I love cooking on the grill outdoors. If I can cook over an open fire even better. I come from the Jeep world where cooking inside isn't an option, so I figure I won't need the cooking facility in the van. I do have a single burner that runs off of butane for the emergency cook-in if weather makes it impossible to cook outside.

I say "do whatcha like". You like to use your facility inside, go for it. If I had a Westy with a stove I'd use it or take it out.

BTW Mr. Bill Wilson, I need a pith helmet rack in my van, can I borrow yours.

I prefer outside.

thanks for making me think about it though.

 

[SWbySWesty]

Question: Those of you in Bear Country (serious bear country), have you encountered any issues with smell in the van and "unexpected guests" at night?

 

[robert]

Usually outside. When I cook inside I don't fry anything or cook anything strong smelling. Besides the smell, cooking puts more moisture in the air- as if sleeping inside didn't put out enough. Older VW buses weren't treated well inside and often have rust issues behind the stoves if they were used much. When I stripped mine down I painted the metal before putting in the insulation then put a vapor barrier over that to help.

 

[Accrete]

My wife and i have not personally had any issues in _our_ camp with bears but a fellow prospector parked a stones throw from us got a surprise one morning when he noticed his class C rocking... he stepped outside to find out what was going on and a black bear crawled out from under his rig apparently curious about something under there. sort of a funny scene as they both went running opposite directions (safely). He did all his cooking inside the rig, where we were doing all ours outside, then taking the food containers back into the van each night leaving stove/etc out. Bears were not even curious about our _stuff_ that we observed. (this all took place in the Quartzville mining district in Oregon)