Cooking in an RV is slightly different than in a sticks and bricks kitchen. RVs have a smaller refrigerator, microwave and a propane 3 burner stove with an oven. I was fortunate that my 5’er has a lot of counter space as a lot of them do not. The appliances that come with an RV aren’t too bad, a microwave is always useful and some are even microwave/convection combos. The 3 burner stove is also quite useful and I love to cook on gas stoves versus electric, so much more control over temperature. However though I have tried a number of times the gas oven seems to be unworkable. The temperature swings are just too great, even with unglazed tiles on the bottom (though above the flame) there is a 100 degree fluctuation. With the gas oven issue I have had to come up with other ways to bake and I have a few different small appliances to help me do just that.
The first one is a Roaster Oven, it bakes fairly decent but the sides and top get too hot to touch and it takes longer time to bake. When we use it we put it outside on a heat resistant table then we don’t have to worry of accidentally brushing the side when passing by and getting burned. Use potholders to open and close the top and be careful of escaping steam.
The second item is a 12” clam style pizza maker by Sensio Bella. We bought it at Walmart but they don’t sell it anymore. In fact I can’t find it for sale anywhere, even Amazon has it out of stock with no know date for restock. Like the Roaster Oven this pizza maker also gets hot on the outside, we use the plastic handle to open it and are cautious of escaping steam. I have really liked this little cooker, it does pizza, biscuits, frozen egg rolls, Jamacan pasties (we love these), hot pockets, etc. There is no timer on it but it heats up fast and can bake a pizza in 10-12 minutes.
The third item is a NuWave Oven. My mother bought this for me as a birthday present. I was a tad reluctant at first but I really like what it can do. It can bake food from the frozen state though you do need to add a bit more time but it is still faster than a regular oven, and doesn’t heat up the inside of the coach. It bakes very well for meat and even french fries, you can see the fat dripping off to the bottom of the pan. The NuWave Oven cooks from the top down so everything I have cooked so far needs to be turn over including biscuits. One of the things I really like about it is how well it bakes meatloaf. I like to free form meatloaf on a piece of foil instead of using a loaf pan because it drains the fat off with just a few small holes poked into the foil, in a loaf pan the fat just sits there.
The fourth item is a flat electric griddle. It really doesn’t get used much except to make pancakes or french Toast because I don't like grease splattering all over that comes with doing burgers, bacon or sausage on a griddle. The griddle can cook more than 1 pancake or french toast at a time versus a pan on the stove and it opens up the pan to cook bacon or sausage using a splatter screen. We inherited our griddle from John’s mother so it is more than a few years old. The griddle I listed below has good reviews and is a reasonable price in my opinion.
The fifth item isn’t really an appliance, it is a pan. In fact it is a Whirly Pop popcorn pan. John really loves this pan, so much so that we have a smaller campfire version to use over an actual fire. We make popcorn once or twice a week and buying a container of popcorn kernels is cheaper and better for you than buying microwave popcorn. We season the popcorn as we wish so we are always happy with what we have.
We are picky about the type of popcorn we use. We have found that the yellow corn is much more harsh on our digestive tracts so we buy only white popcorn which doesn't cause us any problems. We use Snappy white popcorn and cook it using coconut oil. It comes out fluffy with no or very few unpopped kernels left.
Our other appliances are a coffee maker, toaster, food processor and a couple of blenders. Our biggest appliance is our KitchenAid Stand mixer. I couldn't give it up so it came with us, I may not use it a lot but it does get used. It stays out on the counter even when we travel. John set up a couple small hooks and a strap to make sure it doesn't go "walking" off the counter and on to the floor which did happen once.
I have listed all these items in my little store besides linking them on this page, including the campfire popcorn popper (in the Outside the Rig category) which I did not link here. A quick link to my store is the bigger picture of a ducky on the right side above.
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