Cooking methods

[2blacklabs]

Moving from an A to a B with a much smaller kitchen. Is a crock pot or insta pot a more usable piece if equipment. Since storage is smaller want to make sure I stay with something I would use often

[<<B-Guy>>]

We are just starting with a B after a 31ft trailer - 3 qt instant pot fits fine in one of the cupboards - we have used it at home quite a bit to get used to it and vary happy with it, it is very versatile and I think would be much more useful than a crockpot. Of course you can also use it as a crock pot, as well as pressure cooker and to saute.

I think it will be great. We also plan to carry an induction hot plate to use either in teh trailer or outdoors.

Might take our sous vide too! not so sure about that as we don't use it a whole lot (mainy for steaks and such) and it would mean having a large pot to use with it - still thinking about that! Maybe on longer trips where I plan t take a combination bike rack /storage rack and so will have more storage space!

Brian.

[Gail Staton]

I totally agree with Brian. The Instant Pot has multiple uses, one of which is a slow cooker. I have both the 3 and the 6 qt. and think the 3 qt. would be more practical in a B.

I also take an induction burner. It is much safer than an open flame, doesn't heat up the B like the propane burners and can be used outside.

[Ron J. Moore]

We have the 3Qt Insta Pot...invaluable and not a space grabber. Ron

[JohnnyFry]

we use a Crock Pot because it will run on our inverter when we are on the road. Even a small Instant Pot draws too much to run on our inverter (750 watt TrippLite) plus it has electronics which probably don't play well with out MSW inverter. Since we don't have room foe both, we leave the Instant pot at home.

[booster]

We are pretty old fashioned when camping, as nearly all our cooking is done outdoors on a Magma gas grille or a Fold-N-Go gas campstove hooked to the van propane tank with a long hose. For us, camping is mostly and outdoor pastime, so it works well for us. We do use the microwave for quick warmup stuff, also, but the stovetop in the Roadtrek has never been used except to test to see if still lights.

[MsNomer]

Hands down the Instant Pot if you have pure sine and adequate capacity. Our 200Ah battery is more than adequate.

This weekend I am rigging a Sous Vide to heat shower water. I may cook with it also.

[Bruceper]

Originally Posted by booster

We are pretty old fashioned when camping, as nearly all our cooking is done outdoors

This. You're camping, get out and enjoy the outdoors. If you wanted to cook indoors then you should have stayed at home.

[MsNomer]

Sometimes it’s cold and wet out there. If we wanted cold and wet, we'd still be using the tent.

[D&J Phillips]

Sometimes it’s cold and wet out there. If we wanted cold and wet, we'd still be using the tent.

Well played!

[booster]

Originally Posted by D&J Phillips

Well played!

Except that all of us can also cook inside in bad weather, we just choose not to, especially when food off the grille is much better than food off a hot plate or crockpot. We don't get wet or cold unless we choose to. Nobody is comparing to tent camping, as we nearly all have class B's with two different cooking methods available indoors.

[InterBlog]

OP's question is sort of asking whether option A or option B is best. Mostly I vote for option C, which is cooking BEFORE going on the road, and taking with. When the weather is fine and we are at a campsite, we do almost all of our cooking over the fire as many folks would, yes. But certain types of boondocking, driveway surfing, Wallydocking, Crackerdocking, and Cabeladocking don't allow for that. And with long cross-country or cross-continent trips, there will be plenty of those days.

I use a three-pronged strategy for food management in our Class B, and by this approach, I manage to take and furnish most of the main meals that multiple adults will need for weeks at a time:

(1) Vitrifrigo fridge with Danfoss compressor - excellent; we upgraded from the Dometic that came with.

(2) Vitrifrigo freezer which is unusually large due to the fridge not being propane - frozen meal organizer shown loosely packed here (again, with the FoodSaver vacuum sealing method, a lot can be shoe-horned into this space:



(3) Yeti cooler on a custom hitch carrier into which I insert two 30-lb monolithic ice blocks with FoodSaver vacuum-packed home-made meals in them. Typically when I reach my destination, I "borrow" some freezer space from a family member to keep them solid until they are needed:

[Gail Staton]

These latest posts have gotten way off the OP's question. Weather folks personal
choose to cook inside or outside is another topic.

[mumkin]

What has happened reflects the different ways a Class B is used. Some use it as a "camper" and probably prefer to cook outside. Someone moving from a Class A to a Class B is probably used to living in the motorhome for long time periods... full time or for the winter. I think we answered the question of long term residence with the increasingly popular InstaPot that has become standard equipment for those that prefer not to live on just grilled food. I am one of those who does a lot of pre-cooking and that is one of the reasons that I went with the SRT and its larger freezer.

[JohnnyFry]

We think the CrockPot® is great because we can run it while driving on the inverter and arrive with a hot meal ready. Instant pot draws a lot more power and has microprocessor based controls which require a higher power pure sine wave inverter. In most cases, simple is better.

[MsNomer]

Pure sine, I assume yes. More power, probably not.

[Bruceper]

Originally Posted by MsNomer

Sometimes it’s cold and wet out there. If we wanted cold and wet, we'd still be using the tent.

Awning, canopy tent, tree, cooking shelter, umbrella, jacket, newspaper, tarp, hat, food you don't have to cook. Or save the $70,000+ and stay at home.

To answer someone's question about power draw, this is all I could find quickly

https://www.loveyourrv.com/instant-p...ng-power-draw/

[goreds2]

The NuWave oven is still our go to appliance in the RV. Inside or outside.

[MsNomer]

Originally Posted by Bruceper

To answer someone's question about power draw, this is all I could find quickly

https://www.loveyourrv.com/instant-p...ng-power-draw/

That is reasonably consistent with my experience with the 3qt. Although the 6qt is 1000W instead of 700W, its power usage is remarkably similar. Because of its size, though, I only carry it when I am cooking for a larger group.

[gk&hc]

We carry a small rice cooker with us, and it is very useful and doesn’t take up much storage space. Since we don’t have an inverter, we only use when we have electrical hookups or if we are running the generator.