Sunset Beef Stew - Box Oven Cooking

I love the brilliant red sunsets that we are often graced with in the Sanpete Valley. They can be truly inspiring! This colorful red stew is named for their beauty.

Before cooking ********************After cooking

2 lbs. stew meat, cubed and any fat removed
2 onions, chopped

2 stalks celery, diced

1 green pepper,coarsely chopped

6 carrots cut int 2 inch pieces

3 large potatoes, peeled, cut into chucks (more if small potatoes)

2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 tsp sugar

1 bay leaf, (opt.)

Oregano to taste

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley - I really cilantro so I used it in place of the parsley

3 Tbsp. minute Tapioca
2 cups tomato juice or V-8 juice -I like V-8 best

Put meat into large, heavy pan with a tight lid. Don't brown meat first.

Layer onions, celery, green pepper, carrots and potatoes.

Combine salt, pepper, sugar, seasonings, parsley and tapioca with 2 cups of tomato or V-8 juice.

Pour this mixture over the vegetables and meat.

DO NOT STIR

Cover tightly and bake in the oven at 275 for 4 hours or 325 for 3 hours.

BOX OVEN: Bake with 18 to 20 briquette coals for about 3 hours. Replenish coals half way through or as needed.

BOX OVEN COOKING

In this post, I will be giving direction on how to cook wonderful meals in an apple box. You can cook almost anything in a homemade box oven that you would cook in your kitchen oven. It is easy, fuel economical, and much easier to manage than a dutch oven. Don't get me wrong, I love using my "big black pot" but if I was in an emergency situation and needed to cook for days without my kitchen oven, I'd definitely take my box oven. So, let's get started! I promise, this really works great!

Important Note: The box oven may only be used outside!

PREPARING THE COALS

The easiest way to prepare the coals is with a barbecue chimney charcoal starter. It is easy to find these in the spring at most big box and chain stores that are selling barbecues. The starter is a metal cylinder that is divided into two parts with a grate in between. You add unlit briquettes to the top part and a crinkled up sheet of newspaper to the bottom part. Light the newspaper with a match or lighter. The fire will flame up through the cylinder and catch the charcoal on fire. In about 10 to 15 minutes , depending on how many briquettes you have in the flue, you will have hot charcoal for cooking. Watch carefully after the initial flame up because sometimes it just doesn't take and you'll need to repeat this step. You don't need to use any lighter fluid.

I put a pie tin under the flue to catch the ashes so I can carefully dispose of them.

Now you need to dump the coals into Double pie tins. Basically, you put two pie tins together in the shape of an hour glass and nut and bolt them together. This is really important because the bottom tin works to insulate the bottom of the box from the heat of the charcoal. You can not put a single pie tin on the box floor or you will burn the box. Believe me, I did this by mistake one time and I burned the box and the tablecloth underneath. But when I have used the hourglass, double tins, I have never burned a box.

Turn the pie tin over so the nuts and bolts are on the bottom.

Put the coals in the top. Move the tins by using long handled tongs.

COOKING IN THE BOX OVEN

Now the fun begins! There are two ways to use your oven. First, top oven cooking for light things like cookies, rolls, pies, pizza, baked potatoes etc. and bottom oven cooking where you use a pot and cook things like roasts, chicken, hams, stews basically anything large and heavy.

TOP OVEN COOKING

The cookie rack should be wired about 4 inches from the top of the box for this type of baking. I like to use two 9 inch cake pans to bake almost everything in. Because they are round, the hot air is able to circulate and bakes everything much more evenly. I had a lady call me to say her over just wasn't working and when I questioned her, I found out she was using a large cookie sheet that went from wall to wall. You wouldn't do that in your kitchen oven and you can't do that in this oven. You can use a small cookie sheet but the outside will cook faster than the inside so I still prefer to put almost everything in cake pans. I can put 5 Rhodes type rolls in two pan and cook 10 at a time and 6 cookies in each pan and cook 12 at a time. Use two 6 count muffin tins so air can circulate in between.

The coals in the double pie tins are placed on the floor in the middle of the box. What you are cooking goes on the cookie rack wired about 4 inches from the top. Once everything is in place, put the top of the apple box that has been covered with foil up against the open side. Don't worry about the crack that will always be evident between the two boxes because the charcoal actually needs oxygen to burn and the crack supplies just about the right amount. I usually put a rock in the outside box to keep the wind from blowing my box away. If it is really windy, I also put one inside the cooking box. I have had microburst of wind that have picked my box up and thrown it and so I like to do this just to be safe. Don't use any rocks that have been in a river bed because they could explode.

I baked these biscuits with the coals that were left after I baked the Sunset Stew.

You will need 13 to 15 coals to cook most things on the top. Somewhere I once read that each briquettes is about 25 degrees of heat and I have found this is about right. 25 x 15 is about 375 degrees. On a hot day, I would use 13 but on a cold day I need to up it to 15 or so. Cold and wind do affect the oven a little but not a tremendous amount. DON'T PEEK IN THE BOX UNTIL YOU SMELL YOUR FOOD! This is important because every time you open your box you loose a tremendous amount of heat. You'll need to cook like your great, great Grandma did by using your nose to smell when things are getting done. Also, put your hand above the crack and after a while you can kind of gauge if your box is too hot or too cold. Periodically, knock the ash off the briquettes with your tongs. Ash acts as an insulator and will cool down your oven.

Most cookies take about 12 minutes to cook and if that is all I was baking, I have a lot of coal left. One day I experimented by covering my pie tins of hot coals tightly with aluminum foil and thus put out the coals because of no oxygen. When they were totally cooled, I knocked the ash off and put them in a zip lock bag. Next time I cooked, I added these briquettes to the new ones and they did ignite and added some heat. Normally, I don't save coals but in an emergency situation, it may be important to conserve every bit of fuel source you have so I share this just for an FYI.

BOTTOM COOKING

Turn your box over so the cookie rack is now 4 inches from the bottom. You will also need 2 empty cans that are 4 inches high. Regular size evaporated milk cans are just right. Place the cans under the cookie rack and situate so they can hold the weight of the heavy pot that you will set on the rack. Place the pot on one side of the oven and the coals in the pie tins on the opposite side on the box floor underneath the cookie rack. It will be a tight fit but it works. Now the pot will get hotter on the side nearest the coals, so you will need to rotate the pot every half hour or so to achieve even cooking. I use about 18 to 20 coals for large item cooking. The pot and larger items seem to kind of soak up the heat so I need to up the coals. The Sunset stew I made took about 3 hours and I needed to replenish the coals by adding 6 or 7 new one to the old ones about half way. The 18 to 20 coals is just a general guide line and depending on weather and coldness of item when you start, you may need to adjust but this guide line should be in the ballpark.

If you're still with me, I'm amazed at your tenacity and as a reward, I'll now (finally) give you instructions for making your own amazing Box Oven.

Making A Box Oven

Step 1: You will need an apple box, (most grocery stores will give you one if you ask and don't let them talk you into a banana box because it won't work), roll of heavy duty aluminum foil, duct tape, 16 gauge steel wire, nail, cookie rack, needle nose/regular pliers, stapler, pie tins, drill and 2 sets of nuts and bolts.

Step 2: Cover the entire inside of the box with heavy duty foil and overlap the foil about 4 inches on all sides. Shiny side out on the foil. You will need to run the foil width wise and length wise to get the whole inside covered. Make sure every part of the inside of the box is covered. A few staples put here and there helps to hold things in place while you are working. When everything is covered, trim the overlapped outside foil to the 4 inches and then run duct tape around the outside edge of foil.

Step 3: Install the cookie rack by evenly punching two sets of small holes 1/2 inch apart and up 4 inches from the bottom of the inner box with a nail. You should have a total of 8 holes. The holes go on the ends about one inch in from the edges. Through each of these 4 sets of small holes, you will insert about 6 to 9 inches of # 16 gauge wire that is bent in the shape of a U. Push the U into the holes from outside to inside of box. Secure around cookie rack and twist tight. Be as precise as you can in your measurements so you can have a level rack.

You can buy a large cookie rack at many speciality kitchen shops but I just go to the dollar store and get their small, cheap racks and wire them together. Yes, there is a small ridge but it really doesn't make that much difference.

Well there you have it. Whew! I may not do another post for a week. Really, I hope you have fun with your box oven and may you prepare many delicious meals for family and friends.

Have Fun!

-Debbie-