The Best Safe Cooking Options For Glampsites
Cooking options for glampsites are varied. There are a number of options to consider when deciding how your guests will cook. A combination of the options can work well too. The market is awash with choices but there are some main stand out options which we will discuss here. These options are based on our own experiences glamping with our family, and also when visiting glampsites around the UK.
The Cooking Options For Glampsites
Whichever cooking option you decide upon for your site, be sure to check the cookware (Pots, pans, kettle etc) is compatible with your choice. Contact the manufacturer of both the heat source and the cookware for advice on this.
If you’re at all unsure which option to go for, a discussion with your suppliers will always be useful. Be sure to make clear to your supplier what the intended use of the equipment is. Do you want your Glampers to be able to put the pans directly onto a naked flame, or are the pans to go on a gas hob, for example?
Gas Stove
Vital for that first hot drink of the day, providing an instant flame on which to cook. Nobody wants to be hunting out firewood, waiting for a fire to get hot enough before their first cup of tea of the day.
Gas stoves range from a single hob, through to three hobs with an oven and grill.
A stove with a minimum of at least two hobs will be required. Anything more than that will be a bonus but dependant on your budget constraints.
Dangers
Gas stoves should be cited outside of the tent or structure, in order to avoid the build up of noxious gases. The dangers here are the same as those associated with a gas or charcoal BBQ.
Gas or Charcoal BBQ
These can be a really good cooking options for glampsites, sometimes offered on a hire basis. BBQs are a great way to get the feel of cooking on an open fire, with less risk in terms of fire safety but also in terms of cookery success. BBQs are a lot more predictable than an open fire and most people have used one at some point in their lives.
Dangers
Take care though, there are many avoidable deaths each year of campers who take their BBQ inside their tent. Maybe they were cold, or maybe they simply wanted to bring it in out of the rain, but Carbon monoxide (CO) is produced when a fuel such as charcoal, gas or petrol burns incompletely and this can lead to poisoning.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, highly poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simplest molecule of the oxocarbon family.
Wikipedia
Carbon monoxide gas will accumulate at ground level, right where your glampers will sleep.
Open Fire
Whilst this is a romantic idea, it’s not always a practical solution when looking at cooking options for glampsites for the average glamper. Keep in mind that glampers may not have all the experience of a regular camper, and the thought of open fire cooking can be overwhelming.
Cast iron skillets, dutch ovens, tripods and griddles are not usually found in the kitchen at home, and so will be unfamiliar territory for most.
Rather than providing a facility, you could be providing a conundrum, and so detract from the glamper’s overall experience.
That said, many Glampers will expect to be able to ‘have a go’ – where else might they get the opportunity, after all?
To overcome the issues when providing equipment to cook over an open fire it is essential to also provide full instructions on how to use it and methods with which to extinguish the fire.
Dangers
Open fires should be cited a safe distance from the glamping structure, and should take into account the tendency for stray embers associated with an open fire.
Wood Fired Stoves
Simply put, a wood fired stove is a metal chamber on legs (inside which the wood is ignited) with a top plate (intended for cooking on) and a flue pipe (to take away the smoke). They were first designed for use in disaster stricken areas, to be used inside relief tents, providing both a heat source and cooking facility in one.
Today, they can be found in use amongst bushcrafters, fishermen, campers and glampers. They’re certainly worthy of consideration when looking for cooking options for glampsites.
Dangers
Relief tents are built to a very high flame retardancy specification. If you’re planning to cite wood fired stoves inside your bell tents, check that it really is safe to do so. The best place to check is with the manufacturer of the stove itself, as we have found that all bell tent suppliers will tell you it is safe, regardless of their tent’s specification.
It’s hard to find a bell tent supplier who is not selling a wood fired stove in their range, and yet it’s hard to find one that is selling a bell tent with a high enough specification in flame retardancy. More worryingly, it’s impossible to find any with a designated cooking area. A designated cooking area will include materials that are fireproof.
With this in mind, it’s our preference to site the wood fired stove outside of the glamping structure.
You will need to satisfy your insurer that the wood fired stove and tent are compatible. If they are not compatible and something goes wrong, your insurer may not cover you in this event.
