Kitchen tips: Oven things you can totally do without an oven

Cafe Society
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Our built-in wall oven has been on the fritz for a few years now. We get by with our gas stove, a large countertop toaster oven that just barely fits a 9" x 9" brownie pan, and two large crock pots. No air fryer or anything like that.

We know how to do quite a bit with the crock pots, though we could use some fresh ideas (esp for deserts). We’re also interested in doing oven-type stuff on the stovetop, but we might lack the necessary hardware – no dutch oven or Magnalite but we do have some sizeable Calphalon pots.

What kinds of adaptations have you all made in oven-less situations? Why kinds of things are possible? Especially the kinds of things that everyone normally does in an oven, but can totally be done another way with little drop in quality.

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Green bean casserole. In fact, I insist on doing it on the stove bc it’s so much easier. (clean up wise)

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Sounds tasty. How do you do that casserole on a stovetop? You can even get the crispy French’s onions on top browned?

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While I have not tried this, apparently you can cook frozen pizza on a barbecue grill. Home Run Inn, in particular, features information on this, on their website.

5

I just throw a can of cream of mushroom soup, and crispy bacon in with the beans and let it heat through. The French onions are more of a garnish that get thrown on top after it’s plated.

Not an exact replica, but a reasonable facsimile.

6

I’ve mentioned this book before, but I like -

A lot. Admittedly, you’re not going to be able to do a lot of the one-pot options that would be cooked in the oven, but it has a huge variety of slow cooker / crockpot options.

I’ll also mention that a cast-iron dutchie on a bed of coals in a firepit, with more hot coals on top, can do a good 60-70% of the traditional oven baked options, including awesome fresh bread, but don’t know if you’ve got a spot for a fire pit. :slight_smile:

In terms of deserts from the book above that are slow cooker and you may have not done: Vermont Baked Maple Custard, Chocolate Chip and Banana Pudding, Sticky Coffee and Pear Pudding, Steamed Chocolate and Fruit Pudding, Hot Date Puddings with Toffee Sauce (:wink: hot date in the fruit term, get your mind out of the gutter!), Fresh Fruit Bread and Butter Pudding, Rich Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Chip and Walnut Cake, Frosted Carrot and Parsnip Cake, Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies, Light Fruit Cake, Marbled Spice Cake, Pumpkin and Banana Cake, Moist Golden Ginger Cake, and a few others.

Most of the cake like options would normally be an oven-style dish, and admittedly, with your toaster oven, you could probably make something equivalent to these, although as partially steamed or moist cooked options, these tend to be super moist.

I’m not going to type out all the pages of options here, but if one or two catches your eye, I could probably type it in or you could find something equivalent online if you don’t want to buy the book.

ETA - I typed out a bunch of deserts because you mentioned them specifically, but tons of savory slow cooker dishes as well.

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Sounds awesome, but your suspicion is correct – no fire pit.

Since it’s early in the thread, I should head off all the suggestions to use a barbecue grill to replace the oven: no barbecue grill either.

8

No problem, you’ll have to pick one of the dozen or so slow cooker ‘baked’ goods I listed instead.

If you have other specific types of oven foods you’re craving, we could probably point you in the right direction though. Other than baked bread and a few other deserts, I use my oven far, far less than the stovetop, slow cooker, pressure cooker or toaster oven.

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How often do you use your toaster oven?

You may want to upgrade to a convection air fryer countertop oven which will allow more options.

That being said you can bake in a stove top lidded pan.

I’d be thinking about an oven repair or replacement. This may lead to a whole kitchen remodel. Beware!

11

We have not tried a frozen pizza on the barbie, but we have done fresh pizzas, using the pizza stone we’d use in the oven on our gas BBQ. Comes out great, but requires more attention to ensure the crust does not burn. A good option during summer heat when you don’t want to run the oven.

12

My grandmother relied on her toaster oven. She baked cakes, pizza, cornbread etc.

She had a regular oven too. It heated the kitchen too much in the summer.

You need a toaster oven that will reliably heat to 450. Check it with a thermometer.

13

Pot roast cooks equally well on the stove or in the oven.

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My paternal grandmother rarely turned on the oven in the summer, and, to be honest, she was so frugal that she only turned it on when she absolutely had to.

Her stove (an older gas range, probably from the 1950s) had a warm spot in the center of the top, in between the stove burners, above where the pilot light was located. She prided herself on being able to “cook” things (more properly, warming them up) by setting them on top of the pilot light for an extended period.

15

Thanks for the dessert suggestions. I’ve quote-boxed a few that look the most tempting.

Just going by the names of the desserts, and not having looked at any of the recipes:

  • I wonder if the Baked Maple Custard can be modified into something that resembles a plain custard? You know … (American Jello) pudding-like egg-based custard?

  • I wonder if the Fruit Bread and Butter Pudding recipe can be adapted to make something like New Orleans Bread Pudding in a crock pot? If so, that would be a huge win.

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As far as investing in an air fryer or fixing the oven, it’s a cash-flow thing. The oven’s electronic control board is out, and I’ve not been able to work out how to execute the repair myself (the cost of a new control board for a 20+ year old oven also doesn’t seem worth it).

As for buying an air fryer: We would like one, and I see them for less than $100 from time to time. But I’m wondering if it’s the kind of item where you will see lots of cheap ones on the market, but for anything worthwhile you’ll have to spend a lot more. So … would the real cost of a minimally-acceptable air fryer be the $89 rock-bottom model sold at Wal Mart, or more like a no-frills $300 model sold online somewhere?

…

Re: baking in a lidded pan – how is this done? You have to prop the bottom of the baking pan off the bottom of the pot, I assume, or else the bottom of the item burns whilr top remains undone.

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One thing I’d love to find out how to do well on a stove top is both chicken pieces on the bone (prefer not to fry them) and bone-in pork chops. The ideal result would emulate oven-roasted chicken and pork chops, though it’s understood expectations must be tempered.

In theory, you just coat the bottom of a pan in a little fat (usually olive oil or an OO-butter combo for us), season pieces, and sauté both sides. Bone-in pieces of both chicken and pork seem harder to get done all the way through, though – you can always cook the pieces longer to get the pink out of the flesh close to the bone, but then the rest of the meat is dried out a bit.

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Almost certainly, the technique is easy, the maple syrup in the option is flavor/sweetening only, easily replaced with honey, or other easily integrated sugar. Since that option is the easiest to type in, I’ll do it for you. If I find the energy later after errands, I’ll type out the bread pudding one.

Vermont Baked Maple Custard, all credit to the book I linked earlier (buy the book!)

3 eggs
120mL/4fl oz maple syrup
150mL/8fl oz warm whole milk
150mL/1/4 pink warm light cream
5mL/1 tsp vanilla extract
whole nutmeg to grate

(note, warming the liquids prior to cooking, rather than using fridge temp will help everything set up a lot faster, but do it gently!)

  1. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then whisk in the maple syrup, followed by the warm milk, cream and the vanilla extract. Grate in a little nutmeg.

  2. Strain the custard mixture into six individual ramekins- first checking that the dishes will all fit inside the ceramic cooking pot in a single layer. Carefully cover each ramekin with a piece of kitchen foil, then place them in the ceramic cooking pot.

  3. Pour very hot water around the dishes to come 3/4’s of the way up their sides. Cover with the lid and cook on low for 2.5-3 hoursor until set. To test, insert a skewer in the middle; it should come out clean.

  4. Transfer the custards to a wire rack. Leave for 5 minutes and serve warm, or leave to cool completely, then chill. Remove from the fridge about 30 minutes before serving.

Poster input - So I’ve done this with honey swapping out for the maple syrup using a strong orange blossom honey and it worked fine. I’ve subbed fresh lemon and orange zest for the nutmeg and also worked fine (I used a simple sugar syrup instead of maple as well). I’ve topped with coarse sugar and torched to add the ever-popular glazed option.

So fundamentally, it’s a simple egg custard, just like you like, but tinker around with the specific sub-flavors you want!

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For the bread pudding, rather than typing the whole thing out, this one I found online looks at least close to what you’re looking at, although you’d make the sauces separately and top once done.

Personally I’d swap out for a heartier bread, but the key element is to butter it before it goes in the crock for maximum flavor. The option I just linked doesn’t have a topping sauce, but as stated earlier, would be super easy to add on top. And it sounds wonderful btw.

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Ah! Never thought about cooking with ramekins inside of a crockpot. Your citrus variations on the custard sound really good. Might be able to do something of an ersatz Key lime thing, even.

As for the crockpot bread pudding … around here, stale baguettes are de rigeur for local-style bread pudding. So I agree about the heartier bread.