Cooking with no gas and no ehu

[Lisa and Simon]

Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.

 

[JunglieD]

Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.

My wife is coeliac so I can appreciate how restrictive this is. Without EHU or gas bottles you have no viable way of generating heat… the inverter will allow low wattage items to draw power but I would’ve thought a viable electric Hob would absolutely smash through your leisure battery charge…. You could probably find a camping kettle that’ll work but all you can really ‘cook’ with that would be GF pot noodle equivalent

Clearly you’ll be taking along a stash of dry foods like GF breads, fridge items etc. But you really need a way of boiling water to cook GF pasta, meats etc. The smallest you might be able to get away with is something like a jet boil that’s intended to heat up cold water to boiling… but it does use gas. Or you could try an an alternate fuel cooker like meths (Trangia?) or solid fuel like a bbq…

Personally I’d try to bypass the rules and sneak in with gas. You have a very restrictive diet which I think justifies the exception if used discretely.

(Clearly there’s some sort of event insurance thing here though - I doubt the rule is for their own fun)

 

[VanBlancLives]

Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.

Could you use a Cob or similar?

 

[Meoncoast]

(Clearly there’s some sort of event insurance thing here though - I doubt the rule is for their own fun)

expect they do not want campers cooking their brain and getting high on inhaling it.

 

[Azteccamper]

Are small gas canisters allowed? A small gas cooker may be allowed?

 

[B J G]

Is any burner type banned?

Sprit type a possibility?

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[Polomint]

Are ordinary coal BBQ'S not allowed?

 

[Kingfisher]

Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.

Real cooking on something like a hot plate is not going to work off the leisure battery.

You could use a 12V kettle for boiling water and then prepare freeze-dried meals. Some of the more expensive Scandinavian brands can be pretty good. I’ve never specifically looked for their gluten-free recipes.

The alternative would be a 12V slow cooker. Some forum members have posted positive reviews. My guess is you could use them to cook off the leisure battery for one, maybe two days.

 

[dspuk]

Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.

Which festival? No gas "bottles" - does that include the small canisters for a cadac etc?

 

[yossarian]

You have 1kWh 0,5kWh of usable energy in your leisure battery. You can't do any significant cooking with that.

 

[j_ritchie]

We have a Caravelle, with a California roof fitted so I’m not sure on space beneath the Californias driver and passenger seats however we fitted a large lithium battery under the drivers seat and a 3KW inverter beneath the passengers and we cook with induction rather than carry gas.
Other option might be a power pack rather than running a separate battery and inverter, handy for power cuts too.

 

[steve_b]

What festival is it? I have never been to a festival that didn't allow cooking or brewing a cuppa - are you sure the restrictions don't apply to not taking gas into the arena, but you can keep them in the camping area?

 

[California Rob]

Hi all, we are going to a festival in our California Beach, and aren’t allowed to take gas bottles in. No ehu either. I will need to cook using the leisure battery. Has anyone any advice in doing this and what did you use if you have?
Yes there will be food there, but I am coeliac and I’m worried there may not be much gluten free food available, so taking food and being able to cook as a back up. Thanks in advance.

Take a bbq sorted.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

Charcoal Cobb for food + Ghillie kettle for hot water

 

[vmaxkiddy]

For reheating stew, pasta, pies etc I use this, gets to 70°C in 30 minutes or so.

 

[yossarian]

It's the same physics problem as this https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/electric-kettle-not-on-hook-up.46327/post-601275

 

[flying banana]

Sounds like a right barrel of laughs that. Food prices at festivals are a p1ss take so eating there 3 times a day and queueing for ever will tire very quick. Cancel it and go somewhere else

 

[Ozzy Pete]

My granddaughter went to a festival last year and the same rules applied. NO bbqs and NO gas cookers.
They were in tents so there are obvious dangers there. Not sure about if you were in a Camper van or motorhome where the risk is minimal.
They had to buy all their hot food on site , so that was chips 3 times a day.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

My granddaughter went to a festival last year and the same rules applied. NO bbqs and NO gas cookers.
They were in tents so there are obvious dangers there.

No more risk than a campsite

 

[Loz2286]

An Ecoflow power pack (or similar) will handle a hot plate.

 

[flying banana]

No more risk than a campsite

Exactly. About time we got back to the old days. 2019 when adults were allowed to make their own decisions about risk. This is done to sell food. How do cook it in their stalls? Oh I bet the sellers use gas or electric or both. They aren't going to make every camper and motorhome chuck out their gas on the way in. Where is this ridiculous festival? I need to not go there

 

[Ozzy Pete]

No more risk than a campsite

There’s not normally hundreds or thousands of tents full of young people on a “Campsite” which has dedicated areas for each tent.The risk factor is massive so the rules state NO BBQs and NO gas cookers.

 

[Ozzy Pete]

Sounds like a right barrel of laughs that. Food prices at festivals are a p1ss take so eating there 3 times a day and queueing for ever will tire very quick. Cancel it and go somewhere else

You can’t blame the vendors for the extortionate food prices. The festival organisers charge thousands£ just for vendors to get a pitch.
Therefor £8 for a burger £6 for a bag of chips £4 for a cup of undrinkable coffee.
If you are prepared to pay hundreds£ to go to a festival then another £100 for food is not going to Bankrupt you.
Most festivals have dedicated areas for tents and other areas for camper vans/motorhomes so wouldn’t imagine the same rules applied for the 2 different areas.
Tents tend to be quite flammable when you cook inside them.

 

[Lisa and Simon]

Thanks everyone, I’m unable to reply to all your posts separately, not sure why! The festival is the Derbyshire sausage and cider. You are allowed fixed gas bottles in motorhome and caravans.
I have found today on there t’s and c’s you are able to take certain types of things to cook on. See attached.

 

[dspuk]

Thanks everyone, I’m unable to reply to all your posts separately, not sure why! The festival is the Derbyshire sausage and cider. You are allowed fixed gas bottles in motorhome and caravans.
I have found today on there t’s and c’s you are able to take certain types of things to cook on. See attached.

View attachment 104936

Sounds like the Ridge monkey BBQ would work a treat then. You can use as a coal BBQ here and have for later as a gas powered one.