In the 1970’s and 1980’s there were several books the either had characters that did it or promoted it.
Why is there no cooking tray in my new car’s engine bay?
Is it dangerous? (It would be less physically dangerous if there was a specific spot for it.)
It’s very hard to get the car inside the kitchen.
This is very true.
Much easier to plumb water to the garage.
Keep the garage door closed for free heating in the winter.
They did this on Top Gear (or Grand Tour maybe, can’t remember). Personally, cooking doneness aside, I wouldn’t want some exhaust leakage from the engine or burning oil that’s seeping from a gasket to taint the flavor of the food even if there were a guarantee of no carcinogens from it.
Considering the amount of cancers related to exposures to petroleum products, is this a real question asking why we don’t cook on something that runs on vaporized petroleum products and is lubricated with petroleum products?
It’s really inefficient. A stove has all of the heat being concentrated to one spot while a car has a whole cooling system spreading out and dissipating the heat, and cars are more efficient at that than in the 70s. Having enough heat to cook with is generally bad for an engine so by design you would want it to cool before it’s that hot.
I have had a few coworkers who put their lunch containers in their engine bay so that it would heat up for lunch though, that was for a job that had us driving around to 3-7 jobs in a day.
It is very hard to time your trip so that you get there when everything is done. those who try it either have overcooked food or have to drive around for a while after they get there for the meal to finish.
in the end it works but not well enough to do it. Even truckers who eat on the road find separate appliances better.
My wife’s family once baked potatoes in the engine compartment during a road trip, just to see if it would work. Enough fumes leaked out of the engine that everything tasted slightly of oil and exhaust. Car engines are much tighter now, but I’m sure you still get a similar effect.
If you have an EV, you can plug in an induction cooktop
Mythbusters has an episode (Food Fables) with Alton Brown where they cook a thanksgiving meal in the engine bay. It went surprisingly well, although figuring out where to put everything and the different cooking temps were tricky.
Mythbusters has an episode (Food Fables) with Alton Brown
Thank you. Looks like Episode 196 from Season 13 Episode 7.
Too much stuff to remove to get to either of my car’s electric motors. Also that might cause a legit warranty denial someday…
With an electric car one may be able to plug an actual oven in…
What you can do safely is get a pack of cookie dough, wait till it’s summer time(hotter the better), be in Texas, Arizona or similar state, put cookie dough on pan and leave on your dash board, go to work.
When you get out of work you’ll have fresh baked cookies and your car will smell amazing!
One of my co workers at Disney did this, I’ve never tried it but every time I walked past their car with the cookie pan in the windshield I thought it was brilliant.
Love it! A nice treat after work.
They have been doing this since at least the 70s, when I saw it. There is nothing preventing anybody from doing it, you just want to be sure the food is wrapped in tin foil or some other heat proof metal container that keeps the bad air out.
In the 70’s fuel was cheap.
Nowadays, if I need to let the engine run for an hour, I can go to a michelin star restaurant for the same price. (OK it’s an over statement, but there is definitely cheaper and more optimal way to cook a meal on the road)
I imagine the majority of the current crop of motor vehicle owners are not quite smart enough to realize that the hood even opens to allow access to the engine bay… Nor what parts of it get hot. Or too hot. Or are safe to access, etc. And in our modern litigious society there is simply far too much that can go wrong with this to make it worthwhile for any manufacturer to include as a deliberate feature. Like, rodent infestation in engine bays is already an issue. Imagine adding (potentially forgotten and abandoned!) food to the mix.
Edit: Another wrinkle I thought of is a lack of consistent temperature control. Your engine is designed to move your car, not remain at a consistent temperature.
The utility is also rather limited when you have access to a microwave or a convenience store. Or even a convenience store with a microwave in it, as many do.
So yeah, you can do it to be clever if you like but it’s not cut out to be mainstream activity.
While I don’t disagree, this is a line of thought that is used to talk people out of everything, including many things we do commonly.
Temperature control is less important for many baking items (potatoes, some casseroles) than modern recipes indicate. Modern temperature control is “easy”, but not needed for many things. Temperature control is critical for a few things, and those would be a bad match.
