Dutch Oven Cooking

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TUFFTORQ

TUFFTORQ

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As many of you know, in September '05 Trail Crew ran their annual Dusy Ershim trip. Although the trip was a complete success, I must admit that I learned some valuable lessons. The most important one was my lack of outdoor cooking experience and being prepared to chow down some good grub. I'm pretty sure Georg could vouch for that.

I watched alot of our more experienced members cook up their grub and then I had the opportunity of watching Tony Twiddy cook in his dutch oven. After tasting the cobbler and other fixings, I was hooked. So I did what every other good wheeler would do...:idea: I bought a dutch oven.

I planned on going to Calico to suprise my fellow club members, but my rig was less than ready with a few mods in the works. Instead with or kids in tow, decided to go to the Sportsman's Expo at the Fairplex in Pomona. Long story short, we picked up a cooking table and some other goodies for our new dutch oven. After reading the countless websites for dutch ovens on seasoning and cooking receipes, we tried our oven out tonight. We're hooked! The food tastes better than stove top or the microwave.

Mark
 
I have two ovens and love them. Last week on the Copper Stat Cruiser outing I did a peach cobbler that went over well. I have been cooking with dutch ovens for over 10 years and still have a lot to learn.
As far a brands I like - http://www.lodgemfg.com/...they have a lot of great accessories too. You can get them pre-cured (seasoned) now. I have one that hasn't been washed for 5 years and I used it every season. I love the meals that come out of it.
My only gripe is weight. I have been thinking of something like this to save on weight...http://www.cobbaustralia.com.au/
 
I picked my 13" from www.macaovens.com and the website links has some great areas to check out. International Dutch Oven Society is by far the most versatile that I've stumbled across. Literally everything you need or want to know about. www.idos.org

zebrabeefj40 said:
Care to list a few of the better Dutch oven sites here for reference? Been looking at them myself but have not found any I like in a price range I'm willing to pay...

TIA,
Nick
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I really like dutch oven cooking, camping and at home. The Lodge Cast iron ones are cheap and work great. The only downside, and it's minor, is weight. The aluminum ones are nice, but a lot more $, and I'm not sure that they avoid hot spots as well as the iron. Since you can't season the pan, I'll bet the food sticks like mad. I've never cooked in an aluminum one though. If you want to see nice cast iron, with antique value, go on EBay and look at the Griswold brand. One day when I'm rich and famous, I'm going to get a Griswold Dutch Oven. My great grandmother probably had one.

For camping, you technically want a "Camp Oven" or "Cowboy Oven". They will have 3 small feet to keep it out of the direct coals, and a flanged lid to retain the coals on top. A standard Dutch Oven just looks like an iron pot with a bail handle. Lodge is the only US maker left. Support them and buy one of their excellent Dutch Ovens. The Chinese ones are junk, and covered from the factory with a preservative that is hard to clean off. I would not buy a pre-seasoned pan or DO, since the seasoning process is fun, and you need to know how to do it anywhay, since you will need to re-season from time to time.

If you are new to this: buy a 12 inch Lodge Camp Oven. It's the standard and under $40. If you feed a big group, get the 12 inch deep oven. To season-Scrub out the pot with hot water and soap if you must. This is the last time it will ever see soap in any form. Clean it super well, rinse it completely with hot or boiling water. Then warm the pan on the stove and coat it inside and out with Crisco (This, IMHO, is the only use for crisco in life so borrow some). Place the greasy pan in the oven upside down and bake at 375 for 1 hour. Do the same with the lid. Allow to cool. It is then ready to use. A well seasoned pan is suprisingly resistant to food sticking so do this initial seasoning well.

I personally do not like the majority of the Cast Iron Cooking websites out there as they want to do most of their cooking from mixes and cans. Concentrate on making things from scratch, and you will be very pleased with the results. Rule of thumb for baking is 1/3 coals on the bottom and 2/3 on the top. Turn the oven every 5 minutes while cooking to avoid hot spots and burns. You have to turn the lid as well and for the same reason.

I could go on and on but I won't. This is a very fun addition to your camp cooking skills.
 
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calamaridog said:
It sounds like http://www.macaovens.com/ is also a US producer of Dutch Ovens...
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You might be right-that's very cool. I thought I read somewhere that Maca moved the casting off shore, but maybe not. Anyway, they look like nice Dutch Ovens. Everyone I've talked to about the Aluminum ones, lines them with foil for cooking-that's cheating!

Looking on Lodge's site, I want one of these:
https://secure.lodgemfg.com/storefront/product1.asp?menu=logic&idProduct=3961

And I'll bet Brentbba wants one of these:
https://secure.lodgemfg.com/storefront/product1.asp?menu=logic&idProduct=4059
 
TUFFTORQ said:
what are some of the trail receipe favorites?
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Here is the Cobbler receipe I sent to Brentbba last week. We ate this in Anza Borrego made with black cherries. I have made it numerous times and noone has complained yet:

"Good times this past weekend. This assumes you have a 12 inch Oven. Here is the "mix" that I make prior to leaving town, so in effect, it's like a cake mix, except you make it from scratch:

3 cups all purpose flour
1.5 cups sugar
some ground nutmeg (it's potent if you grind the pods, but adds good flavor
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp baking powder
1 cup nuts if desired-I keep separate and add when I mix in the milk-see below. Pecans and walnuts are both great. I used pecans this past weekend.

Mix the dry stuff together and put in a plastic bag.

For the fruit-any will do. Have the scouts cut up apples or peaches in season. I used pears once-it's a sophisticated adult taste. The scouts will like peaches or apples better. THe cherries I used this weekend were really good-I'll make those again. I want to try it with fresh apricots. Look for blackberries in DV. Anyway:

3-4 cups of any fruit(more is generally better but the amount is not critical)
2 cups of sugar

You mix the fruit and the sugar just before you start making the cobbler. If you are using fresh apples, mix the fruit and the apples when you light the charcoals. This helps to form a bit of syrup. Keep this separate from the batter.

Once your coals are ready, heat the cast iron dutch oven (technically a "camp oven" or "cowboy cooker" since you need the lid with the flange to hold the coals and feet to keep it out of the coals). Once the oven is warm, add 2 sticks of butter (not the fake stufff) and melt in the bottom.

Now mix enough milk into the mix to make a smooth stirrable batter. Add the nuts to this batter. Pour the batter into the oven, and distribute evenly over the bottom.

Now pour in your fruit mixture-It should be syrupy by now. I just pour it over the batter and don't mix.

To cook-I use charcoal because it is easier to regulate the heat. 9 coals on the bottom and 18 on top. It's generally a 1/3--2/3 ratio. It is very important that you turn the oven every 5 minutes about 1/4 turn, and turn the lid 1/4 turn the other direction. This avoids hot spots and burning the cobbler. I start checking the cobbler after 45 minutes, and 45-55 minutes will do it. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Variations: add 1/2 cup oatmeal to the dry mix-adds texture. Or, make an oatmeal and brownsugar mix and sprinkle on top-it makes a carmelized crunchy top. You can cut up another stick of butter (I know...) and mix in the batter. This is really good, but overkill. I added 2 eggs to the batter once, and it puffed up too much, but tasted great.

If you buy a Dutch Oven, the 12 inch is sort of the standard size. However, Lodge makes a 12 inch that is extra deep. I'm going to get one. That would be better if your troop is big and you need to make a bit more. Just adjust the amount of batter and mix, and increase the cooking time and possibly and extra 2-3 coals.

I wrote a lot, but it is much easier than it sounds. Just remember-dry mix/nuts/smooth batter--fruit plus additional sugar--melt butter in the oven--add the batter--add the fruit and cook for 45-60 minutes.

AJP"
 
Cruiserdrew...that sounds good...
I am on the lazy side and don't mind boxed or canned mixes.
Here is my cobbler.
-Take three bottled, I don't like canned, peaches and drain most of the water/syrup off them.
-Place drained peaches in the bottom of a 12" shallow oven
-Take two yellow cake mix and add water until you get a thick mix that barley falls off your spoon...this is the trick IMHO
-Spread the cake mix over the peaches
Optional - pads of butter on top
Optional - roasted nuts on top
Place coals top and bottom, more on the top, and take a look every 10 minutes. It should be ready when the top is browned. Be careful not to over do the peaches on the bottom. The peaches will give off a lot of moisture that will make its way into the cake. If you have ice cream with this you will think you died and went to heaven. I fed 15-18, mostly men, with the recipe two weeks back with some to spare. Testimonials are at the Copper State Cruisers forum.
You can substitute any pie filling for the peaches. Keep in mind that you will need to clean the oven after the cobbler and re season. Even doing this meal using peaches with water has too much sugar for the oven. I have cooked bacon in the oven the next morning and didn't have to re season...the bacon was darn good too.
I supported a team of riders doing the White Rim Trail in Moab two years back. I did it all in ovens. We had fried chicken with hush puppies, stews, chicken curry, fajitas, and breakfast burro's all out of two ovens. Often the dinner oven was used for desert too. They are versatile units. Most of all the iron keeps the flavor of the past meals in its pours so you never know what the next meal will taste like. It fun.
I didn't mean to run on like this...buy one and use it so you can enjoy it when you go camping with family and friends. Its a lost art form that needs to be found again. Everyone cooked with cast iron 150 years ago.
 
We have a 12" and a 18". IMHO you need two Dutch Ovens (AFAIK the dutch ovens you get in most cookware kits are just stew pots, a true dutch oven has the three legs and rimmed lid, read the Foxfire books;)).

IMHO ther are two ways to use a Dutch Oven, as a slow cooker and as an oven.

Slow cooked Pot roast:
A chuck roast large enough to feed everyone, about 1/2# per person.
Potatoes, carrots, onions, celery stalks, one each per person.
One can of stewed tomatoes.
A bay leaf or two, salt & pepper.
Throw it all in the oven. peel the vegies if you like or just scrub them good. You can cut them up to, or not.

Find a gravely dry creek bed, dig a hole about twice the size of the dutch oven. Put a couple of shovels of hot coals from the fire in the bottom, put the oven in, fill the top with coals. Fill the hole with gravel. Go for a hike, or fishing, or whatever. This is one of those things that is hard to over cook but give it at least three hours to be done. A whole lot less work than fussing with store bought charcoal for a meal that takes a long time to cook.

For the bisquits I follow the Bisquik directions for rolled or drop bisquits. As Cruiserdrew mentioned use 2/3 on top and 1/3 on the bottom. I use a cake pan on a cake rack inside the oven and preheat the oven before I put the bread in. This allows you to remove the bread and start a cake or other daesert without a cleanup. I think there was an ephiney moment for me when I decided to started using my oven as an oven rather than a pot. Any kind of baked good will come out better when you use a internal pan with a rack under it, the air gap reduces hot spots. The pan allows you to start another course without cleaning and re-heating.
 
Leg of Lamb Roast

This is my absolute favorite meat dish in the DO. I have to credit my wife for working out the details.

Get a Lamb Leg Roast from Costco-it will have the bone taken out

Get the DO hot, coat the lamb with olive oil, and sear quickly in the bottom of the oven. This makes a nice brown crust that will be important later.

Once seared, take the roast out until the pan cools a bit.

Put the lamb back in the pan with sliced onions, some carrots and whole garlic cloves.

Bake at 325 if at home, or 7/18 coals for 1 hour. Open the DO and add whole new potatos and brown mushrooms. Bake another hour or untill the potatos are cooked. Remove the potatoes, mushrooms and lamb and cover with foil.

Take the DO, pour off most of the fat, and deglaze on the stove top with white wine. You can use red, but the sauce gets too purple. Add slat/pepper to taste, reduce by about 1/2.

Thicken the sauce with a roux made with just butter and flour.

Serve the sauce over the potatos and lamb-there will not be any leftovers.

A nice California Cabernet goes extremely well with this dish. :cheers:
 
My favorite recipe is throw up. If the name turns your stomach my wife calls it mountain man breakfast. I throw in some jimmy dean sausage and cook it up. Then I add eggs, obrien hashbrowns and cheese and start cooking. When it is almost done I top with some pillsbury biscuits. You can substitute brands for you favorite brand. As far as portions, when I'm cooking for 10-15 people I'll use an etire dozen eggs, up to a pound of cheese, and a large bag of the hashbrowns. You can portion the sizes for the number of eaters of course. This is really easy and very tasty. Serve with catsup or salsa or tobasco, whatever you like.
What I love about my dutch oven is that you can just about throw anything into it and it comes out tasty. Especially after a long day on the trail.

happy eatin
 
I have three, 2 12 reg and 1 14 deep. I usually cook for a crew of 12 to 15. My favorite trail recipe is a simple, doesn't take long and taste great.

2 lbs hamburger
2 medium onions
2 cans Rotell
2/3 packages instant corn bread

Brown hamburger /onions in bottom of dutch (I use a 12)
when brown add 2 cans rotell. Let simmer 20 min or so
While hamburger is simmering mix up corn bread. Poor over hamburger mix so that you have 1/2 to 3/4 inch mix covering hamburger.

Bake according to directions on corn bread mix.
 
Andy's cobbler was the best!

Looked at the two remaining dutch ovens in my garage from the troop last night. They need reconditioning badly. Neigher is a Lodge. Cheap cast iron knockoffs probably and the lip on one of the lids is broken in two places. Oh well. Will recondition them anyway and then do a little dutch oven training at our March campout topped off by Andy's cobbler recipe!!! :bounce:

I've read plenty about dutch ovens, including some posts I found from my old Scoutmaster in Illinois! He experimented with aluminum and found that, you can indeed melt them if fire (old fashioned fire!) is too hot. He also stated what Andy has about hot spots on this type of dutch oven. Stay with Lodge cast iron and season them correctly. I wouldn't let soap get near mine tho. Scrub very, ver well with hot water and steel wool and then season. Do it twice for even better results while you are at it.
 
rusty_tlc said:
Slow cooked Pot roast:
A chuck roast large enough to feed everyone, about 1/2# per person.
Potatoes, carrots, onions, celery stalks, one each per person.
One can of stewed tomatoes.
A bay leaf or two, salt & pepper.
Throw it all in the oven. peel the vegies if you like or just scrub them good. You can cut them up to, or not.

Find a gravely dry creek bed, dig a hole about twice the size of the dutch oven. Put a couple of shovels of hot coals from the fire in the bottom, put the oven in, fill the top with coals. Fill the hole with gravel. Go for a hike, or fishing, or whatever. This is one of those things that is hard to over cook but give it at least three hours to be done. A whole lot less work than fussing with store bought charcoal for a meal that takes a long time to cook.
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We used to do this when I was doing field work for the FS in the Sierra; Set it up in the morning, go off to work, come back to a delicious meal!

Very timely post, I don't have one of my own, but it's on my list for this season, and I was going to ask the collective wisdom for recommendations!

:bounce:
 
surfpig said:
Very timely post, I don't have one of my own, but it's on my list for this season, and I was going to ask the collective wisdom for recommendations!

:bounce:
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As Andy has said - only choice is Lodge. Check out Amazon's prices. Pretty reasonable, but don't know if this stuff qualifies for supersaver shipping.
 
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