Dutch oven cooking

[rdricks]

You need to be careful with this - it can be an addiction! I keep 3 dutch ovens in the trailer for camping, and another 3 in the shed for using at home. Oh, and one small one in the house for when it is too cold to do anything outside. I even put in a pit in the backyard to cook in.

The nice thing about them is you can pretty much do anything you can do in your oven at home. It may take some experimenting to get it right, but we do enchiladas, pizza, desserts, and the old standby chicken and potatos. Breads are a lot of fun too. And if you want to cook multiple items you can stack the ovens atop each other. I've gone as high as 4 at once.

Any camping store should have a book with recipies you can try. If there is a Sportsman's Warehouse nearby they usually have books.

 

[Phils]

"Does anyone cook with coals from a campfire?"

We do.

Mostly manzanita and oak.

Sometimes just one pot (chili) and fajitas cooked over the coals, with the tortillas heated on an overturned dutch oven lid.

Sometimes more than one pot (see attachment). That's me in the white t-shirt w/o suspenders.

Got lotsa receipes, you can go to www.idos.org and get more than you'll ever want to use.

Phil

 

[daedong]

Robert,

I cook in camp ovens often when camping, I have two camp ovens (cast Iron) . I think this is a little diferent to a dutch oven I believe a Dutch oven is pressed steel. In our camp ovens we cook stews, roasts, bread, cakes all most anything. This pic was taken about 10 months ago, We took a German exchange lad camping and on that trip we cooked bread and a stew for memory.

 

[Phils]

Hey VIN,

I've never seen a "pressed steel" dutch oven.... only the cast like you show in your photo, with a lip on the lid to allow coals to be put there (thus making it an "oven"). The cast iron pots without the lid lip we call "bean pots", you can cook many things in them but you can't put the coals on top to "oven" cook.

A lot of people use briquets top and bottom and there are formulas for counting briquets to figure temps. I only use coals because those are the times that I do my DO cooking ... when I've spent a hard day clearing and burning brush and have a huge pile of coals at the ready and some friends/family eager for some 'cowboy cooking'. I don't use any fancy formulas and occasionally have food that is slightly overdone on the bottom. When people are hungry, and it is dark, nobody seems to notice.

Attached is a photo showing a 'one-pot' meal. That tripod converts to two poles with a cross-bar that will hold up to 3 DOs. For more than that we use a rig like in the attachment I posted above.


Phil

 

[daedong]

I said pressed but i think they maybe spun, this is what we call a Dutch oven, but this terminology maybe regional these pots are of steel about 1/8" with a dome lid.

 

[Golfgar4]

Vin,

That sure looks like what I've always used. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I'm currently without any, as I donated mine to the Boy Scout troop when I retired as Scoutmaster. But I'm definitley going to buy some really good cast iron dutch ovens after I retire. They're the best! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[daedong]

Here is a local spun pot http://www.southern-metal-spinners.com.au/camping-page.htm

 

[Bird]

Garry, that's just what happened to mine. I had a big one with the 3 feet on the bottom, but when I retired and we took off traveling in an RV for a few years, I gave it to a friend (former co-worker) who was a scout leader. He told me about making excellent peach cobblers in it, by setting it in a campfire and putting coals on the lid, too, but I never did that myself. I had only used it for a deep fryer without the lid.

 

[RobertN]

That looks like the dutch oven/pot my Mom has. Hers has no legs to it, and the lid is much like any other lid for a pot, except out of iron. She only uses it for stove top cooking.

On both Scout campouts, they used briquettes, and counted them out. Then they turned the lid 1/4 turn clockwise, and the pot 1/4 turn counter clockwise every once in a while, so it cooked evenly...

 

[RobertN]

There has been some talk of a Gold Country TBN gathering over the last few years. Looks like when it does happen, there might be some interesting cooking for it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif