Outdoor Adventure USA

Our net this week covers the subject of Dutch Oven cooking. Dutch oven cooking is a skill worth learning and a lot of fun. It adds a variety of food to your outings that can only be done by baking and that includes tasty deserts. Many of the Dutch oven recipes create one pot meals which means everything is done at the same time for a hot meal the entire group can sit down together to enjoy. Second servings stay warm in the pot for a long time. It might even get you invited to go on lots of trips.

Our guest to discuss all things Dutch Oven is Bruce KI6RZW. We will discuss the A to Z of the use and care of a Dutch Oven.

Our list of Dutch Oven users has grown over the past few years and we would like to hear your experiences too.
Post up your Dutch Oven experiences, pictures, and recipes.

The Mair lid lifter is my preferred tool to pick the lid up. It give you a very solid grip. It is only slightly more difficult to pack and transport.
I though I would use the longer one more. But I find the short one is best for charcoal and the long one for coals from a campfire. They are very inexpensive: $15 - $17.
I buy these cake pans at Smart and Final. They are just big enough for the pot to fit inside and they block the wind quite well. I have not noticed any increase in reflected heat. The other advantage is I pack them in the Dutch Oven Bag with the DO legs resting in the pan to prevent wear on the bottom of the bag.
This picture shows how I use 2 large heavy duty cookie sheets to contain the coals in the Starter and to protect the ground from the heat. In this case I have also place the 2 halves of my campfire box under both items.

I am looking forward to the Net

I would like to offer this link to an interesting article about seasoning you cast iron. I tried it before field day and it worked great for me with four coats of Flax Seed Oil baked at 400 *F.

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/ ... cast-iron/

Please check me in
Kevin
KK6DGL

Too many outdoors men and women shy away from Dutch Oven cooking. They've no doubt seen photos of beautiful Dutch Oven food and have maybe even tasted some and loved it...only to fear its too complicated. Well, that is a complete myth.

Dutch Oven cooking is really pretty simple. In fact, the Boy Scouts of America do a ton of Dutch Oven cooking, and that involves boys from about 11 years old to their 18th birthday, and those young men produce some amazing food. And I know the TV show, "Tougher than a Boy Scout" highlighted the great skills Scouts learn in the Scouting program, the good news is that Dutch Oven cooking is one of the easiest to learn.

Here are some suggestions gleaned from Dutch Oven cooking primarily through the Boy Scouts.

Purchase a Quality Dutch Oven
A quality, 12" three legged Dutch Oven made by Lodge goes for about $60. Sure, there are collector and rare ovens for much more, but the food coming out of them is no better.

Get Support Equipment
You'll need just a few pieces of equipment to help with Dutch Oven cooking. Here's a basic list:
1. Lid lifter
2. Lid rest
3. Welders Gloves
4. Charcoal chimney
5. Oil pan (helps with Leave No Trace cooking)

Season the Dutch Oven at Home
Dutch Ovens must be seasoned. While many come new "pre-seasoned", its really a myth. Plan on seasoning your Dutch Oven at home where it is much easier to do in your kitchen oven compared to over a campfire. Consider two rounds of seasoning, and you'll be good to go. There are many web sites that show you how to season your Dutch Oven. Here is the method recommended by Lodge: http://www.lodgemfg.com/use-and-care/what-is-seasoning

Look for Recipes
The Web is a great place to find recipes to cook in your Dutch Oven. For those just starting out, I highly recommend the recipes that can be found on web sites associated with the Boy Scouts...Remember, if BSA starts teaching 11 year old boys how to cook in a Dutch Oven, the recipes must be proven, simple, and good to eat. Here's a few BSA related web sites on Dutch Oven Cooking.

MacScouter has a bunch of information on Dutch Oven cooking, and the information here is what I started with and often refer to.
http://www.macscouter.com/cooking/dutchoven.asp

Boys' Life Magazine is now on line and there is a compilation of Dutch Oven recipes.
http://boyslife.org/outdoors/outdoorart ... n-recipes/

Give it a Try
Once you know what you want to make, give it a try at home or at camp. You can technically cook using campfire coals, but that gets tricky as far as temperature control. To address temperature control, many Dutch Oven users use bagged charcoal briquettes and spread them between the top and the bottom of the over based on rules of thumb or the recipe (some recipes tell you how many coals to use). Here is a table that gives briquette counts by desired temperature.


Clean Up
Clean up is not too bad if you seasoned your Dutch Oven. After serving, put a little water in the oven and put it back on heat to steam. The steam and warm water will loosen up most stuck on food. Then, use a nylon pot scrubber. Don't use soap...it is not needed nor is it desirable.

Put a thin coat of vegetable oil on the Dutch Oven and put it to the heat to bake on a bit.

Here's some useful gear:

Lodge Dutch Oven


Lid Lifter


Lid Rest


Oil Pan for Leave No Trace Cooking


The oil pan tends to increase the efficiency of the bottom coals by channeling heat up the side of the oven, so you may need to adjust your coal count for the bottom down by 10 to 20 percent when using an oil pan. The oil pan makes clean up fast and prevents damage and discoloration of soils.


Leather Welding Gloves Help with Hot Dutch Ovens


Charcoal Chimney

Here's some Good Eats coming out of Dutch Ovens.

Photo 1

Great pointers covered so far but i wanted to add one that I have not heard recently or commented on with respect to FLAVOR!

Cast Iron cookware has properties all their own and there is a point where the crust that forms on the bottom of the pan, not burned crust, but flavorful scorched in flavor that with continued cooking will release from the bottom of the cast iron pot or skillet and adds a tremendous amount of concentrated flavor to the meal. DO NOT scrape this off when it starts to form because you think you are burning and sticking to the bottom of your cast iron, roll with it. It will eventually lift and with a little coaxing can be stirred into the meal and it provides a wonderful concentrate of flavor in your cast iron dish. Scraping it off before it is time, have patience, will only score your seasoned cast iron and you'll break a sweat for no reason. Let the situation develop, it will be worth it. I liken this technique to Spanish Paella... "The socarrat, from the Spanish word “socarrar,” which means “to toast lightly,” is to paella what the smoke ring is to a brisket: a technique that can take a lifetime to master and that is the indicator of how well you’ve executed the dish." Quoted from this website: http://www.toledoblade.com/Food/2012/10 ... e-key.html

A recent dish made during field day 2017, Easy Dutch Oven Potatoes https://www.campchef.com/recipes/easy-d ... -potatoes/
with Monkey Bread (no photo): http://50campfires.com/dutch-oven-monkey-bread/
Stacking DOs is a sound technique to make a hot meal that satisfies the outdoor appetite!
My Technique for cleaning:
1. There are a lot of "don'ts" and really I think most of us can agree to NOT use soap, scotchbrite pads, stainless brillo pads, sharp scrapers or just about anything that will scratch the surface of your seasoned pan.
2. Do, use a brush. El Bargain Buyer here...a brush from the $1-$.99 store...take you pick (stiff plastic bristles).
3. If you want to make life easier for a very messy cast iron implement...

• Soak to loosen the crud.

• Heat water and scrub with the inexpensive stiff bristle brush (you don't get much for that buck)

4. I will dry thoroughly by heating on a stove and I found wetting a paper towel with oil (vegetable oil is fine for me) and I heat the pan until smoke rises from the oil that is getting baked on.
5. I will then swipe one more time (very thin coat) where the flames have noticeably dried the thin coat of oil and I turn the flame off and let air cool. Now I am ready for storage or the next meal.
6. This is a process that works for me and I have found that I need to stay discipline about following this procedure each and every time. Oh, and it is not anything special, with any kind of special seasonings or tools...it just works well for me.

Dutch Oven cooking is just my favorite way of cooking on off road trips. I usually try to limit large items that do not fit well in my Jeep but as you see in this picture I try to find a way to slide my Cooking Table in when I have the room. While I use round baking pans like Tom (KI6FHA) has shown above, it is really nice to use the fire or dutch oven table. This picture shows three ovens sitting on a Camp Chef Dutch Oven Table. Here is a link to this table: https://www.amazon.com/Camp-Chef-3-Side ... 06ZZPHNV1/

In this picture, you see two ovens stacked where one is cooking corn bread and the other is loaded with peach cobbler. The third oven on the right is simmering a batch of Elk Shoulder Roast Chili.

For starting charcoal I have this flat folding stainless steel chimney. It has a couple of features that I have found really nice. 1. It folds flat! 2. Once it is folded, it slides into its own nylon case to keep ash and dust from getting all over the place when stored. (Be sure to let the chimney cool down first to avoid an exciting experience with a melted bag!) 3. It is very heavy stainless steel so it holds up really well and is not as prone to rust that is so common to other chimneys once they are exposed to the extremely high temperatures of the lit charcoal. It is a little spendy at $35 but I have gone through a couple of the other types and this one seems to be up to the task of a longer life span!

I did not take a picture of the grate but it is a very heavy coal grate the also folds down and locks the chimney in its open position.

Terrific product!

Here is a link to the starter on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Folding-Charcoal ... 00Z0O7BTE/