Introduction to Dutch Oven Cooking

John A. Jackman

November 27, 2000

Buying a Dutch Oven

Select a cast iron Dutch oven with a good lid and handle. The lid should have a lip on the top so it can hold coals while cooking. This will allow you to actually bake in the oven. Size is up to you but a deep 12 inch oven holds plenty of food for a small group.

Seasoning a New Dutch Oven

When you get a new Dutch oven, it needs to be prepared or "seasoned" before you use it. First rinse the inside of the oven and lid with water. Heat the oven over a fire preferably with a low heat to remove all of the water and sterilize it. Now coat the inside of the bottom and the lid with a light coat of oil. Almost any oil will do such as corn oil, peanut oil, or canola oil. Heat it over low heat for a few hours. Wipe out excess oil, apply a new coat of oil and heat it again. If you do this indoors and have the time place it in an oven at about 250 degrees for four hours and repeat the process three times. When you are all done you should have a nice smooth black coating on all of the surfaces that will touch food. Maintain and protect that surface.

Fire and Heat

Successful Dutch oven cooking requires some knowledge of heat and flame. The cook must be able to judge the heat and adjust to the situation. Cooking is easiest if you use charcoal but wood coals work fine. Wood coals from mesquite and oak are much better at holding heat than some of the softer woods like elm. Ideal coals are all white with no flame. A high flame is generally too hot for most cooking. Try not to use a high flame fire except to rapidly heat a pot for cleaning or to get a pot of beans or rice going quickly.

Cooking in a Dutch Oven

Many foods like beans, chili, stews, soups, rice dishes, and noodles can be cooked easily with heat from the bottom of the pot. Just place the Dutch oven on coals to cook these.

Remember that a Dutch oven holds a lot of heat in the sides and lid. You can move it off of the coals before it is finished cooking and let it finish with just the heat of the pot.

The Dutch oven really shows off when you use it to bake. Almost anything that you bake at home can be cooked in a Dutch oven. You can make bread, cornbread, muffins, pizza, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, apples, chicken, pot roast, Cornish game hens, or fresh "roadkill".

To bake in a Dutch oven you put some coals under the oven and more coals on the top. This will allow the heat to be distributed above and below the oven and provide more even heat to whatever you are baking. Adjust the amount of heat by changing the amount of coals on the top and bottom. This is always tricky and experience and judgement are necessary. If you are uncertain about this, start with 4-6 coals under the oven and 12-15 on the top.

To estimate the heat of a Dutch oven place your hand about 6 inches over the coals on the lid and count, one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three,.... Remove your hand when it is uncomfortable. One is hot, two is moderate, three is low heat. Below that you are probably not cooking much just warming up.

It is usually necessary to coat the oven with oil before backing. However, some recipes especially bread call for a coating of flour instead. A flour coating will burn but the bread cooks fine and clean up is easier than you might expect.

You can also flip the lid of the Dutch oven over and set it on coals to use it as a frying pan. Cook bacon, sausage, eggs, and pancakes on the lid like you would a frying pan.

Another way to use a Dutch oven is as a deep fryer. You fill the oven half full of oil preferably peanut oil. Heat it very hot to deep fry grass carp, chicken, donuts, french fries, onion rings, hush puppies, or whatever. Drop a kitchen match in the oil and if it lights on the oil then it is hot enough to deep fry. Be careful this is really hot and dangerous!

Cleaning Up

Cleaning a Dutch oven works best over a hot campfire. Put about an inch of water in the pot, heat it until it boils, scrap out the pot, and rinse. Repeat these steps about three times to get it really clean. Use anything abrasive to scrap the pot - a scrub brush, oak leaves, a handful of sand, or salt all work fine. Be careful not to burn yourself.

Tips and Tricks

•Never use yaupon as cooking wood because it can make you sick. The scientific name is Ilex vomitoria for a reason.
•Never put soap in a Dutch oven. You will taste it for several meals afterwards. Use heat to help clean, dry, and sterilize the Dutch oven.
•Never store a Dutch oven wet; it will rust overnight.
•You will want a small shovel preferably with a long handle to move coals.
•A lid lifter or a long handled pliers are better than using a stick.
•Always wear a bandana, also called neckerchief, to use as a hot pad, scraper, dishcloth, coffee strainer, sling for a broken arm, snot rag, or dozens of other purposes.
•Stir a Dutch oven simply by spinning it back and forth in your hand with the lid still on.
•You can always re-season a Dutch oven like you would a new one.
•You can stack Dutch ovens on top of one another to save heat and coals.
•Cover the Dutch oven with aluminum foil to hold the heat in when you are short of coals or are in a hurry.
•Line the inside of the Dutch oven with foil to avoid most of the cleanup.
•Think ahead about preparation. You may want to brown meat or cook the whole meal at home and freeze it. Just heat it up at the camp site.
•Prepare dry mixtures in zip-lock bags ahead of time. Write mixing directions on the bag and use the bag as a disposable mixing bowl.
•Fajita spice and cinnamon are magic spices. They can be used in almost anything.
•You can cook corn bread, biscuits, and dumplings on top of soups, chili, stew, and such.

Recipes

Gus's Peach Cobbler

- I learned to make cobbler from Gus Baker and this is the way I remember it. There are plenty of similar recipes around.

Put the fruit in the bottom of a warm Dutch oven. Dump the cake mix, sugar, cinnamon, and juice from the peaches in a plastic bag or pot and mix. Add water to mixture to make it a bit runny rather than sticky. Pour it over the fruit. Drop pats of margarine onto the top of the mixture. Bake on moderate heat with plenty of coals on top for about 40 minutes. Adjust cooking and water as necessary.

This can be modified dramatically and still come out edible. Almost any fruit or fruit mixtures works well except pears. Fresh fruit like 5 apples or 1 quart of Brazos berries or black berries works great. The addition of a banana or maraschino cherries is an interesting change. You can use chocolate chips, cherry pie filling and chocolate cake mix. If you want you can just dump it all in the Dutch oven and stir a couple of times. I once made a cobbler with 2 apples, an orange, a banana, pancake syrup, and pancake mix. We ate it.

Note that when you make this at home it is called Dump Cake.

Celebrity Stew

--This is a basic stew recipe but the spice combination is mine and the procedures have been modified for outdoor cooking.

Trim fat from beef and cube. Dump into bag with flour, salt, and some pepper. Shake bag to coat the beef with flour. Brown the beef in a hot Dutch oven. You should brown a few pieces at a time and remove them to do more. Try to brown each side. [Note that there is usually six sides on a cube.] This seals the flavor and juices in.

Put the meat back in the pot. Add the onions and saute them until limp. Add enough water to cover it. Add spices and carrots. Bring to a boil to give the carrots extra time to cook. Simmer 15 minutes. Peel potatoes and add. Bring to a boil then simmer until carrots and potatoes are soft.

Use a good lean steak if possible. Beef stew meat is fatty and tough. I like to cut the meat at home and sometimes even brown it to make a quicker meal. Bags of prepared small carrots are ideal rather than peeling. Adjust quantities of potatoes, carrots, meat, spice and salt to taste. Double the spices if you want. If you add green peppers or whole kernel corn the entire flavor changes ruining it in my opinion.

White Beans

1 lb. Great Northern Beans
½ onion diced
½ tsp. cardamon
½ tsp. cumin
½ tsp. cilantro (or fresh sprigs)
½ jalapeno or 1 dry cayenne (broken)
½ tsp. black pepper
1 bay leaf
½ bunch parsley chopped
1 cup celery chopped (esp. leaves)
1 Tbl. sugar
1 cup of chopped summer sausage or
a ham hock or red sausage
salt (to taste)

Sort beans discarding discolored ones, rocks and dirt. Rinse. Soak overnight in water changing water 3 times. A gallon milk jug works well for soaking and transport.

Saute onions until limp. Brown meat if desired. Drain beans. Put all ingredients in pot and add enough water to cover it about 3/4 inch. Bring to a boil. Simmer 2 hours or until the beans are soft. Add water as necessary. Use fresh spice if possible. This basic spice combination works for most other dry beans - pinto, black, red, and blackeyed peas.

Damper [Bread]

---This recipe was provided by Ian Cooper who is a scouter from Australia. A pannikin is a measure used there which is roughly equivalent to a cup. I guess damper is also a local name for bread whenever you are waltzing matilda.

6 pannikins (cups) self rising flour
salt to taste
3 Tbl. margarine
1 pannikin milk or water

Additives:
grated cheese [Parmesan okay]
cheese and bacon bits
crushed garlic
sugar and dried fruit (+ spices)

Mix salt and flour and whatever additives. Rub in margarine. Add liquid while thoroughly flouring oven. Bake with hot coals for 30 to 40 minutes. Sounds hollow when knocked when done. Serve with margarine or butter.

Braué's Golden Southern Cornbread

-- From Uncle John's Original Bread Book by J. R. Braué. 1969 printing.

Dump dry ingredients in a gallon zip-lock bag and mix. At the camp site add wet ingredients and mix in the bag. Do not mix too much or the cornbread will be tough. Grease oven. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.