# Dutch Oven



## jacsar (Aug 14, 2011)

Hello Ladies (and men if you're reading this),
Originally I had thought to take my slow cooker with me camping until I came across this site's mention of dutch ovens. I was so intrigued I spent hours watching you tube videos of people cooking and later went to our local Bass Pro Sports and bought TWO! I'm going to try it out at home first but was wondering if anyone had any advice for my first time. I bought the Lodge Pre-seasoned ready to use camp stoves (a 10" and 12"), but I read that I should cook something high fat the first few times. I'm thinking ribs (maybe the coke recipe posted on the 2009 thread) but I'd like to try a peach cobbler too, is that fatty enough, I don't have any liners. Also, as for cleaning can I just flip it over and burn the stuff out on the camp fire and scrape out the ashes? Or do I need to wash it then dry it on the fire? At home I plan to cook with briquettes.

I think DH is going to have to get a new tow vehicle just from the added weight of the cast iron gear I bought!

Anyone have a good bean recipe? Or other suggestions? I've never seen anyone cook with one of these in all the years I camped. Wonder why?

Thanks!


----------



## CJ999 (Aug 11, 2005)

WHAT! In my campsite, women aren't allowed to touch the dutch ovens. Haha.... ok well, actually, none are intrigued enough to care to touch them, but my brother and I cook pretty much every meal in a collection that was started by our father and continues to grow every time one of us passes a Cabela's....

You made the right move with Lodge pre-seasoned.

Whenever one of our ovens needs to be broken in, or re-seasoned, we pop popcorn in it, the old fashioned way with just oil and popping corn kernals over the fire, shake it a little and don't burn it. Eat the pop corn, then wipe the residue out with a paper towel and make sure you get the oil all over the inside.

When we burn something in the bottom of one, we burn it all the way out upside down over the fire. We make a lasagna in deep 16" that always seems to have a little burn on the bottom so we burn it all out then pop popcorn.

Most commonly, we clean them by filling them with water and heating that over the fire, then we use a plastic scouring pad or a spatula to scrape any food out, pour the water out, wipe it clean, then put it back on the fire right side up until it is warm and dry, then put a little oil or crisco in it and smear it around.

Dutch oven cook books abound. I recommend one that is based upon simplicity for the recipies to get started, then when you are comfortable with how hot your ovens get based upon the coals you put on and around them, consider more complex cookbooks.

You can't go wrong with peach cobbler. A can of cherries and a chocolate cake mix usually makes a yummy desert as well.


----------



## COCostas (Aug 13, 2010)

I LOVE our dutch oven. My husband hasn't messed with it yet, but I can tell by the way he's watching me use it that it won't be long before he tries to take over.  The one tip I have is to be sure you watch your briquettes and start new ones before the old ones get too small and cool off. This is especially important if you are cooking something that takes more than 45 minutes. That will ensure that you keep your temperature high through the duration. I was intimidated by our DO at first, but now we treat it like our oven at home. We've used it to make baked potatoes, desserts, ribs, and other fun dinner items. It's so easy and is a huge hit because it's a unique (but not hard) way to cook. Enjoy your new DO!


----------



## RLP14 (Jun 18, 2009)

We have 5 cast iron skillets and 4 dutch ovens and 2 double cast iron pie irons. 1 10 inch, 2 12 inch, and 1 14 inch. We do all of our cooking outside in these. We bake cupcakes, homemade rolls, biscuits, cobblers. Anything you would cook in an oven at home we bake in the DO. We do use a trivet/rack in the bottom usually when we are baking in them. We LOVE to make a big pot of chili in the 14 inch DO in the winter time. You may need to reseason it a little more after you have cook acidic items in it. Tomato based things, cheese or chocolate too. Just don't let them sit long after you are finished eating.

We have enjoyed a lot of these recipes at Byron's Dutch oven recipes. I think they also have the temperature chart for how many briquettes to use to get a certain temp. We also use round metal feed pans to put our briquettes / DO in.
Enjoy it all.


----------



## jacsar (Aug 14, 2011)

You guys are terrific! I looked over a few sites and based on what was closest to what I had on hand I made a chicken pot pie and an upside down chocolate cherry cake. It went quite well but I had some trouble figuring out if my briquettes were lit as it was the first time with the chimney. I placed both DO's on old cookie sheets on our BBQ. It worked good as it was a bit windy today. Heat seemed fine, no burning or under cooking. All in all it was easier than I expected. I left the clean up to my husband and I think we'll make some popcorn in the pots just to make sure they're good and seasoned. I can't wait to try more I think I might be hooked!Here are a few pictures for you to see!


----------



## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

I buy dutch oven liners from walmart (sporting goods section). They are just big circles of baking parchment paper. I line the dutch oven with one for most cookiing and I haven't had to clean or reseason the oven for a couple years now. When you are done just pick up the liner and throw all the mess away. If they are larger than you need for your oven, just cut them down.

My link


----------



## CJ999 (Aug 11, 2005)

Aluminum foil works well for lining the dutch oven as well.


----------



## CJ999 (Aug 11, 2005)

jacsar said:


> It went quite well but I had some trouble figuring out if my briquettes were lit as it was the first time with the chimney. I placed both DO's on old cookie sheets on our BBQ. It worked good as it was a bit windy today.


I was just looking at your pictures and had some thoughts...

Wind decreases the number of briquets. When it is not windy, we usually use a number of briquets as follows to achieve about 350 degrees inside the oven:

Briquets that go on top = diameter + 3... so a 10 inch oven gets about 13 briquets on top, a 12 inch oven would get 15 on top.

Briquets that go on bottom = diameter minus 3, so a ten inch oven gets about 7, a 12 inch gets 9...

Total briquets for a ten inch cooking at 350 is about 20, total for a 12 at 350 is about 24... start low and work up if you are unsure. It's easier to increase temperature than decrease it after you have wrecked something.


----------



## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

Here is the temperature chart I use. The size listed is dutch oven diameter.

As for liners, I have found that aluminum foil works but it tears easily.


----------



## ember (Jan 17, 2008)

we also do most of our camp cooking on Cast iron these days! My sister, her husband and Stacey and I often camp together so we have a huge collection of CI between us! Which includes a 20" skillet, a 16x24" griddle/grill, (these are the only 2 items that we bought new the others we have collected at various sales on our camping trips) 3 DO's, 6 assorted size skillets, 2 biscuit pans, (1 is an original Griswold, that I paid $1 for at a yard sale) and random little pots and pans. Including a tiny 2 cup DO that we use for keeping melted butter melted for dipping lobster! 
Try it you'll like it!!


----------



## MJRey (Jan 21, 2005)

We cook all kinds of things in our Dutch Oven, the kids favorite is pizza. We do it by turning the oven upside down. The lid sits on the coals using a lid stand and then the main part of the oven sits on top. The pizza goes on the lid. You need good gloves, I've got the Lodge red leather ones, to lift up the hot oven. Hopefully the picture I attached will help, it's one where we had multiple ovens going to make pizzas for our group on a trip we took a few years ago.

The other thing that I really love are these liners, http://www.campliner.com/ , they make cooking and cleanup super easy. I don't use them for meat but things like eggs or desserts are perfect for them.


----------



## RLP14 (Jun 18, 2009)

I have some of these liners too. Really nice and could even be reused.


----------



## jacsar (Aug 14, 2011)

Sounds like lots of people love their cast iron. I'm hoping to set a new standard with our friends/family for camp food once I've mastered a few recipes. Only problem we've had so far is that our kids are little (and picky) and we cook way too much food in the DO. Hopefully we'll find some hungry campers near us to share with!

Mmmmm...pizza! How come you need to turn the oven upside down? Could you not cook it on the bottom of the DO? I imagine it would be really hard to get out if you did though. I bought the big red gloves too. I forgot to buy the lid trivet though and I find that I really need it.

We're camping this weekend and a good portion of my menu consists of meals in the DO's (or in the cast iron skillet I also bought)! I'm going to do roast, chicken casserole, italian spaghetti, corn bread, biscuits (tried some the other day and they were fabulous), yeast rolls and either cherry or blueberry upside down cake. We'll need many loops around the campsite to work off this food!

Thanks for the temperature chart. You guys are a wealth of information. I've also sent an e-mail to the liner place to see if they'll ship to Canada. Unless someone knows a place to get them in Florida (we're headed to Disneyworld next week!).


----------



## RLP14 (Jun 18, 2009)

If you pass a walmart you may check where they have their foil pans. I found some round ones that fit perfect.


----------



## CJ999 (Aug 11, 2005)

Two cans of Comstock cherries in the bottom of a cured 10" oven, 
One chocolate cake mix dumped (unmixed, dry) on top with a few cuts of butter spread on top of the cake mix
350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes...

Or the same thing with two cans of apples and a white cake mix with some cinnamon.... oh man.

Just did both of these recpies and I ate so much I feel sick!


----------



## sptddog (Mar 22, 2006)

Care to share your chicken pot pie recipe? I'm leaving tomorrow, and honestly I think I'd give it a try. How long does cooking a chicken in it take? Or do you cook that beforehand/use prepared? I'm used to the chicken pot pie that just cuts up dough like big egg noodles - but your picture looks delish!


----------



## jacsar (Aug 14, 2011)

sptddog said:


> Care to share your chicken pot pie recipe? I'm leaving tomorrow, and honestly I think I'd give it a try. How long does cooking a chicken in it take? Or do you cook that beforehand/use prepared? I'm used to the chicken pot pie that just cuts up dough like big egg noodles - but your picture looks delish!


I'd love to share!

I used a combination of a recipe I found and what I actually had on hand. I didn't have pre-cooked chicken which is what it had called for, so I just used:
raw chicken strips and fried them and some onion in the pan before I added everything else. It was a small pre-sliced packaged intended for stir fry I believe.
Then...I added one can of cream of chicken soup, 
about a cup and a half of baby potatoes that I halved
and a half bag of frozen peas, green beans and corn. 
I believe I added a little water to keep it the right consistency. Once everything was boiling I added puff pastry on top. Yep, phyllo. It's all I had on hand! I had a two pack package of it that I thawed on the counter. Then I just rolled one of them out until it roughly fit in the pan (not working it too much). I added it on top and it amazingly worked out well. It wasn't crunchy and light all the way through as it was thicker where it had sat on the boiling liquid, but the top was light and flaky and it tasted delicious.

I think with all my fiddling to cook the chicken and get my coals right it probably took a little less than 1 1/2 hours.

I hope it works out for you and let me know if you have any suggestions for how I could improve it!

Jacqui


----------



## MJRey (Jan 21, 2005)

jacsar said:


> Mmmmm...pizza! How come you need to turn the oven upside down? Could you not cook it on the bottom of the DO? I imagine it would be really hard to get out if you did though. I bought the big red gloves too. I forgot to buy the lid trivet though and I find that I really need it.


Having the oven upside down makes it easy to get the pizza's on and off. We do several pizzas since they're small and the kids get to make their own. It would be pretty hard to get them out of the bottom of the oven. If you don't have the lid trivet we've also used rocks. Just find 3 or 4 rocks that get the lid about 1/2 inch above the coals.


----------

