Dutch Ovens Cooking

Dutch ovens cooking puts a whole new slant on the
concept of camp food. But there are some tricks you
should know to earn these Dutch treats.

Boneless chicken breasts baked with scallions, mushrooms and tomatoes, its heady aroma enveloping the table; noodle pudding, with its crisp top and hint of cinnamon; buckskin bread with a crunchy crust and soft, chewy middle; and berry corn cobbler, a sweet ending to a fine meal.

Sounds like a fancy dinner party where the cook spends three days over a hot stove. But I’m actually talking about a good, old-fashioned, camp meal, cooked on hot coals, while the chef has the leisure to enjoy campground activities.

How do you produce this sumptuous feast? With very little effort. Everything described above was prepared using Dutch ovens cooking techniques.

Unfortunately, many campers have forgotten what it’s like to cook on an open fire. The reasons for this are understandable. For one thing, the almost universal use of camp stoves has all but eliminated the need to cook over open flames. And in many areas, the wilderness ethic precludes open fires of any kind.

This is usually not a problem in most public and private campgrounds, which provide fire rings at each site for cooking or just enjoying a nighttime fire. If you stay at one of these you’ll have the perfect opportunity to give Dutch ovens cooking a try.

Dutch ovens cooking is easy. But you will need at least one real Dutch oven, not the modern kettles that use that name. A Dutch oven is a flat-bottomed, cast-iron pot with three legs and a recessed, flat-topped lid. The legs let you place the pot directly over coals without them actually touching the metal. The flat lids hold additional coals, so the heat source is multi-directional. Food inside the pot is surrounded by dry heat, just like in your oven at home.

Dutch ovens cooking does require some preparation. Like all raw cast-iron cookware, Dutch ovens must be seasoned before they are used. This is best done by liberally coating them with shortening and baking them for a couple of hours. Using one as a deep-fat fryer hastens the process. Food will never stick in properly seasoned cast iron.

The ovens come in sizes ranging from one-quart up to those large enough to feed a logging camp. There’s a size that’s appropriate to anybody’s needs. In fact, as we shall see, several sizes can serve you in good stead.

Some pots sold as Dutch ovens do not have legs, and come with a regular domed lid. In a pinch they can be used. But you’ll need a trivet to elevate it because in Dutch ovens cooking, the pot should never sit directly on the coals. Doing so is a good way to burn your brisket. And you’ll have to flip the lid over, to create a hollow for holding the top coals. All in all, you’re better off investing in a true Dutch oven.

I also recommend carrying a set of vise grips or pliers specifically for lifting the pot lid. Cast-iron lids are heavy; add the coals---and the fact that it’s hot---and a glove or fabric pot holder just won’t do the job. Be careful when lifting the lid. Keep it as straight and level as possible or you’ll end up dumping the coals into the food.

There are, by the way, special lid lifters available. But not all of them work on all models of Dutch oven lids. Plus the pliers are a multi-task tool – they serve a number of uses when camping other than for Dutch ovens cooking - making them much more versatile.

It’s the hot coals, of course, that cook your meal. You get them by burning either wood or charcoal in your fire ring until you have a good bed of glowing embers. At some campsites it’s virtually impossible to find dry, seasoned wood in the quantities needed for a proper fire. That’s why I strongly suggest bringing along a bag of charcoal briquettes.

With briquettes you can perfectly control the internal temperature with a little formula. Take the size number of the Dutch oven. For the bottom heat, arrange three more coals than that number. For the top heat, arrange three fewer. With wood you’ll have to develop a feel for how many coals to place top and bottom.

Cold, wet ground is notorious for sucking the heat out of coals. To avoid that, we carry artificial hearths; 16-inch-square pavers. The bottom coals are spread on the paver, and the oven sits atop the coals, exactly the way it was done 200 years ago.

Start your fire early enough to have hot coals handy when you’re ready to put up your meal. After raking out what you need, add additional briquettes to the fire. That way you’re assured of a constant supply.

You can stack Dutch ovens, maximizing the use of both space and fuel. The coals in the lid serve as the under-coals for the oven stacked above it. This technique works best with ovens of descending size, although the first two in the stack can be equal with little fear of imbalance. With a little planning and attention to detail, your entire meal---literally soup to dessert---can be cooked all at once in one of these Dutch oven towers.

It’s also a good idea to have a separate carry sack for each of your ovens. As you use them their exteriors acquire a rich patina of carbon. If the oven rubs up against anything else, those objects will also wear a sooty covering.

Some people like to coat the outside of their ovens and lids with soap before Dutch ovens cooking. When it’s time to clean up, both the soap and soot come off just by rinsing with hot water. But your pot never really acquires that beautiful black satiny look. I just give the outsides a good wipe after I’m through using the ovens, then pop them into canvas sacks made specifically for that purpose.

Most camping recipes can be adapted to Dutch ovens cooking with very little effort. In fact, many dishes taste even better when cooked that way.

Stews and pot roasts are naturals for Dutch ovens cooking, as are chili, casseroles, soups, and gumbos. Breads, cakes, cobblers and crisps taste wonderful from a Dutch oven. Even pies can be baked in them. For baked goods, however, you want to use an internal trivet, so there is some air space between the bottom of the oven and the baking tray.

Ever notice how many recipes for baking and roasting call for oven temperatures of 350 degrees F? Well, a properly heated Dutch-oven operates right at that temperature. Keep that in mind as you decide which of your favorite recipes to adapt as a Dutch treat.

For more dutch oven cooking articles, visit our friends at Cheftalk.

For additional dutch oven recipes, visit our friends at Cheftalk.