Dutch Oven Cookware

Posts Tagged ‘dutch oven cooking’

I like cooking with a Dutch oven,
whether it be over a campfire or a camp
stove.  There is something special about
cooking wth a Dutch Oven. Once you get
the hang of it you can invent anything
that can be cooked or baked in your
modern kitchen.

I have baked delicious one dish meals
such as stew and soups in a Dutch Oven
that have turned out perfect especially
when out in the outdoors.  Other meals
and snacks that can be made are pizza,
rolls, and cakes.  Meat is another
savory meal that can be cooked to
perfection in a Dutch Oven.

There are a few things concerning the
cooking source that are important to
successful Dutch oven cooking. They can
cause the difference between undercooked
or burnt food.

To prepare a meat dish such as ribs,
chicken or roast, something that helps
is brown the meat in the Dutch oven on a
camp stove. What happens is the flavor
from the browned meat is in the Dutch
oven and adds to the taste of the
finished product.  Also this gets the
Dutch oven hot so when it is placed on
the coals, they perpetuate the heat and
energy so it isn't lost trying to heat
the Dutch oven up.

The heat for Dutch oven cooking can't be
too hot or too cool. To quote the from
the three bears, it must be, "just
right."  This might seem hard to
determine, but if you are using 
charcoal briquettes it is no harder than
counting the number of briquettes to put
under and on top of the Dutch oven.

Place as many briquettes under the Dutch
oven as its size plus two more than that
number on the lid. What this will do is
give you a temperature of 350 degrees.
For example if you are using a size 12
Dutch oven,  put 12 briquettes  under
the Dutch oven and 14 on the lid.  If
you are baking anything I recommend
using briquettes.

If you decide you would like to use a
campfire you will need to burn the wood
down to coals and use those coals to
heat the Dutch oven.  One thing that I
like to do is just keep the campfire
burning and when I need to replace the
coals, which happens about every 30 to
40 minutes,  I can do it very easily. 
You do have to be careful because you
don't want to end up with food burned
because it is too close to the fire. 
The best  idea is probably to make a
place outside the campfire to put your
coals.

Traditionally I use a fire pan of some
kind, the lid of a garbage can is a good
idea, to put the coals in.  That makes
for easy clean up of the ashes and you
don't have coals and ashes separated all
over your campsite.

Cooking with wood coals requires some
skill learned by experience to figure
out the right temperature for the food
you are cooking. There are different
types of wood that make better coals
than others. We usually don't have the
choice of having the best wood available
every time and just use what we have. So
it takes a little more attentiveness to
make sure the dish you are preparing
gets done the best possible.  I don't
worry about this too much when cooking
meats and stews. This may be more of a
concern when baking food items such as
cakes and rolls. The correct temperature
is more important when baking, so the
item doesn't burn or become under
cooked.  Doughy rolls or soggy cake is a
real frustration after all the work you
go through to make them.

Another suggestion is use a camp stove
and not have a fire or coals at all.
This works like a dream with one dish
meals and dishes with a lot of moisture
in them. A camp stove doesn't do as well
for baked food stuffs though because
there isn't any heat on the lid.

The best thing to do is just try it find
Dutch oven recipe that looks good. They
are on the internet or in special Dutch
oven cookbooks. Follow the instructions
and you will have a great meal that
tastes better than anything you have
ever cooked before. Especially if you
cook it while camping in the mountains.