[East Texas Pine Rooter]

I always wanted to make a peach cobbler, and biscuits, and cook on an outdoor fire in a dutch oven, with the hot coals on the lid. How do you do it? and do you have a favorite recipes? Maybe a dutch oven cook book?

 

[r.h. in okla.]

You bet I do! Anything you cook in the house can be cooked outside too. Even pasta, rice, birthday cakes and ice cream. Just this last saturday while my oldest daughter and I was erecting a pig pen for baby pigs that we are getting, I was roasting a whole chicken in a dutch oven. Just about the time it was done my wife sliced up some potatoes, put them in another dutch oven and made scalloped potatoes to go along with our chicken.

The best way to learn how to use dutch ovens is to just get out there and cook as often as you can. You can use either charcoal briquetts or wood coals as I do. I have fallen tree limbs everywhere so I try to use them up as much as possible. If you use charcoal a good rule to use is the 3 plus or 3 minus system for controlling the heat. If you have a 12" dutch oven you subtract 3 from 12 and that is how many briquetts to place under your dutch oven. Then you add 3 to 12 and that is how many you place on top of the dutch oven. This is the rule no matter what size of dutch oven you are using.

Not all recipes require heat under and over the oven. If you are making something like stew or chili then you only need heat on the bottom. If you are making a dessert such as my Apple Crisp you only need heat on top.

Apple Crisp (can use cherry also).

2 cans apple filling 1 box white cake mix 1 stick of butter 1 pkg. chopped walnuts.

Pour 2 cans of pie filling in Dutch oven, Pour cake mix on top of pie filling but do not stir in. Melt butter and pour on top of cake mix and sprinkle nut on top. Place lid on and place coals on top. Check at 30 minutes and then every 15 minutes. Usually takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to bake.

You can place coals underneath to help speed up but don't get it very hot or it will tend to boil the filling and mix in with the cake mix making it gooey. I like the cherry filling but everybody brags about the apple.

 

[RAC]

This TV show is pretty good, and the website also has regular directions if you want to do the recipes in the oven.

http://www.campfirecafe.com/homepage.html

 

[r.h. in okla.]

RAC can you actually stand to listen to that guy talk? You have to grin from ear to ear and talk like theeeeese! Seriously tho, that is a good show to watch. I would like to have his setup in my back yard. Thats on one of my project to do list.

 

[DW]

Easy Cake: put can of fruit filling (I also use home canned peaches) in first, sprinkle cake mix on top of that, add a can of pop...whatever flavor you think would be good.

I've even baked a pie in a dutch oven!!

 

[Animal]

I have a Mormon cookbook that is nothing but Dutch oven cooking. Let me know what you want and I will scan it and post it for you.

Animal

 

[RAC]

R.H. in Okla., you are right, he is a hoot! Definitely an acquired taste, so so speak ;-)

I see he's gotten away from the horse-camping a bit with his newer shows. I backpack, so unless I were staying at a basecamp for 2 weeks minimum, I wouldn't even bother taking all that stuff with me, even in a vehicle!

It would be neat for a backyard set-up, with a nice gazebo nearby.....

 

[Animal]

#1
Peach Cobbler (12" Dutch Oven)

Filling:
1 Cube butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cans (29 oz.) sliced peaches

Crust:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 box basic biscuit mix
1 egg, beaten

Set oven on evenly spaced coals (6or7). Add butter and brown sugar. Stir well when butter melts. Drain juice from peaches and add fruit to oven. Reserve juice for mixing crust.

For crust, add brown sugar to basic biscuit mix. Then add beaten egg with enough juice to make soft dough. Pat dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into 2 inch strips and cover the peaches with full layer. Sprinkle light layer of brown sugar on top of crust. Place lid on oven and place a full ring of coals around rim of lid. Place 6 coals in center of lid. Check after 15 minutes and adjust coals for even brownng.

 

[Animal]

#2
Sourdough Biscuits (12" Dutch Oven)

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sourdough starter
2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Use a pastry blender to cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside. In another bowl, combine milk and sourdough starter. Stir into flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently knead about 30 secs. Dough will be very soft. Roll out and cut with a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter or pinch off 1/2- 3/4 inch thick. dip bottom of biscuit in melted butter or margarine. Arrange biscuits with sides touching in 12" DO. Brush tops with melted butter or margarine. Bake with 12 coals on bottom, 14 on top (approx 400 degrees) for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

 

[Animal]

#3
Baking Powder Biscuits (12" Dutch Oven)

Basic Mix

2 cups sifted flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold shotening (solid)
2/3 cup cold milk

Sift dry ingredients into bowl. Cut in shortening with pastry blender to consistency or cornmeal. Add milk to form soft dough. Knead lightly and pat or roll 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 2" rounds and place in 12" DO slightly seperated. Set DO on hot coals (6 evenly spaced for 12" DO), place lid on oven, and place row of coals around outside of rim and 6 coals in the center of lid. Check after 15 imnutes and adjust coals to brown evenly.

 

[r.h. in okla.]

You can also do a google search. Type in: Boy Scouts Dutch Oven Recipes or just type in Dutch Oven REcipes and you should get all the recipes you want.

 

[swamptiger]

I like to cook chicken in my Dutch oven (among other things).

First, I put about 3/4" of an inch of rice in the bottom of the pan, and then arrange the chicken (whole or cut-up) on top of that. Then I will add water until it is visible above the rice. Season the chicken, and cover with Lipton Onion Soup Mix or cream of chicken soup. Put the lid on the Dutch oven, and bake until done.. :worship:

 

[r.h. in okla.]

Hey Swamptiger that does sound good. We make that in the house a lot but I haven't tried that outside in a dutch oven yet. This weekend maybe!

Spaghetti with meat sauce is good in a dutch oven also. Fry your meat in the dutch oven and then add your ingredients to make a sauce. Then break up your spaghetti and add to the sauce and let simmer. Stirring every 15 minutes or so until the spaghetti is cooked.

Like I said, anything you cook inside the house can be cooked outside also.

 

[B. Lackie]

Here's a cool site. I printed the whole thing out and put it in a ringed binder.

Dutch Oven Cooking

Enjoy

 

[Beeman]

RH,
Yet another cherry lover, I'm an apple man myself. We made the cherry with both yellow cake mix and dark chocolate.
dutch oven cooking is great fun. I've been a scout leader and the kids have cooked everything imaginable in dutch ovens. Most any recipe can be adapted to use in a dutch oven. The boys always cooked dump cakes which is the recipe someone gave that uses a can of lemon-lime soda. The best advice I can give you is what the boys are taught, try everything and don't be afraid to fail. We've eaten some failures but it was still good.
Here's some basic things that have worked for me thru the years. try to place your coals on a piece of metal or at least tin foil. The cold damp ground will suck up the heat from your bottom oven. I use the lid from a 55 gal. barrel. For more controllable heat you can use charcoal briquettes. When you get it right you can get by with as few as 30 briquettes for heating the top and the bottom. Get more than 1 oven and stack them up for cooking. I've stacked the 7 high and all od the heat rises, just put a layer of coals on the top of each oven and stack on the next. For easy cleanup I've lined the oven with foil or have used a pie pan in the bottom. Spray with a Pam type spray for less sticking. Use good gloves and a small shovel or trowel for placing coals. I use pliers for lifting lids and ovens along with gloves. I have made lid lifters like in the catalogs but nothing beats the control of pliers.

 

[Cabin Fever]

IMHO, a dutch oven is most useful for baking. When I bake in my dutch ovens, I always use a round cake pan inside of the oven. This pan sits inside of the dutch oven on top of some stones. I make sure that I rotate the dutch oven a quarter turn (90 degrees) clockwise every 10 to 15 minutes. At the same time, I rotate the coal covered lid a quarter turn. You will get more even baking by baking in an internal pan and rotating the oven in the coals.

 

[Mullers Lane Farm]

R.H. in Okla., you are right, he is a hoot! Definitely an acquired taste, so so speak ;-)

I see he's gotten away from the horse-camping a bit with his newer shows.

Johnnie sure is a hoot. We used to count how many times he would say, "evverbudy loves cheeeese."

On one show last year he did a little spot where he showed the importance of picking the horses hooves clean. I turned to my DH and said, 'what Johnnie needs is one of your Muller Picks." Well, he already did. Surprised the heck out of us!

We wrote his website and asked if it was indeed a Muller Pick hoof pick and we heard back how Johnnie just loved it and by-the-way would we consider sending some as a door prize for giveaways on his fall campout?? They told us they would feature the hoof pick on the website for us send out 10 or so. Well, we sent 12 and heard absolutely nothing back - no mention on the web site, no mention on his show - heck when I wrote and asked if they received them I got a pretty lame, yes-sorry-we-didn't-tell-you-thanks email from them. Oh well, live and learn.

 

[Unregistered-1427815803]

try the international dutch oven society web page-lots of good stuff