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3 Jun ’12
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Stumbled on this today. we do alot of DO cooking. Lots of river trips in spring and summer, and also at home. Just made stroganoff in the DO last night, actually.
This is a simple intro to dutch ovens
12/9/13
How to Bake Off Grid in a Dutch Oven
Baking off grid in a dutch oven is a handy thing to know how to do in case you ever find yourself without an electric or gas powered oven or chose to live off-grid. Baking in a dutch oven is pretty easy once you know a few basic tips. We love to bake in our dutch ovens on camping trips, multi-day river float trips, at hunting camp, when it is too hot to bake inside in the summer, and sometimes just because we think it is fun!
Yes, we are that nerdy about our love for dutch oven cooking. We don't just dabble in dutch oven cooking, it has become a hobby for us. That being said, I will confess we have a collection of dutch ovens and get really excited when finding them second hand at yard sales. Currently our collection includes seven dutch ovens: one 14" cast iron dutch oven, three 12" cast iron dutch ovens, one 12" aluminum dutch oven and one 10" aluminum dutch oven, and one tiny six inch cast iron dutch oven.
Phew! That's a lot of dutch ovens. But we use them all. That big old 14" cast iron dutch oven I mentioned earlier is the star of the show when it comes to baking big stuff like a whole lemon roasted chicken or honey brined turkey breasts. Without our collection of dutch ovens, we wouldn't have been able to bake everything we did in our off-grid Thanksgiving meal.
Traditional dutch ovens like these ones are made of heavy cast iron. I mentioned we have two aluminum dutch ovens which are much lighter. These are actually the newest in our collection (we found them here). We purchased these specifically because they are much lighter and easier to pack in our raft when going on multi-day river float trips. When you're rowing yourself, family and all your gear down the river in a raft, carrying a lighter aluminum dutch oven can make a pretty big difference!
Dutch ovens have a heavy, tight fitting lid and some come with legs on the bottom. We prefer the style with legs since it allows us to evenly stand it up over the coals or stack on top of each other with coals on the lids while they are baking. If your dutch oven does not have legs, you can buy a snazzy little gadget like this that you can sit your dutch oven on top of amongst the coals for an even seating.
To bake with a dutch oven, you will need hot coals. In the past we tried using coals from our wood fire to bake the dutch ovens but have found that the coals do not stay heated as long as charcoal briquets. This leads to longer baking times and uneven baking so anymore we just stick with using the charcoal briquets like you would use for a barbeque grill. We've learned that it is helpful to have a pair of sturdy tongs to pick up and place the coals exactly where you need them.
rest here http://www.montanaso.....-oven.html
she uses 10degrees per coal, and I've heard this rule before.
I generally just go by how big the DO is, say 12", and triple that, so I'd have 36 coals. Put one third below & two thirds on top. 50% of the time it works every time!
Another tip is that I have a pair of welding gloves that live with the DOs in the kitchen box and are the best potholders money can buy. that and a cheap pair of tongs for arranging the coale. We always bring a firepan (even if not required) but a cheap oil pan works too as a base to corral the coals and keep burn scars of the land.
DO cooking is alot of fun and you can put some impressive spreads together.
3 Nov ’12
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Thanks MM! Just got one for Christmas. Cant wait to try it out!
3 Jun ’12
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oh, youre totally stoked! I have about 5 right now, I use them ALL the time. I have two anodized AL ones that I use on the river, want a couple more. SO easy to maintain in the wet environment and way easier to lug up the beach than the cast iron ones. But iron is the gold standard, so remember if using an aluminum one that the don't hold heat as well so you may need to feed more coals....
The Stroganoff I made last night-
-1/2 lb bacon
-1 lb ground turkey
-2 white onions, finely chopped
-16oz beef broth
-12 white mushrooms, sliced
-1/2 tbsp pepper
-1/2 tbsp celery salt
-1/2 cup basalmic
-1 tbsb parsley
-1/2 a beer (or water if you hate america)
-1 cup worchestire sauce (+/- to taste)
-2 cups sour cream (can sub yogurt, i prefer 1 cup of each)
-3 or 4 cups of dry egg noodles
Spray PAM into DO, or other wise grease it up lightly
Chop that brick of bacon 4 times and dump in to the heated DO (either on the range or over coals), keep it moving til the bacon is crisp. Remove bacon to be used later. You're going for "extra crispy, but not burnt." drain excess grease, but not all of it.
Brown the burger, add in the celery salt & all the onions after a minute and keep stirring/browning until the onions become soft & kind of translucent.
Add the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT the sour cream and worschestire sauce. Stir and get back to a simmer.
Cover and either place in the oven for about 20 minutes at 325, or under coals.
DO NOT OPEN the DO until you can smell the food (THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN DO COOKING!)
When done, mix the worschestire and sour cream and then stir that mixture into the concoction. Let stand for about 10 minutes to thicken up, and there you have it.
easy and filling for a group. the above version was just for us at home and will serve 4-6 people. On the river I double/triple this depnding on how many in the group.
3 Jun ’12
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Dump Cake-
I make this in a 10" DO and it seems to be the right size. 10 coals on bottom, 20 on top, let them burn most of the way out.
-1 box white cake mix
-1 can fruit or pie filling, drained. I like peach the best, & huckleberry 2nd, but we've even used fruit coctail too. ProTip-on the river we save the drained syrup and make some delicious adult beverages.
-1 can sprite.
Its really important to drain the fruit well, so do that.
Spray the DO with PAM or otherwise grease well, or you will have a delicious mess when you try to get it out of the pan.
Dump the can of fruit into the DO
Dump the cake mix on top of that
dump the sprite on top of that.
Cover and bake as directed above. Let cool for a while, then put an upside down plate over the open DO and flip that bad boy over. If your PAM to fruit juice ratio was correct, you have a delicious peach (or huckleberry, or pineapple, or cherry...) upside down cake.
If its sticky, hand out 6 spoons and pass the pot around the campfire!
*guy at the local hardware store taught me this one, and we do it all the time. Simple and people love it.
26 Feb ’12
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we take dump cake to the family reunion. we leave the juices in it though. I do like the addition of sprite though. we will have to try this.
3 Jun ’12
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Stuffed Chicken & Rosemary Red Potatoes
Serves 6
-1 12" DO
-1 10" DO
- Approx 50 coals
- 6 LG chicken breasts or a dozen thighs, butterfly* cut these (*like a hot dog bun, for you heathens)
- 6 thick slices of ham
- 6 Slices of cheese (I have used everything from extra sharp chedder to pepper jsck, your call)
- 20 sm red potatoes, washed & quartered
- 2tbsp olive oil
- 1 or 2 tbsp dried rosemary flakes
- Salt
- Pepper
- toothpicks or other skewers
Get your coals started- Every single person I have ever talked to that does alot of DO cooking all agree that there is one brand of charcoal that stands above the rest. And I agree. Kingsford, in the old white & blue bag. Its consistent and burns well for a long time. AVOID any 'matchlight' style coals. they burn out WAY too fast. At home I use a charcoal chimmeny, but on the river I just pile all the coals up in a corner of the fire pan and start them there... you want the majority of your coals to be mostly gray/white, thats when you know they are ready. Place the less ready coals towards the center-remember that they need to be touching an active coal to ignite.
Spray PAM (seeing a trend? makes life easier when using a DO)lightly inside each DO, get the sides too, not just the bottom.
Place a slice of ham and a slice of cheese inside each piece of chicken, hold it all together with a toothpick, and plop it into the 12" DO. Do it again and again until its full or you run out of chicken, You can fit more than you think in there. Sprinkle with salt/pepper/whatever (I like this "firey 5 pepper" stuff we get at the store, but its your call). Put the lid on that pot, its ready!
Place 15 coals under and 15 coals over.
In a bowl or the 10" DO itself, pour in the olive oil and add the rosemary, salt, and pepper. Mix that up and then dump in the potatoes. Stir that all up real well til the potatoes are completely covered in oil & spices. Transfer to the DO if you didn't mix em in there to begin with. If you DID mix it in the DO, just drain out the extra oil or it will make cleaning later a pain in the ass. Put the lid on that pot cause its ready to cook now too!
place on top of the first, larger DO. Make sure the second DO has the built in legs OR use the handy leg/riser thing like in the article (my 10" didn't come with built in legs). Place 15-20 coals on top.
Let cook for about 30 minutes or until the coals turn to ash or you smell chicken. if you smell chicken, its go time so grab a beer and a fork & fight your way to the head of the line.
On a river trip the above will serve 6 pretty hungry paddlers. We usually add in a fresh salad and maybe a third DO on the stack with dump cake or jalapeno cornbread.
3 Jun ’12
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we take dump cake to the family reunion. we leave the juices in it though. I do like the addition of sprite though. we will have to try this.
awesome! i find that unless you use parchment paper the fruit juice burns and makes it hard to get the cake out and makes it a bear to get clean. Do you have a trick? Also, do you just use water or milk or something instead of sprite? I have ZERO science to back this up, but I think the soda makes it extra fluffy.
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