Jan122011
A Dutch Oven Cooking Primer, Part 1
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PDFBy Archie and Linda Dixon, authors of Just Dutch It!
image by grggrssmr
Have you ever wondered how you would cook when there is no gas or electricity for any length of time? There is a real possibility that this could happen. For instance, ice storms can take out power lines for weeks. Tornadoes do the same, and earthquakes break natural gas and electrical lines. Another possibility is a virus in the computer system of your power company. Any of these emergencies could happen to us today. Think about it. There’s not always sun to use your solar oven, the barbeque grill doesn’t bake bread very well, and that camp stove is going to run out of fuel if you have to use it for very long. So, what do you use for long-term cooking?
Easy. Get back to the basics. Use what the cooks on those cattle drives, the pioneers crossing the plains, and Lewis and Clark used — the good old Dutch oven! And what about fuel? Wood and buffalo chips are okay, but modern day charcoal briquettes are the best. And, they are easy to store, not dangerous in any way, and if they get wet, you just dry them out before using.
OK, if the stores are out of food and everything in the refrigerator and freezer is eaten up or spoiled, what will you eat? Hopefully you have food stored and you know how to fix it. You will have to use your #10 cans of dried or freeze-dried foods, if you have some, and those cans or jars of tomatoes, peaches, soup, etc. in the pantry, basement or garage. In Part 2, I will share with you a sampling of some delicious recipes that use food already in your storage pantry with directions for making them in a Dutch oven. But first, let me tell you about Dutch ovens.
Buying and caring for a Dutch oven
You need to have a “camp” type Dutch oven. This is not the oven you find in your cooking magazines, but the kind you take camping and use for outdoor cooking. It is made out of cast iron (there are also aluminum ones), has a flat bottom, and three short legs. These legs allow you to move briquettes in and out from under the oven, regulating the oven temperature. The lid has a raised rim around the edge so coals will stay on top while cooking.
Now the big question: what size do I need, and how many ovens should I have? This is something you need to think about. If you start out with a 12” oven you will be at a good starting point. I also like a 14” and a 10”. With three ovens you can cook your meals very easily. This could change depending on how many people you are cooking for. Also, you can take advantage of stack cooking. This maximizes your charcoal. Your top charcoal becomes the bottom for the one stacked on top. You may want to look at how deep they are as well. You may want to have deep ovens for things like soup.
Below is a picture of 4 ovens of different sizes stacked up to show sizes and stack cooking technique. Of course to cook you will need to add hot charcoal briquettes. The ovens are 14”, 12”, 10”, and 5”.
Wash your new Dutch oven (or the one you might have picked up at a yard sale) in hot soapy water and scrub off the protective wax or oil put on by the manufacturer, unless instructed otherwise per oven instructions. To do this, use a stiff brush or green scrubbing pad. Dutch ovens are iron and will rust if not kept dry, even for a short time. This will be the only time you should need to use soap on your oven. Be sure to dry your oven quickly.
Now you need to “season” the oven. While still warm from washing, wipe the dry oven and lid with a lightly oiled paper towel or cotton cloth. Use regular vegetable oil. Don’t pour oil into the oven. Pour the oil onto a cloth, then wipe. After oiling the Dutch oven, place it in your kitchen oven on the bottom rack at 350 degrees with the lid ajar. Bake one hour. You may get strange smelling fumes, so open a few windows. Once the Dutch oven has cooled down, remove it, oil it, and bake it again. Leave it in the kitchen oven until warm, remove it, then oil it lightly one more time. Your Dutch oven is ready to use. You will notice it has turned a golden color. But after continued use it will have a black shine. This is what we want. If it does rust, just repeat the above process.
After cooking in it, scrape out any remaining food with a spatula. After it has cooled slightly, put an inch or so of water in it (Do Not Put Cold Water In A Hot Dutch Oven! It Could Crack!) and return to the coals to boil and steam out the stuck on food. After several minutes, remove it from the coals, and when it’s not too hot to handle, lightly scrub it with a brush or cleaning pad. Dry and lightly coat with oil.
Be sure your oven is clean and dry. Lightly coat it with regular oil and wipe off the excess. I always store my ovens with a small wad of aluminum foil under the rim of the lid. It is also recommended to place a piece of paper towel or cotton cloth in the Dutch oven to absorb any moisture. If you don’t crack the lid with foil or something similar, I have found it’s very hard to get the lid off after it has been stored for a long period of time. Make sure you store it in a dry place.
Coming tomorrow, Part 2. You’ll learn tips for cooking in a Dutch Oven as well as some great recipes. For more information and to order Archie and Linda’s book, visit their website, Just Dutch It.
© 2011 – 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.
(25) Readers Comments
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Greg Grossmeier
Hey, nice article, and thanks for using my image of a dutch oven (I’m grggrssmr) that I made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license! Original here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/grggrssmr/3649276816/
Mike in Virginia
Hi, perfect timing for this article, because I just got a yard-sale special (but brand-new never-used) cast iron dutch oven as a gift for Christmas. It is not the camp style, however; instead, it has a flat bottom with no legs and a smooth, normal-looking rounded lid. The handle is very stout, and could easily support it even if it were filled with lead shot, so the dutch oven could certainly hang over a fire safely or sit on the grill surface of a BBQ. But it will not hold coals on top.
Should I consider this thing just a big cast iron pot? Or can I still use it to do things like bake biscuits or cornbread on my gas grill? Sure, the camp-style oven is more versatile, but this is the one that I have and I'd love to use it. I've got some wonderful 40+ year-old cast iron skillets already, so I know how to season and clean cast iron cookware. I just don't know how to bake with this type of dutch oven. Thanks for any pointers you can provide!
Linda Dixon
Hi Mike,
This type of cast iron works for soups, beans,etc. and also pit cooking. It would be tough to bake in it, since you need coals on the top. If your BBQ is one that will regulate the temp. and airflow like a "Big Green Egg" BBQ/smoker, then you could use it to bake in. Linda Dixon
guest
use tin foil around the base of lid tuck it under and pinch the top part of tin foil like you would a pie crust then you can add coals. that's what i do and i have made pineapple up side down cake my pot is a number 8 yard sale find over 10 years ago. i also use it to fry meat on top of my wood stove
Midge
I love my cast iron ware. It's hard on the arthritic wrists, but it cooks so wonderfully. One tiny complaint about your article, though. I've always washed mine with soap. Once well-seasoned, soap and hot water won't take the seasoning off. Just wash, dry right away, and set it on a low fire on the stove (or grill, or where ever you are cooking) and let it dry thoroughly for several minutes. While still fairly new you'll want to smear a little oil on it. Once it's an old standby you can treat it like any old pan. NO AUTOMATIC DISHWASHERS though! That caustic detergent will take the seasoning right off in pits and crumbles.
Linda Dixon
Hi Midge,
That is correct. If you are a "seasoned" user of cast iron, and your cast iron is well seasoned, a little soap and water is fine, but as you said, dry immediately and heat to remove any moisture. Linda Dixon
Sunshineblog
Love, love, LOVE my cast iron cookware. I'm a crappy cook, but two of my three best recipes involve a dutch oven. Looking forward to part 2.
Barbara
LOL Sunshine. Don't be a crappy cook. Get a couple of beginners cookbooks, seek out good simple recipes on-line, learn where your strengths and weakness are. You don't have to be a "fancy" cook to be a good one. Most of the time, the hearty simple meals are the best.
LizLong
My favorite cookbook is "Yum! I Eat It!" – a 1970s kids cookbook that has recipes for things like scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes. Yes, I do need remedial help. :-p Kids cookbooks are good, though, because they don't assume you know ANYTHING. Good luck!
Dagny
I have several camp Dutch Ovens (very popular within the teardrop trailer community) and they should indeed be part of any preparedness plan. Highest praise for Lodge of Tennessee — made in America and excellent value. The "Lodge Logic" line is pre-seasoned and only gets better with use (especially cooking yummy high-fat stuff like bacon). Also keep your eyes peeled for great old cast iron — such as the legendary Griswold line and Wagner. Those are collectibles but frequently turn up in garage sales.
Here's a website with good basic info and recipes:
http://camp-cook.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=9&…
Jan
Great article! We love using our dutch ovens for cookouts.
Barbara
I once broke a couple of toes by dropping a 12 inch Griswold skillet on my foot. I never thought my choice of cookware would be dangerous! Be sure to check out Boy Scout manuals and cooking sites on-line. They have hundreds of good tips and recipes for dutch oven cooking and good eats for "Out of the electric kitchen" cooking.
dtriplett
One of the things we did in Scouts was to place a few small stones equilateral between the legs, around the base, just in case and for stability. Of course, you have to make sure you aren't using sandstone. I wouldn't be fun to have a rock explode under your oven.
dtriplett
When I was in Boy Scouts, to keep baking pans (mostly for biscuits) off the bottom of the oven we used metal pop bottle caps. Those would be hard to come by now but the caps off beer bottles would work. The caps have several advantages over the aluminum foil roll: 1) they are cheep, 2) they can take a higher heat than the foil, 3) the cap ensure a level surface to bake on without having to fiddle with getting the foil even. There is no waste using the caps because unlike the foil they can be used over and over. Finally, if whatever you are backing escapes the pan the caps are supper easy to clean.
Charlieann
That reminds me of my friend who uses canning bands (the bands that screw on the canning jars to keep the lids on) to keep the pans off the bottom of the oven. I tried it at our last youth camp-out and they worked great!
rdnkrfnk
i love all my cast iron cook ware i have effectively phased out all aluminum cook ware due to the effect that it has been linked to causing alzheimers the only pans we have are glass enamel ware or cast iron
Jacee
I love my dutch oven. My only regret is that I don't use it enough. Fifteen years ago we moved 900 miles away and I gave away most of my cast iron cookware (all but the dutch oven and the flat "tortilla" pan). I miss it and am in the process of acquiring new ones as I need them or find them. I had an aebleskiver pan and am having a difficult time finding a new one.
LizLong
Try looking for an as-seen-on-tv Pancake Puff Maker.
Bee
Bought one at Walmart couple of years ago ~ grandsons LOVE it!! a lot of fun but sooo messy. It actually works though and the boys have come up with some great ideas to "stuff those puffs"
P.M.Lawrence
“…modern day charcoal briquettes are the best. And, they are easy to store, not dangerous in any way…”
Oh, yeah? They can be used to make explosives, e.g. in mines, just by dunking them in liquid oxygen or liquid air (the advantage is that they are only briefly dangerous, when freshly prepared, so they need special equipment to prepare them but no special storage). There are some videos out there showing someone demolishing a barbecue by running liquid oxygen into its charcoal, with a lit cigarette in the charcoal for ignition. I have sometimes wondered if nitrous oxide would work too.
LizLong
But then you're doing something to them, not just storing them. You even said they don't require special storage. Sand can be made into glass, but that doesn't make sand itself fragile, or clear.
That is, however, interesting info. So thanks!
Heather Stevens
Love it! We use a solar oven which is more efficient than I could have imagined, and it's a comfort to know I can keep using it without fuel for the rest of my lifetime.
You can get them from http://www.SunCooking.com.au for people in the southern hemisphere
Thanks for the interesting post!
Ron
I’m pretty sure it was a previous article here that gave preference to Lodge ovens over Camp Chef. I bought a Lodge based on your testimonial and my wife and I fell in love with dutch oven cooking. So, we had to expand our cookware. I must admit, I couldnt resist the cheaper prices of Camp Chef and purchased my second oven from them instead of Lodge.
“Aha”, I exclaimed to myself as I noticed they both cooked food very well. My smuggness quickly disappeared when I noticed my Camp Chef lid was missing a large chunk from the rim.
Its not that one “cooks” better than the other…its the craftsmanship and thus, durabilty.
…and that’s all I have to say about that.
K Moore
I'm a long time cast iron cook, especially with Dutch Ovens. I'm glad to see that people are willing to try an old tried and true method of cooking. My preference is for American Made cast iron. I have a collection consisting of Griswold, Wagner and Lodge well represented. None of them are just for show, they all get used! Only two of my pans were purchased new, a 14" deep DO and a Lodge 6" DO. The rest have been rescued from garage sales, estate sales or second hand shops. I get a special kick out of taking a really ugly pot and making it useful again. I'm looking forward to reading your new cookbook.
Paul & Terry
The "June skill of the Month" wasnt dutch oven cooking ?