Chow Down: Dutch Oven Cooking

Simmer Down: DUTCH OVEN COOKING

BY HEATHER HAMILTON-POST

Second to ice-cold milk in the morning, the best part of camping is meals made

fireside in the Dutch oven. I grew up in Idaho’s wild places, roasting marshmallows beside the log cabin campfires my mother taught me to build after warm meals served on tin plates, lovingly cooked in a well-seasoned Dutch oven (or two, or even three). We would eat peach cobbler and chilli and cornbread and breakfast casseroles, scraping the leftovers into old sour cream containers to be placed in the cooler and reheated for an afternoon snack. kind, but that doesn’t stop me of oil and wait until it is from occasionally dabbling almost boiling. Take a tube in the same Dutch oven of refrigerated biscuit dough, cooking in my own lessdivide each biscuit in half treed backyard. Dutch oven so that you have two round cooking is easy in theory, circles, poke a hole in each, requiring only a cast iron and toss them in. Fry until Dutch oven, a lighter, and they’re as gold as you like some charcoal, though there them, and toss into a paper are some ‘nice to have’ items- sack with cinnamon and -a chimney to help get the sugar, or top however you like. charcoal going, a lid lifter, tongs for the coals. If you’re looking for something a little more

A camp Dutch oven sits savory, heat up the Dutch on legs to allow charcoal oven, cook the bacon, leaving underneath. It’s also covered grease behind. Take out the by a heavy lid that holds bacon, crumble, and layer charcoal on top, so it is heated it with rounds of potatoes, from both ends. The amount onions, and cheese. Cook it “We would eat peach cobbler and chilli and cornbread and breakfast casseroles MADE IN THE DUTCH OVEN.”

of charcoal you use will depend on your Dutch oven size and also the recipe, but it is always better to have more coals and be able to take them away. You can buy a Dutch oven already seasoned or season it yourself--to preserve said seasoning, do not wash with soap, merely rinse out with water and re-oil as needed.

If you’re looking for an easy Dutch oven win, I might suggest campfire donuts, which are a timeless hit for adults and children alike. It really isn’t much of a recipe, which might be good if you’re new to this. Fill a Dutch oven with about two cups all for around 45 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft enough. If you want an easier cleanup, you can line the Dutch oven with parchment paper, though it does away with some of the crunchy goodness that otherwise forms.

And sure, many of these recipes could be made inside your home using an oven and casserole dish, but it truly isn’t the same. Dutch oven recipes can be as complicated or simple as you desire, but you can actually taste the love (and occasionally a little bit of leftover ash) in the food in a way that makes it truly special.