The Art of Dutch Oven Cooking

I like cooking with a Dutch oven, whether it be over a campfire or a camp stove. Dutch Oven cooking is an art form. Once you have enough practice you can bake or cook anything that can be cooked or baked in your modern kitchen at home.

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 fruitful Dutch oven cooking. They can cause the difference between undercooked or burnt food.

When I am preparing for a delicious meal such as a meat dish such as ribs, chicken or roast, what I usually do is brown the meat in the Dutch oven on a camp stove. The delcious flavor from the browned meat is in the Dutch oven and adds to the taste of the finished product. It 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.

You have to make sure the heat isn't too hot or too cold. 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 as easy as counting the number of briquettes to put under and on top of the Dutch oven.

Place the desired number of briquettes under the Dutch oven as its size plus two more than that number on the lid. That will give you a temperature of 350 degrees. Such as 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 advise 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.

What I usually do is use a fire pan of some kind, the lid of a garbage can is a good idea, to put the coals in. This makes it a lot easier to clean up of the ashes and you don't have coals and ashes dispursed all over your campsite.

Cooking with wood coals depends on some skill learned by experience to determine the correct 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 luxury of having the best wood available every time and just use what is available. So it takes a little more concentrating to make sure the dish you are preparing gets done properly. I don't worry about this too much when cooking meats and stews. This may be more of a problem when baking products 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 disappointment 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 fantastic with one dish meals and dishes with a lot of moisture in them. A camp stove doesn't do as well for baked items though because there isn't any heat on the lid.

A good idea is to find a dutch oven recipe that appeals to your tastes. You can find countless numbers of these recipes on the internet or in special Dutch oven cookbooks. Just follow the directions and you will have a delicious meal in no time.

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