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Dutch ovens aren’t just for cowboys
October has to be the best month of the year to go camping, which means it’s also close to my favorite month of the year to cook outside.
“But what about grilling?!” I can hear you all shriek. Yes, grilling is the de facto American outdoor cooking activity, but lest we forget about the beauty of the one-pot wonder, the dutch oven.
Cowboys relied on cast iron dutch ovens for centuries because 1) stainless steel propane grills don’t transport well on horseback 2) the fewer dishes to clean in the nearby creek the better 3) you can cook just about anything over a fire in one of these and it usually comes out tasting delicious.
A few weeks back, we drove six hours north to meet my folks — who had driven six hours south — for a camping adventure in southern Oklahoma, which contrary to popular belief, is really quite a lovely place to spend a three-day weekend outdoors.
They brought all the cooking supplies, including the two most important items: the rugged French press for coffee and the trusty dutch oven.
They also came with coolers and food boxes full of any and every food item you could think of (better to be overprepared than underprepared is my dad’s camping motto), including a few recipes from Byron Bills’ Dutch Oven Cooking Web site. The self-proclaimed Papa Dutch has dozens of tips and recipes for cooking over coals.
Before the trip, my mom pre-mixed the dry ingredients for Papa Dutch’s Cherry Crisp Cobbler as well as marinade for a pot roast. We made the cobbler one night, lining the bottom of the dutch oven with foil to make it easier to clean. The next morning, we had the Mountain Man breakfast that we whipped together from scratch at the campsite. Later that day, in went the pot roast and vegetables.
Campfire smoke filling the crisp fall air. Three delicious meals. One magnificent pot.
Now is the time to get out and camp in Central Texas. What cooking traditions do you and your families keep? Do you have any dutch oven dishes to share?
A note about the apples in that photo: October means apple harvest in Southwest Missouri, and my folks brought two giant bags of Fujis from Marionville, a sister town to my hometown that is known not for just the delicious apples. White squirrels call two U.S. towns home and Marionville is one of them.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment Categories: Cooking, On the road
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By Athena
October 28, 2008 11:09 AM | Link to this
I love my dutch oven and use it for everything, but my favorite way to use it is when I bake bread. It helps to trap moisture and ****** the development of a crispy crust until the very end of baking. I let the dutch oven sit in my oven while it preheats, then I put the dough on the dutch oven with the lid on for thirty minutes. Then I take the lid off and bake for another 20-30 minutes. This allows the bread to puff up during the first thirty minutes without being impeded by a developing crust. This is my secret to perfect bread!
By Jodi
October 28, 2008 2:06 PM | Link to this
Thanks for the recipes, Addie. I’m definitely going to clip and save for my fall camping trips! The best part of camping is the eating anyway. Smores anyone?
By mom
October 29, 2008 8:34 PM | Link to this
Great to see pictures from our trip! We are excited about the jambalaya we tried at home with the Soetaert’s. If there is an ice storm this winter, we have plans to crack out the dutch oven. Why didn’t we think of this before now?