How to use a Dutch Oven Properly
My Dutch oven is one of my favorite pieces of equipment. It would be like leaving my tent behind. It has been an important part of my equipment for many years.
Now take note I am talking about base camping, or driving somewhere and unloading at the campsite. Mine is a 12" in diameter and weighs 18 1/2 pounds so this is defiantly not something I ever want to take backpacking with me!
What is a Dutch Oven?
Dutch ovens are cooking pots, and usually made from cast iron.
Today, some are Aluminum, but I personally don't care for them. They dissipate heat quicker and so it is harder to cook evenly in them.
This type of pot was developed by both the English and the Dutch about the same time, during the 1600s, as both countries were expanding out into the New World.
The Dutch developed a superior method of casting them and actually exported them to England for a while during this time period. By the time English technology began producing the same quality the name had stuck.
It was used extensively in the American Colonies. As with many other imported products and tools, the locals made changes to it which was an adaptation to the needs of the users. They built theirs a little less deep and also cast legs on it.
The legs allowed frontiersmen to place the pot on the ground with coals underneath it. Previously it had to be suspended over the fire by some rack or hanging device. The shallower pot tended to keep the inside temperature a little more even.
They also figured how to keep the coals and the ash from falling into their food when you lifted the lid.
They did this by adding a flange, or raised edge onto the lid.
This basic design has stayed the same for about 300 years now because there is simply no need for any improvement.
What Can We Cook In A Dutch Oven?
Well you are basically limited to your imagination. Most anything that you do in your oven at home or on top of the stove in a pot that will fit in your Dutch oven can be done to perfection while camping. When I am out camping, I like to eat, and eat well. I consider my Dutch oven one of my finer investments.
I have done pies, cakes, stews, chili, meat loaf and a long list of great eating.
I love to get up with the sun and get the coals lit along with my coffee going on the stove. I make biscuits to have with my morning coffee and breakfast. My wife enjoys this morning snack too as she later drags herself out of the tent to greet the sun.
Base camping allows you to fill up that ice chest with all sorts of great things to cook at each meal. Don't limit yourselves to the top of your camp stove. If not your main course, then try a desert.
What you choose to cook in it depends on your tastes and where your mind takes you to try new things. Be brave, you might surprise yourself. There are a million recipes out there.
You can have a lot of fun with this oven!! Try it.
Where do the coals go?
Temperature control is the key to good Dutch oven cooking. This is no different than cooking in your stove at home. Learning to control that heat is the trick. Here is the answer!
The following information was assembled and published on the web page of the Buckskin Council, Boy Scouts of America. They are located in Charleston West Virginia. I came across it one day and thought it was a very well organized explanation. I am reprinting it here with their permission.
How do you control the heat in a Dutch oven?
There are several ways to test the temperature of your Dutch oven. I will go over some of these ways, but the one main way to test the temperature is to lift the lid. If the food is not cooking enough add some heat. If it's cooking too fast take off some heat.
Remember, it's much easier to raise the temperature of cast iron than to lower it.
Here is one way to test the temperature of a heated oven:
- Place a teaspoonful of flour in a small pie pan and put the pan inside a hot Dutch oven.
- Place the lid on the oven and leave it for 5 minutes.
- If the flour has not turned brown the oven is less than 300 degrees.
- If the flour is light brown, the oven is about 350 degrees.
- If the flour is dark brown, the oven is about 450 degrees.
Note: If the flour is dark brown after 3 minutes, reduce the heat, the oven is too hot to cook with.
There is another good way to test the temperature. It could be called the 2-3 briquette rule. Using this rule, you take the size of the oven and place that amount of briquettes on the lid and place that amount under the oven.
Then take 2-3 briquettes from the bottom and move them to the top. This technique will maintain a temperature of 325 to 350 degrees. Refer to the table below for common oven sizes. For every 2 briquettes added or subtracted to/from this the net change is about 25 degrees.
These temperature changes are for the Rocky Mountain area, where the cooking altitude is about 4000-6000 ft. If you live in lower or higher area, check these settings with an oven thermometer to make sure they are OK. I mention this because temperatures inside a Dutch oven are affected by altitude.
There are a couple of other things to remember about temperature control.
The first is that you should rotate your oven a third of a turn every ten minutes. And then rotate the lid a third of a turn the other direction.
Next if you are baking bread, rolls, or cake remove the bottom heat after two thirds of the cooking time. It will finish cooking from the top heat. This will keep it from burning on the bottom.
Use this chart as a starting point...
| 8" Dutch Oven | 8-10 Bricketts on Top | 6-8 Brickettes on Bottom |
| 10" Dutch Oven | 10-12 Bricketts on Top | 8-10 Brickettes on Bottom |
| 12" Dutch Oven | 12-14 Bricketts on Top | 10-12 Brickettes on Bottom |
| 14" Dutch Oven | 14-16 Bricketts on Top | 12-14 Brickettes on Bottom |
| 16" Dutch Oven | 16-18 Bricketts on Top | 14-16 Brickettes on Bottom |
Cleaning your Dutch Oven
Some people say "just scrape out the oven and turn it upside down in the fire". That is how the early pioneers and mountain men cleaned their ovens. A Dutch oven can be cleaned like that, but it burns out all of the seasoning.
First scrape the oven out, and then boil an inch or two of water in the oven to steam it out using all of the coals that remain from cooking. Do this while you are enjoying your meal.
After the oven has steamed a while, scrub it with a green scrubby pad or a soft wire kitchen brush and pour out the water. Then wipe it dry and coat it lightly with a high temperature vegetable oil while the oven is still hot.
Place a wadded up newspaper or a couple of paper towels inside the oven so they hang out a little. Then place the lid on the oven and put it away. The paper helps keep the lid slightly ajar for air movement. It also collects moisture to keep the oven dry.
Next time you use it, it will be ready!
Caring for my Dutch Oven
When you purchase a new Dutch oven, or any cast iron product, you must first remove the protective coating. It is placed there after manufacture to protect from rust.
The best way to remove this is with hot soapy water and a wire scrubber. I prefer to scrub it two or three times, rinsing after each time to feel if it is still there. After the cleaning, rinse with hot water to clean off the soap.
Next, it needs to be dried till there is no moisture left on the oven. The easiest way dry a Dutch oven is to put it in a warm (160ish) kitchen oven for 30 minutes or so, then let it cool enough to handle it.
Seasoning
Now you are ready to begin the seasoning process. I prefer lard or white shortening and not oil. Oil tends to make it very sticky afterwards. Using a paper towel, apply the shortening or lard to the inside and outside of the oven until all is coated. Put some extra inside the oven. Do the same with the lid.
Put both in a 425 degree kitchen oven and bake for one hour. Then, using tongs and a paper towel, swish the excess seasoning inside the oven around coating the entire area and lid.
When the time is up, remove from the oven and swish the excess seasoning on all the inside to coat and let sit in the oven until cool. Using a paper towel, wipe the inside of the oven to coat again all inside surface and then wipe all the excess out to just leave a thin coating on the oven.
Now you are ready to start cooking.
It is best to begin with foods which require a lot of oil such as deep fried foods or bread as they tend to continue to coat the oven.
After each use wash only in very hot water to clean. If you cooked bread in it, wipe a light coating of seasoning on and you are ready to go again.
It does not require washing out. If you cooked something which stuck to the oven, put your oven back on the heat source and heat until it boils and use a plastic spoon to remove the stuck food.
If the oven gets rusty between uses, you can clean it up by soaking the rusty area in Coca Cola for an hour. Then scrub with wire scrubber only where it is rusty. Then, rinse it out and re-season that part of the oven again by applying a coat of seasoning and heat to 425 degrees for 30 minutes.You are now ready to begin cooking with it again.
There are times when, during the process of seasoning it, too much seasoning is applied and a build up occurs and, after a while, it will begin to flake off.
The only remedy here is to clean off the flaking material and start over again or just continue to cook in it as it is.
A well seasoned Dutch oven is a prized possession and will last a lifetime and can be passed on to your family as an heirloom which will function as long as it is taken care of properly.
Enjoy every minute of your time while cooking in these ovens. They provide so much wonderful food and great times when they are properly cared for. This requires a minimal amount of care after each use.
The biggest sin in using the Dutch oven is to use it and then not clean it for days or even weeks. There are actually people who do that, requiring the oven to be seasoned again. That is because they did not read this full article and skipped that part.
Yes, this really happened ...
One summer we were out at a lake with two other families. We had gathered a few weeks before we left and I discovered that one of the ladies was going to have a Birthday during the trip.
I immediately volunteered to bake a cake for the occasion. This was met with wild laughter from the other two families.
Well, that laughter became a real challenge to me.
While both families had camped before, their cooking skills were at a very basic level. So we figured that it would be good to show them how to indulge in the finer points of Great Family Camping!
My wife and I cranked up all of our best outdoor cooking recipes and skills that week and provided a quiet demonstration of what could be done while camping.
Needless to say, all the kids that were with us spent a lot of time visiting our campsite that week. Beans and wieners and the Mac n' cheese got old real fast.
I felt just like Mister Wilson with 5 "Dennis the Menaces" coming over to my house every day.
On the afternoon of the birthday I took out my Dutch oven and warmed up the coals. That evening I produced a two layer cake, frosted and complete with candles.
I could not help but using the type of candle you can't blow out just so we could sing "The old gray mare".