Dutch Oven cooking

[wolfy]

Fill this form out and you will recieve FREE a copy of the Jiffy Mix Cookbook from the Jiffy Mix folks. Great recipes for using your Dutch Oven. Most of them are very quick and tasty and use the inexpensive Jiffy Mixes. They save time and fuss and there are lots of different recipes.

I'm a moderator on a website that has a camping and cooking section and I have suggested this book to lots of folks that have praised its value to them in their cooking in the cast iron ovens.

Here it is...... [url] http://www.jiffymix.com[/url]/

 

[wolfy]

It doesn't look like I can edit my post above, so I'd just like to add that you have to click on recipes and scroll down to the end where you can access the form to fill in your information.

 

[Mrs. J. T.]

Greetings

I am new to dutch oven cooking .. er .. who am I kidding .. I AM NEW TO COOKING!

I do like your reference to Jiffy website - I use the Jiffy buttermilk biscuits to make banana bread and it is good.

Now that my hubby wants to do more camping and my girl friends are all into Dutch cooking competition during those camps, I thought I may as well learn more about dutch oven cooking.

 

[wolfy]

Here's a great spot with a good tutorial on seasoning a new oven, an unbeatable system for heat control for new users (admittedly it uses briquets, but is an easily adaptable system for use with natural wood coals), and some recipes to get you started.

Click here.... [url] http://www.lsdos.com/outdoor.html[/url]

Have fun!

 

[ladysmithtrading]

Been cooking in cast iron DO's for near 40 years now, the wife and I have probably trained 300 plus BSA and Canadian scout leaders in DO cooking, theres no real secret to it, whatever you cook at home or find in a cookbook can be made in a DO, one of the best things you can do for your oven when new is deep fry in it the first half dozen times you use it,helps drive that oil into the pours of the cast and gives it a head start on building up that nice oil layer, I tell folks to make doghnut holes or fry bread the first 3 or 4 times,then switch over to chicken or whatever.

Doughnut holes are simple, cheap canned biscuits, seperate and quarter each one, drop in the oil and fry till the edge is golden, tap it with a spoon and it will flip to fry the other side, remove and drain for a minute then drop in brown paper bags of cinammon sugar, white sugar, or powdered sugar and shake, problem is the kids eat em as fast as you can make them, kinda fun watching them trying to eat them while there still nuclear hot!.

some alternatives to the monkey bread, melt some butter or margarine, mix in the cinammon sugar, or maybe some orange or lemon zest and sugar, try some garlic, herbs and parmasgane cheese, great with pasta and sauce, no need to roll the dough into balls, just seperate, dredge in the butter mixture, drop into a bundt pan and then into the do, fill then pan 2/3 full and bake, when finished, invert and eat!

Ive found the best way to learn to cook in the DO is use it at home on the weekends, especially in the summer, make some roasts or stews or whatever, no need to heat up the house and helps to polish your skills.Matter of fact, this weekend coming up is our clubs rondy, Ill be digging out my Lodge 24" deep and makn elk, deer and buffalo and moose stew for the staff on Sun , will feed approx 60 people out of it. Hope this helps, if you have any questions and I can be of service, drop me a PT, Beav

 

[wolfy]

I'd like to see a picture of that Lodge 24" deep Dutch oven. I wasn't aware that they ever made one or is it something new? The biggest one that I have is a Texsport that will hold a 14-16 pound turkey. This is a Chinese oven, but I got to check a few of them over and got this one after switching around a few lids to get one that fit well.

How many gallons will a 24" deep Lodge hold and what does it weigh? Sounds as big as some of the bigger MACA's!

 

[Blizzard of '93]

that's what I'm talking about Beaverman - real stew in a DO. and cornbread with it! :thumbsup:

 

[bwhoffman]

had my eye on one of those a few years back in Tillamook, OR. at a sporting goods store. they had it for years with no buyers!
24 inches, 74 pounds!
Oh the things I could cook in that!

The old adadge by CW Welch...

"If it smells done, its done.
If it smells burnt, its burnt.
If you cant smell it, it aint done!"

 

[Joe Yanta]

One of my favorites is a beef pot roast. I use a 3 - 5 pound beef roast in an 8 qt DO. A trivet for the roast is prefered but not necessary. Place the roast on the tivet in the bottom of your DO. Place peeled potatoes and carrots around the roast in the DO. Pour one can of Campbell's beef Consomme' soup over everything( :nono: not PC so hide empty can quickly). Set your DO down on a few coals (not many, you want to cook slow) and place a few coals on your lid. Cook about 3 hours. Did one of these down in Raton in June along with a cherry cobbler and dinner rolls. The roast and fixins made a great day out of a rainy day.

Joe

 

[Blizzard of '93]

you forgot the onions, peppers and garlic, Joe. that'll really perk up the flavor of a DO roast.
I add half a hot pepper pod if I have, a dryed cayenne.
another good recipe is to dredge in seasoned flour venison stew meat chunks, fry to brown then stew with little liquid. after about 1 hour add can of cream of mushroom soup, stir well and low simmer covered 15 minutes then serve with rice or noodles
bon appetit! :thumbsup:

 

[Mrs. J. T.]

OH .. many thanks for that guide .. will be looking to it many times in the days to come.

There is another question I would like to ask.

My hubby handed me a few cast iron cookware but I notice the seasoning in the cookware is flaking out.

Can I re-season it?

How can I do it?

 

[Blizzard of '93]

without knowing the condition of your DO (foto) it's hard to say but you might consider boiuling out, scrubbing with a copper scouring pad (no soap) then re-season. fry up a mess of taters or doughnuts, fish fry - etc.

 

[Waterman]

Something I do with my ironware from time to time and would certainly do with ironware from an unknown source is to put it through a self cleaning oven cycle. Yes, you have to re-season the iron. Fry potatoes and etc as mentioned above.
Cheers, Bill

 

[ladysmithtrading]

Wolfy, sorry for the tardy reply, left last wed morn for our clubs rondy, set up and all, got back tues eve, 1st time ive been on, I have a pic or 2 of that beast, see if I can round them up and get them posted, not sure if Lodge still offers them , got mine in the early 90's you had to special order them, they cast them on an order basis, and you could get it with up to 14 characters( letters or #s) cast into the lid, like your name maybe, back then it was $235.00, bottom weighs 90lbs and the lid id 65lbs, not sure of the gallon rating, will hold 7- 10lb beef briskets, 3#10 cans( food service size) of mushroom soup, and 8 onions, fills to within an inch of the top, problem is , it takes 20lbs of charcoal just to get the beast up to temp, but man, its real impressive when your doing a demo, or feeding an army! By the way, Im looking for one of those Macca's with the wall cast in it to make it a double chamber pot, anybody know of 1 for sale? I heard that they quit makn that style awhile back.

 

[ladysmithtrading]

I usually take iron like that and throw it in a camp fire with a good bed of coals, burn the junk in it till it carbons up, srub with a pad as above then oil it, back into the coals, repeat 4 to 5 times till its nice and black and them last time out, oil it and set aside to cool, good as teflon! a word of warning , only leave the iron in a good hot fire for no more the about 7 mins at a time, you dont want that iorn glowing red, will warp real easy if it gets too hot, another thing to consider, lodge grinds their oven lids to match the bottom, if you have more than one of any particular size, or go to events where there are a bunch of ovens like a pot luck, Id mark my ovens and lids, I use a split ring like for a key chain and a brass tag, they have my name on them and a number, that way you can always match up lid#1 to bottom#1 and so on. Hope this helps, Beav

 

[BadHeart]

The split ring and brass tag are a great idea.

 

[shmrck1]

This has been a great tread on DO cooking...Thanks
to all for some great ideas.I hope there are more,
as DO cooking makes for great eats weather in camp
or in the kitchen.IMO
snake-eyes :hatsoff:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

Here's a good cut-up chicken recipe. trim a chicken of excess fat and skin and season with your favorites. heat a DO over med. fire and heat 2 hpg. tablespoons bacon grease/shortening/olive oil in it until near smoking, add bird and fry turning frequently until browned while preparing root veggies.
shove bird to the side and add veggies, dump a can of chicken stock and a cup of white wine in.
bring to low boil and dump in can of mushrooms and stir all up.
place lid on and move to low heat for 1&1/2 hr, coals on lid and cook, then check for liquid if dry add water/wine and cook another 20 mins..
bakeing cornbread? you should be. heat a large can of beans and make some rue to dump in DO when you move bird/veggies to platter and stir up some gravy adding mushroom soup and milk to stir up fine gravy.
eat, eat, away.
cal me when supper is ready. :grin:
Mr. Snake are you watching? :thumbsup:

 

[ladysmithtrading]

Ahhhh Snake Eyes, ya just cant beat chicken and dumplings in the DO, stew and dumplings works well also, heck anything and dumplings!!!!!!!!!

 

[almrl]

Instead of the inverted pie pan you can use three small rocks about 3/4 inch. This allows better heat circulation than the pan, and they are readily available if you lose one.

My brother bakes pies (apple, pumpkin, etc) in his DO's. The hardest part is getting them in and out of the DO without burned fingers.

Another great piece of camp cooking equipment is the cast iron waffle iron. Ours is an eighty year old Wagner with a four inch flared base that sets over the camp stove or coals. Do an Ebay search for "cast iron waffle" to see what I'm talking about. Makes fantastic waffles.

Old Coot