Dutch Oven pie?

[crockett]

I saw a post 1840 photo of a cow outfit with a cook behind a chuck wagon trimming the edges of crust off the rim of a pie prior to baking. That sort of surprised me as I never thought about baking a pie in a Dutch oven. This cook must have used a Dutch oven as I can think of no other way he could have baked a pie on the trail. I've read a book or two on Dutch oven cooking but never seen a Dutch oven used that way. On a large Dutch oven I guess you could just put the pie tin in the oven.
Since Dutch ovens are pre-1840 I thought I'd mention it.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Dutch oven used that way. On a large Dutch oven I guess you could just put the pie tin in the oven.

It's easy...just place the pie on a trivet.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Since Dutch ovens are pre-1840 I thought I'd mention it.

They are also post 1840... :wink:
Post 1840 you also saw things like canned peaches become very popular...

 

[George]

I've read a book or two on Dutch oven cooking but never seen a Dutch oven used that way. On a large Dutch oven I guess you could just put the pie tin in the oven.

A common name for Dutch ovens in the 18th century was 'bake kettle', and you are right, they just put the entire pie pan or other container in the Dutch oven. Works like a charm. Here are a pie, cake and biscuits cooked that way.







Spence

 

[jamesthomas]

Spence, I can smell that Apple pie from here!! those bisquits look tasty also.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I drool every time I see those biscuits... I keep buttering my computer screen. :thumbsup:

 

[Black Hand]

It's easy...just place the pie on a trivet.

Or 3 bottle caps/stones/etc to get it up off the bottom of the oven. Might even use an upside-down pie pan...

 

[George]

Might even use an upside-down pie pan...

Those three dishes were cooked by me and my wife at a hearth cooking class. Great fun, we learned a lot, one thing of which was that upside-down pie plate bit. The instructor provided all the cooking gear, and that's what she used as a 'trivet'.

Spence

 

[George]

When I first started cooking in a Dutch oven all I had to go on was 'book larnin'. Must have skipped a page when they were describing using a trivet in the oven, putting the food in a separate dish and using the oven as.... an oven. After I got a little experience under my belt, I used to cook a cherry cobbler, lots of sugar and no bottom crust, directly in the oven. If you can do that without burning it you can fool yourself into thinking you know how to cook in a Dutch oven. 'Tain't necessarily so, and even if you pull it off it's unnecessary punishment for the cook. :haha:

Spence

 

[satx78247]

IF you have access to a 16" or larger diameter DO, you can put a handful of pebbles on the bottom of the DO, then set the pie-plate on the pebbles & fix a "big 'ole double-crust pie" with little/no danger of burning it.

Our guys of 10th LA Regiment, PACSA, are really fond of lemon & coconut meringue pie & can eat more pieces than anybody can bake!!

yours, satx

 

[coloradoclyde]

A trivet, bottle caps, another pie pan stones, etc...all serve the same purpose...
To separate the pan from the bottom of the oven and allow for better heat control....Useful for both the novice and seasoned expert, the charcoal user and the guy using wood coals...

 

[Black Hand]

All baking aside, the best fried chicken I've made came out of a dutch oven. Makes a great bread pudding too.

 

[crockett]

Thanks. My Dutch Oven is a small one, I might be able to get a tiny pie plate into it. I never knew they were used that way.
On the "pie thing" I am currently reading a biography on Aaron Burr. His father pretty much started Princeton University. Burr was orphaned at 2 1/2 and maybe that formed his personality. In any event p. 15 (just starting to read the book) mentions his mother during the French and Idian War "made mince pyes and Cocoa nut tarts."
Never thought cocoanut pie was around in the F&IW.

 

[gearheart]

The old one man aluminum mess kits we had in Boy Scouts had an eating plate and fry pan that clamped together with a tiny pot with bail and lid and cup that went inside. They are still available but not nearly as well made. The pan and plate both make reasonable pie tins albeit for a smallish pie.

 

[Black Hand]

"...Cocoa nut tarts."

Was there a recipe? I'm a big fan of coconut...

 

[George]

"Cocoa nuts" might well be the chocolate bean, not coconuts.

Spence

 

[Black Hand]

True. But coconuts were not unknown at the time, which is why I asked...

 

[crockett]

No recipes. Sorry. I thought about that- if it was what we think today as Coconut.

 

[Black Hand]

Too bad. Coconut tarts sound delicious!

 

[George]

Yes, I agree, coconuts may well have been around. I've never collected an unquestioned reference to them, but that means nothing. I do have a few to cocoa nuts, such as this one:

"The Pennsylvania Gazette
January 7, 1762
To be Sold by the Subscriber, A VERY neat Pair of Steel Rollers , faced with Brass Half Inch Thick, with Steel Coggs, and Brass Cudgeons, the Rollers 7 Inches in Length, for the Use of grinding Cocoa Nuts. Any Chocolate Grinder, by applying within ten Days, may see the same, if not sold. WILLIAM YOUNG."

But there is this from 1770, which makes it seem it's coconuts being used;

"Cocoa Nut Puffs
Take a Cocoa Nut and dry it well before the fire, then grate it and add to it a good spoonfull of Butter, sugar to your tast, six Eggs with half the whites and 2 spoonfulls of rose water. Mix them all together and they muste be well beat before they are put in the Oven."
---The Receipt Book of Harriott Pickney Horry, 1770, editoed with an Introduction by Richard J. Hooker [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1984 (p. 71)

I'd like to have a reference to coconuts if anyone has any.

I'm a coconut nut, too.

Spence