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October 30th, 2009 admin

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How to Use a Dutch Oven

You needn’t forsake your favorite roasted or baked foods when cooking over an open fire. Recipes that you didn’t think could get any better are sometimes improved with this method. When cooking over an open fire, use a Dutch oven with a lipped lid and three feet on the bottom.

STIR WITH A WOODEN SPOON
Metal ladles, spoons or spatulas shouldn’t be used on seasoned cast iron. Metal will damage the seasoned coating, so use wood instead.

A COOK’S FIRE
Build a hot fire using hard wood at least an hour prior to the time you wish to begin cooking. Stay away from using soft wood or retailed charcoal for your fuel. Soft, resinous woods (like pine) tend to burn cool and produce a lot of black soot. Not only is this residue bad for humans, it leaves a flammable coating on chimneys, and coats your cookware with soot. Because chemical additives and binders are used in the manufacturing process of charcoal, I don’t use commercial briquettes in my cook fire. Avoid both of these problems by learning to build a good cook fire from hardwood. Check to be sure you’ve gotten a good bed of red hot coals laid. Use an oven mitt or cloth to protect your hands as well as a curved iron tool to lift the lid from your pot.

HOW TO PREHEAT
Use a clean cloth or paper towel to coat the inside of your pot and lid with olive oil. While you prepare your ingredients, place the lid on your Dutch oven and set it near the fire to warm. This is similar to pre-heating your standard oven. The oil penetrates the iron as the pot is warmed, making the vessel ready to cook. Ash is kept out of the pot by the well-seated lid. If your recipe calls for peppers, onions, or carrots, I add them to the oven at this point to simmer a bit and to provide a cushion between the bottom of the pot and the rest of my ingredients.

ADDING THE FOOD
Pre-measure and prepare the ingredients. Remember the seasonings. Move your heated Dutch oven a comfortable distance from your fire. The hot lid is best removed by using a curved metal rod.

Now add the remaining ingredients to the pot. If you are cooking rice, this is when you would add your water/broth and the rice. The vegetables should be added next. The last ingredient I add is my meat as the juices from the meat will help season the vegetables/rice/potatoes beneath it. Be mindful of the depth of your pot at this point as you don’t want your food to touch the underside of your pot’s lid. If cooking a bread or desert, layer the ingredients in the same way you would if using a conventional oven. Cover the pot with the lid.

SETTING THE OVEN IN THE COALS
Use a shovel to move some hot coals to the edge of the fire into a small pile. I find that this makes things much more manageable than trying to place the Dutch oven into the fire. Rest the Dutch oven on this small pile and then shovel more hot coals onto the lid. Once you’ve evenly covered the lid with hot coals, and made sure there is a good bed beneath, shovel a bit of ash over the live coals. You are banking the fire. The coals will retain their heat and burn slowly as they aren’t exposed to the air.

Allow your food to cook about the same time as you would in a conventional oven (assuming you have a good bed of coals), possibly 10 minutes more. Use a shovel to scoop the live coals off of the lid of your Dutch oven when cooking is complete. A whisk broom can remove any ash dust. Using a pad, lift the pot by the handle, protecting your hand from the heat. Move the vessel off of the live coals and set it away from the fire. Use a piece of curved iron to lift the lid and set it aside. Check your food. Serve with a wooden spoon if the food has finished cooking. If more time is needed, recover the pot with the lid and replace it onto the small bed of coals scooping more coals back onto the top. After a few minutes, check the food.

If your first try results in a bit of burned crust, that’s fine. This will be avoided when you’ve gotten some practice. The wonderful aroma of hot food will soon silence the critics that will gladly eat around the burnt edges. Seldom are there any leftovers. They are ready to eat!

CLEANUP
For cleanup, gently remove any food residue from the pot with a soft sided scrub pad or wooden spoon. As your pot becomes better seasoned, you’ll find that a paper towel will likely be enough to remove any bits of food. Reheating your pot by sitting it next to the fire will help remove any stubborn bits of glued on food. Dutch ovens should not be run through dishwashers or submerged in dishwater. Detergents and hot water soaks will strip your cast iron of its protective coating. Wipe your cleaned pot with oil to recoat it between uses. When you are able to see your reflection in the bottom of the oven, you’ve gotten a nicely seasoned piece of cast iron. Cover the pot with its lid for storage.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?
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