Can you folks that use a Dutch oven in camp submit some recipe's. I am going to try using my oven this fall and need some info.

For pies or cobbler? Anything? JF

My wife got me a Dutch oven little cook book,from the Amanna colonies over her in Iowa. Lots of good stuff in there. JF

Anything. I actually have two ovens, both bought at yards sales, both were new in the box, both are Lodges and both were $5.00 each.

And I know I got a steal of a deal on them.

Look up Bot Scout recipes, lots of them.

Roasted Chicken:

1 Medium sized chicken 6 potatoes 2 medium onions carrots and celery as desired

Season chicken as desired. Place in oven with about 1 cup of water, wine, beer, or chicken stock. Set it in the edge of a good sized fire or in a BBQ Pit with a large fire laid in it. Go about your business. The chicken will not burn, and will be ready to eat in 3-4 hours. We many times leave them for 8 hours.

Just about any recipe is a Dutch oven recipe. It's all about the principles of using a Dutch oven. There are some good tutorials online if you do a search. Once you are onto the techniques of it, it all falls into place.

Jon I use mine a lot, at home even. You can do anything you want to in them, like any convection oven. Load it with taters, carrots and a roast. Let it cook over the coals for a few hours and your all set. I make a breakfast casserole of sausage, bacon, peppers, eggs, hash browns and cheese. It takes make an hour to complete. Brown the meats first and push them aside, cook off the hash browns and peppers on the other side of the pot, then mix it all together. Crack about 6 or 8 eggs over the top and let it cook for 30 minutes. Add a 1/2 pound of cheese on top and let it melt down. Serve and enjoy! It'll feed 6 guys easy.

I use mine for everything. I even deep fry fish in it. Also I've made camp fire doughnuts. take the biscuits that come in a roll and pop open make a hole in each one put several inches of oil in dutch oven and get hot put in doughnuts let cook on one side when one side is brown roll over in oil when done put in grocery bag with powdered surgar, sugar cinnamon, or just sugar and shake until coated. ENJOY they are great

That breakfast casserole that PD is describing is out SUPERB.

Throw your favorite stuff in, a little water, cover and put on heat source. Couple hours later you can eat it. Flour and brown or just sear a roast in it, cut up some carrots, onions and potatoes, salt and pepper (garlic, if you like) add a little water. Cover and let it sit on heat or in 350* oven for 1.5-3 hrs. and enjoy. It's really hard to mess stuff up in a dutch oven. ENJOY!

Most of our Sunday dinners were done in a dutch oven when I was a kid. Mom put it on before we left for church and we ate it when we got home.

I've made Pizza and calzones using Pillsbury pizza dough, Soda bread, cinnamon rolls using Bisquick. Made pounded venison steak using mushroom soup and beef broth concentrate, same thing using pork tenderloin mushroom soup and chicken broth concentrate, meatloaf, and those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. One thing that helps with clean up is use parchment liners. Anything you can cook in an oven or on top of the stove you can do in a Dutch Oven. DANNY

I want to get a infra-red thermometer so I can start making breads. They are about the only thing that is ultra sensitive to heat control.

Get a package of tubed cinnamon rolls. When you open them, un- roll each one and wrap it back up with a piece of bacon. Backe in the oven and enjoy. There Awesome & Easy!

I grew up around some Masters of cast iron use and not to disregard others,but from what ive seen,you may want to look up Colleen Sloan.She is of the caliber i grew up around. When we sat through her clinic,i remember thinkin,Wish Grandad were here,he would have enjoyed this womans presentation.

Not to hijack your thread , but does anybody else have problems with getting charcoal that lasts longer? The charcoal that's available nowadays doesn't seem to keep the heat going like it used to. We've tried many different brands and not getting the results that we used to. Seems like we need almost twice as many coals as we had in the past. Guess they don't make em like they used to.

Using your convenient backhoe, dig your pit big and deep enough to properly bury a short person, fill with oak, set fire. Drink, smoke, gossip until you've got oak coals. Using your convenient tow truck, lower in your hog. Cover with corrugated steel, shovel in the dirt. Drink, smoke, gossip for two days. Excavate the hog, haul it up with that convenient tow truck. Eat him.

OOPS...that wasn't a Dutch oven, that a matanza/3-D ...4wd way outside Thoreau New Mexico ...fed 100+ of our brethren for two days, fifteen years ago. My Navajo shooting partner was a Bear enthusiast.

I noticed Match Light requires a lot more coals. The good thing about cooking this way is you can always toss a few more briquettes on and not have to worry about the odor on your vittles.

One more thing, get some kind of wind shield. A slight breeze blowing over your coals really burns them up quick.

This is one of my favorites. I usually cook it on my stovetop at home, but have cooked it on a Coleman stove or a bed of hot coals.

PHIL’S JAMBALAYA 1 lg. onion, chopped - 2 garlic cloves, crushed - 1/2 c. chopped celery - 1 lg. green bell pepper, finely chopped - 1 lb. sliced sausage (kielbasa or andouille)- 1 lb. shrimp - 1 lb. cooked chicken - 2 tbsp. olive, vegetable oil, or bacon drippings - 1 can diced tomatoes, (optional)- 1 1/2 c. minute rice - 1 1/2 c. chicken stock - 1 tsp. salt - 1/2 tsp. onion salt - 1 tsp. black pepper - 1 tsp. white pepper - 1 tsp. cayenne pepper - 1 tsp. thyme - 1 tbsp. file (optional)- 1 tsp. oregano - 2 bay leaves -

Tabasco or Louisiana hot sauce to taste

Wimps may use 1/2 teaspoon each of black, white and cayenne pepper; "Cajuns" may use 2 teaspoons each.

Cook the chicken in 4 – 6 cups of water to provide stock.

In a dutch oven on medium to medium high temperature, saute sausage in oil until well browned, remove from pot and drain well, leaving enough oil in the pot to saute the vegetables. Add chopped onion, garlic, celery and bell pepper and saute until almost tender. Add seasonings and continue to saute for 1 minute. If desired add tomatoes. Return sausage to the pot, add cooked chicken pieces and 1 cup stock. Turn heat down to simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. Bring heat back up to medium and add the shrimp, cooking until shrimp is done, do not overcook. Add the rice, turn off the heat, cover and let sit for 10 minutes. Add hot sauce to individuals taste.

One thing is get a good chimney to start your charcoal in. Another thing if the ground is damp or wet, lay a piece of heavy aluminum foil on the ground for the coals you are putting under the Dutch oven they won't draw the moisture that way and keep them hotter or you can use a metal pizza pan. Get one of the Lodge or Camp Chef Dutch Oven bags to carry your oven in, you can keep all your other stuff in there along with your Dutch Oven like your lid lifter, tongs for moving the coals and a lighter. If you get the metal pizza pan get one the same size as your bag, put that in the bottom of the bag it will help to keep the legs of the Dutch oven from trying to poke through. DANNY

Corned Beef and cabbage for dinner then corned beef hash for breakfast. Search google. Thats where I found my recipe.

Am I the only one who thought...

One extra thick blanket and a fart? LOL!

Peach cobbler. 6 cans of peaches in thick sauce. 2 boxes of white or yellow cake mix. 1 stick of butter. Pour the 3 cans of peaches and sauce into Dutch Oven and 3 cans with our the sauce. Add the cake mix on top and the cut the butter into slices on top. Do not mix. 15 pieces of carcoal on the bottom and 30 on top. Rotate 20 degrees every twenty min. Should be done in an hour.

I got a metal lid from a 55 gallon drum to set mine up on. Holds two ovens. Also acquired a Dutch oven table and gave my back a rest! Used both to make apple crisp for 50 or so people one January. The table is really the cat's meow, IMO. Includes a wind break.

I too have noticed a deterioration in quality of the coals available. Especially the match light ones.

You guys who live in hardwood country shouldn't have to buy any coals at all. I'm able to cook with pine coals out of the fire ring even at 10,000 feet but it takes a lot of coals to make heat and keeps Ya busy.

For those asking about charcoal, have you tried lump charcoal? It will burn longer and keep heat better.

Another thing you can do if you don't have ready access to your won firewood (which I MUCH prefer to cook with) buy some bundled firewood if you have to. Get some good Oak or something similar and yo're set.

Thanks to everyone for the tips on cooking and the heat sources. I have never used one and there is some really good info here to help me along.

Jon...I hate to break it to you, but Dutch Oven cooking and campfire cooking in general can be just as addictive as longbows and recurves. LOL! :)

Jon, when you try that peach cobbler recipe over at Chad's just give me a call. Then again, if the wind is from the SE I should be able to smell something cooking and won't need the call!

We make a Dutch oven Enchilada casserole that is pretty dang good. layer tortillas, cheese, chicken, whatever you like. Top with red sauce ( our favorite) and more cheese and onions, and set it in the coals.

Add peppers to taste prior to cooking.

Strawberry rhubarb pie. Mmmmm

Dang...I know what's going to be going on at my house this weekend......

Being Dutch we have had one around for as long as I can remember. Like the photo above being able to put coals on top is important. According to Hill they completely buried theirs with coals. We just used a shallow dig out and through just enough dirt to slow the coals down a little and put some on top. They are very good at making squirrel stew. Problem is I never follow a recipe, I just do whatever and with whatever I can get my hands on. I never go anywhere without a bunch of Italian seasoning and Allspice.

Here you go, the geezer cookbook. There are so many good recipes in there. Enjoy!

https://sites.google.com/site/dutchovenmastery/pies

In nearly all cases (there are always exceptions), once the bottom of your oven is up to temperature, you should run 1/4 to 1/3 of your coals on the bottom and 3/4 to 2/3 on the top. Otherwise you can end up burning on the bottom by the time the top is cooked.

Look at bodymanbowyers pic above and see how many coals he has on top and how nice the top crust of his pie looks.

Strawberry and rhubarb! Gotta try that.

Pot roast tonight

About 3 hours

Potatos and carrots in for another hour and some.

chicken N dumplins:

cut up 3 boneless chicken breasts,celery,onions,carrots, can of chicken broth,salt N peppe,some water.

cover and let cook with coals on bottom and on lid when done add a tube of pop open biscuits and cover and let cook a little longer really easy and good

I participated in a Hawaiian Luaulast Sat. I got the meat for the Luau which consisted of whole boneless pork butts(50#) and about 25 whole chickens. The guy who knew how to cook this, dug a 3 foot deep rectangular pit in the ground. Illed it up with hardwood logs, got a big fire going, with big chunks of lava rocks all around the fire. About 3 hrs later, the fire burned down, he dumped some of the lava rocks in the pit, and then lower a big wire basket lined with cabbage leaves with the pork and chickens on top of the leaves together on to the hot rocks. Then he put aluminum foil on the top, follwed by burlap bags that had been soaking in water for 24 hrs. More hot rocks on top of that and then the dirt dug from the pit on 5op of the wet burlap bags. 4 hours later the basket was pulled out. I 've done the dutch oven cooking whenI was an assistant Scoutmaster years ago. And make no mistake, it's great food cooked in a cast iron pot. But that meat cooked Hawaiian style, blew my mind! This pork and chicken was not spiced at all. It came out more tasty and tender than I've ever had in my entire life. Dutch oven cooking is great, no doubt about it. But try the Luau style some day. You won't regret it.

make your own charcoal, it's easy and there are lots of info on you tube. Basically you put dry wood inside a sealed container, with just one small gas outlet, and "cook" the wood for about eight hours.

As to the Dutch oven, when learning, it's easiest to use charcoal brickets - put maybe 8 - 10 underneath and that many on top (already fully lit and grey) and turn the Dutch over and the lid about 1/4 turn ever 15 minutes for even heat inside. For an easy cobbler, pour a yrellow cake batter into a well oiled Dutch oven, pour a can our two of fruit pie filling on top, bake about an hour using the technique described above - check at 45 minutes to see how it's progressing.

Success breeds success, start easy and controlled, take on more challenge as you gain experience. Most people use WAY too much heat and end up with a pot of charcoal inside the Dutch oven.

Make sure your oven is well seasoned before using - this is done by putting a cup or two of lard inside and putting over a good heat until the lard is almost smoking, carefully swish around to coat the entire inside of the oven, put the lid back on, set near the heat and let slowly cool - 3 - 6 hours of cooling time. If you NEVER wash it with soap it should remain seasoned for life just through use. Over heating it dry or cooking a highly acidic meal in it may require it to be re-seasoned

Slayer "Most people use WAY too much heat and end up with a pot of charcoal inside the Dutch oven."

definitely; they think more is better- have done that myself- -once heated up , those dudes cook, and less is best for sure

Allrighty,were trying out Handyman's. Chicken and dumplings,with more veggies. JF

Andymans smartphone always trying to me smart. JF

Oh the smell of this is drawing he neighbors,mmmm JF

It's been 45 minutes and a Windy day. So I added 4 more charcoal to the bottom and 8 more to the top. JF

Looking good, kids from the next camp site got most of mine -brought their bowels N forks over

think you are gonna like it

And now the bisques with , some Cheese :) JF

Well that was just plain YUMMY. My wife used two cans of broth. And grand bisques. She said next time she would add a little bit of wonders flour,to thicken a bit. Definitely will make this again. Thanks Andyman. JF

Yours looks better than mine Good Hugh?

glad U liked it

The roast was almost gone by the time the pic was taken but my wife made some donuts in a cast skillet for desert. Inspiring thread!

I use a le creuset which is the type of idea, minus the campfire. Definitely a tastey way to cook.

The "basket" in a washer tub can be used to cover your ovens to keep sparks from making the USFS AND BLM nervous. Let's in plenty of air ....

I like to make this chilli recipe in our dutch oven

Oops wrong file ! Lets try this one.

Used mine for a fish fry this weekend.

My peach cobbler recipe. Folks at Shiloh usually like it. Take two of the big cans of sliced peaches in heavy syrup. Open and dump them in the oven. Take one box of Duncan Hines classic yellow cake mix and sprinkle over the top. Then take one stick of butter. Either slice it up small or melt and drizzle over the top of the cake mix. Shovel coals on the top and set on some or if your using charcoal about 10 on the lid and 10-12 under it. 45 minutes. Easy and simple. Mighty good too.

how about baked beans with pork belly bacon mmm,mmm.

Jon, Get your hands on a copy of " The Scout's Outdoor Cookbook". It is written by Christine & Tim Conners. My scout use it on most of our campouts and the meals are great. Martin Looker

Excellent thread, good reading. I just bought a deep 12" and will be cooking with it this weekend. Unlike Mr. Stewart, I paid quite a bit more than $5.

Anyone else using their dutch oven today? We have a beef roast buried under the veggies. It's our first dinner with it. Last weekend we did a peach cobbler and George was right,,,no such things as bad cobbler!

Cooked last weekend at Frontenac State Park.... pot roast and pineapple upside down cake... delish

the secret is Lipton onion soup mix

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