Kautz - The campside guide to Dutch oven cooking: 66 easy, delicious recipes for backpackers, day hikers, and campers

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. Cover design by Rain Saukas Cover photo credit Thinkstock Print ISBN: 978-1-63220-522-3 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63220-910-8 Printed in China Contents Introduction Welcome to the wonderful world of Dutch oven cooking! Once you start cooking outdoors, youll never look at a campfire the same way again. The goal of this book is to make your first efforts with a Dutch oven fun and successful. I believe you will find that Dutch oven cooking really is easy and fun.

Ive compiled a bit of introductory information about using your Dutch oven that should set you out on the right path. The rest of the book is a selection of my sixty-six favorite recipes that work every time. Well, maybe not every time, but darn near. These recipes should be considered starting points, rather than a set of hard rules. Tweaks and changes are how recipes improve to better meet an individuals taste. If you like food spicier than most people, go ahead and put another teaspoon of cayenne in the pot.

If mellow tastes are more to your liking, leave out the jalapeno peppers. If it doesnt turn out quite right this time, try something else next time. As you try these recipes, I would love to hear about your experiences. When you are ready to try other recipes, take a look at and I might add your photo to the website. Just as people tend to gather in the kitchen at home, people do the same around the fire when camping. Cooking is a very social activity.

There are many social groups dedicated to this style of cooking, and they are among the friendliest people youll ever meet. The International Dutch Oven Society (IDOS at http://idos.org) has around thirty chapters in various states, and there are other local groups that would welcome you with open arms. The Dutch Oven Colorful enameled Dutch ovens are great for cooking at home, but only a bare metal oven makes sense in the outdoors. Successful cooking in the wild demands a Dutch oven crafted specifically for the purpose. The design of your Dutch oven for use outdoors should include these important features: Legs Three short legs keep the oven off coals so air reaches them and they burn hot. Bale Heavy wire makes lifting the oven easier and lets you suspend it over a fire.

Flanged Lid The lid and oven fit snugly because the inside of the lid drops slightly inside the oven. Rimmed Lid A raised rim around the edge of the lid keeps coals on top and helps stop ash from dropping into food when opened. Lid Handle The lid should have a closed loop handle cast into the center of the lid. This is very important for lifting the hot lid from the oven. Cast Metal Solid casting of a single piece oven gives it strength and consistent heating. Location of Heat Some food is normally cooked above heat on a stovetop, some surrounded by heat in an oven, and some browned under heat.

In these recipes, there will be a keyword letting you know which kind of heat is required. Please refer to this short list to ensure you apply the correct heat for a successful meal: Frying All heat is underneath. Place all coals under the Dutch oven or on a stove-top burner. Simmering All heat is underneath. Its the same as frying, just a cooler temperature. Baking Even heat is all over.

Place of the coals on top of the Dutch oven and underneath since heat rises, or place it inside a conventional oven. Broiling All heat is on top. Doesnt work well in a Dutch oven, but by moving all the coals to the lid at the end of cooking, we can melt or brown the top. Estimating Heat If you make these recipes at home with your oven, it will be simple to set the temperature. Using fire outdoors will require a little guesswork and estimating of your cooking temperatures. Fortunately, getting the temperature close is good enough.

If you are just beginning to cook outdoors with a Dutch oven, using charcoal briquettes rather than rough wood coals makes it easier to estimate temperature. Once you have an idea of how much heat comes from a certain sized pile of coals, youll be able to successfully cook with any kind of coals. For Baking , the most common temperature is about 325 to 350F. Its easy to approximate that temperature for your Dutch oven: Count out twice the number of briquettes as the diameter of your Dutch oven. For example, a 12-inch diameter Dutch oven requires 24 briquettes. Use your tongs to place of the briquettes in a circle the same diameter as the bottom of the Dutch oven.

Set your Dutch oven over these briquettes. Arrange the remaining of the briquettes around the lid of the Dutch oven. To raise or lower the temperature about 25F, add or subtract a briquette from the top and from the bottom. For Frying , using the same number of briquettes as the Dutch oven diameter plus 2 , all underneath the Dutch oven, will be around 375F. For a 12-inch diameter Dutch oven, this would be 12 + 2 = 14 briquettes. For Simmering , about half the number of briquettes as the diameter of the Dutch oven plus 2 , all underneath the Dutch oven, will be around 225F.

For a 12-inch diameter Dutch oven, this would be 6 + 2 = 8 briquettes. Please keep in mind that all this temperature-setting information is estimating . Many variables will affect the actual heat in your Dutch oven, including humidity, wind, air temperature, and quality of charcoal. Feel free to add, move, or remove coals if the heat seems too low, uneven, or high. If you want to go high-tech, you can use a Dutch oven thermometer to help you hit the right temperatures. Dutch Oven Accessories Before you purchase that Dutch oven thermometer, you might want to consider some other tools and utensils that will work in conjunction with your Dutch oven with its short legs, rimmed lid, and wire bale.

This list is in order with the most important, or most useful, at the top. Gloves Thick, heat-resistant gloves will protect your hands from hot metal, coals, and embers. You will also be able to directly touch the wire bale or Dutch oven for a short time, making lifting and moving the Dutch oven much easier. Synthetic winter gloves wont work for this. You need lined leather gloves, and a tall wrist cover adds more protection. Lid Lifter A pair of pliers works to grip the loop handle of the lid but gets your hands quite close to the coals on top of the Dutch oven lid and is prone to slipping.

A long-handled lid lifter gives you more distance, control, and support. Tongs A pair of long-handled metal tongs works perfectly for moving coals to the exact locations you want them both on and under your Dutch oven. A small shovel can do the job but often picks up ash and dirt along with the coals. Pan Scraper These small polycarbonate rectangles with rounded corners of varying dimensions scrape food off all surfaces inside your Dutch oven. These make clean-up a much easier task. Coal Starter If you use briquettes, save on time and fluid.