Winterton - Lets go Dutch: easy recipes for outdoor cooking

When purchasing a Dutch oven, look for lumps in the casting. Lumps cause hot spots you want to avoid. Look at the thickness of all sides of a Dutch oven. If one side is thinner than the other, it will not cook evenly and your results will be poor. Also, make sure the lid sits flat and does not rock to ensure there is a good seal when cooking. However, if the lid moves side to side slightly, that is fine.

The Camp Chef Ultimate Dutch oven is a special Dutch oven that is designed for convection cooking. It has two racks, one on the bottom for cooking the meat, and one near the top for cooking vegetables, and many other uses, such as for cooking pies. They come in either aluminum or cast iron. I use the Camp Chef Ultimate for the recipe because it is such a moist cake that it does not get done in the middle and burns on the edges when cooked in a regular Dutch oven. It comes out more like a Bundt cake.

All Dutch ovens come with a wax on them to protect during shipping (unless it has been preseasoned). To season a new Dutch oven, scrub off all the wax and then coat with shortening. Place Dutch oven upside down in a barbecue or an oven (to allow shortening to drip off when heating), and heat to 400 degrees for 30 minutes. This begins to make the nonstick surface for which Dutch ovens are famous. Let the oven cool naturally, and when you can touch it with your hands, place the lid back on the Dutch oven and let it continue to cool. The more you use the oven, the more seasoned or nonstick it will become. Depending on the frequency of use, you may have to season several times a year. When the oven starts to smell rancid, do the whole seasoning process again.

When you clean a Dutch oven after it has been seasoned, dont use soap. The soap pulls the seasoning out and you will have to season it again. Use really hot water and a plastic scrubbing pad. Never use anything metal. Metal will scrape away the ovens nonstick surface.

Store a Dutch oven with something between the lid and the pot, such as a rolled-up paper towel. This allows air to flow through it during storage and helps keep the oven from becoming rancid. If the oven gives off a funny pungent smell, you know it is rancid and needs to be seasoned again. If you use your oven year-round, it will not become rancid. If your oven becomes rusty, you are not using it often enough. Scrub the rust off with an SOS pad, dry, and then season it again.

Use your Dutch oven year-round; just set it up anywhere it will be protected from wind, such as a patio, garage, or even the oven. Wind carries the heat away, so it is important to be in a wind-free area.

Charcoal briquettes, or coals, are used in all of the recipes in this book, and heat control is important in a Dutch oven. Take the size of the oven, such as 12-inch, then double that number to 24. This gives you the number of coals to start with to reach 350 degrees of heat. A 14-inch would be 28, a 16-inch would be 32, and so on. Place 10 coals under the Dutch oven and put the rest on top. Each additional coal placed on the oven adds approximately 20 degrees. For baking, put most of the heat on the lid. For frying, put most of the heat on the bottom. You will almost never put a coal in the center of the oven (bottom or lid) as it will make a hot spot and burn food, causing poor results.

Be mindful of the size of your coals so your heat doesnt drop. When coals are the size of a quarter, its time to replace them with new ones.

Rotate the Dutch oven every 10 minutes by moving lid counterclockwise and bottom clockwise. This will help to cook more evenly, especially with cakes and breads.

When reducing sauces or liquids in a recipe, place moisture managers between the lid and the Dutch oven or use clothespins to help hold the lid ajar. This allows the moisture to escape.

You may use a Dutch oven in your indoor oven. To use a camp oven that has legs, just pull the indoor oven rack out far enough that you can turn the legs on your camp oven to fit between the wires on the rack. Then push it back in the indoor oven and begin the cooking process. If you have a Dutch oven that is meant to be used in an indoor oven, there will be no legs. Just place it in the oven and cook at the temperature in the recipe, no coals needed. There are also Dutch ovens that are covered with porcelain that are specifically made for use in your indoor oven. The cooking times should be about the same whether cooking with coals or in your home oven.

Experiment with your Dutch oven and get creative with your recipes. You may even want to enter a Dutch oven cook-off. Look at the International Dutch Oven Society website, idos.org, for a cook-off near you.