Hopkins - Dutch oven secrets

Cover: Ridgeway by Kelty Dutch oven lid used by permission. Ridgeway by Kelty is a registered trademark of American Recreation Products, Inc. Cast iron cooksets with the Ridgeway by Kelty brand are available exclusively at Costco.

Lynn Hopkins

art by Fred VanDyke

Copyright 1995, 1998, 2004 by

H ORIZON P UBLISHERS & D ISTRIBUTORS , I NC.

All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or any part thereof, in any form
or by any media, without written permission is prohibited.

Eleventh Printing: July2004

International Standard Book Number:
9781-462104215

Horizon Publishers Catalog and Order Number:
H1214

Printed and distributed
in the United States of America by

Mailing Address:

2373 W. 700 S., Springville, UT, 84663

www.cedarfort.com

The second time I ever cooked in a Dutch oven was in the World Championship Dutch Oven Cook-off. I had heard advertisements on the radio and thought it sounded fun. I called one of the committee members and after a short pep talk, I was signed up for two nights to cook. During my conversation with the committee member, she mentioned cooking with charcoal briquettes. What a novel idea! It sounded easy enough.

The day of the competition came. I gathered my few tools and an old bag of charcoal my wifes grandmother had given us, and headed for the competition. I had planned to make a vegetable medley. I had plenty of time so I meticulously cut up all the vegetables and arranged them in a large bowl to look pretty. Then I waited. I tried walking around to other contestants to help relieve some of my anxiety, but it only seemed to increase.

I dumped out a pile of briquettes, just as I had seen others do, poured on some lighter fluid and lit the match to them. They burst into flames. As the lighter fluid burned out so did the fire and my briquettes still werent lit. To remedy the situation, I poured more fluid on the briquettes. The flames lasted a little longer but the briquettes still didnt light. How embarrassing! I was entered in a world championship cook-off and I couldnt even get my fire lit. I tried and tried, but to no avail. I had gone through a 12-inch stack of newspaper and a full can of lighter fluid. Those briquettes were not going to light!

With only fifteen or twenty minutes until I was to be judged, a dear couple in the pit next to mine recognized my plight and offered the use of their coals. The vegetables had a slight bone to them, but they were warm.

I learned two very important lessons that day. First, you cant beat the type of people that cook in Dutch ovens. They are the greatest. If you make a Dutch oven cook your friend, you have a friend for life. Some people say it is the food that keeps people cooking in the big black pots, others say it is the friendships. I say it is both. The second thing I learned was to never use 10-year-old charcoalespecially in a contest.

Im not claiming to be the worlds greatest Dutch oven cook. All I want to do with this book is share a few secrets I have learned over the years to help make Dutch oven cooking as enjoyable for you as it has been for me. This book will take you from buying a new Dutch oven to cooking for a crowd. You may not be interested in all the chapters, but hopefully, you can find a few secrets to adapt to your own style of cooking. Whatever your goal, bon appetite.

I remember how excited I was when I acquired my first Dutch oven. I was anxious to get into the wilds and cook with it, but I had no idea how to start. I searched the box the oven came in and found a little slip of paper that told how to season my Dutch oven. I studied it and did exactly what it said. I didnt want to ruin my oven without even being able to cook in it once! Since then I have learned that Dutch ovens are very forgiving and take a lot of abuse. I also learned that there are a lot of ways to season a Dutch oven. I heard of people filling the oven with salt and oil and baking it. Others just cooked up a good batch of extra-greasy potatoes and called their oven seasoned. Some people use all-vegetable oil and others use animal fats. I mention this to let you know there is more than one way to season a Dutch oven. The method suggested in this chapter is the one I prefer. If you have an aluminum Dutch oven refer to the section on aluminum Dutch oven care later in this chapter.

First, lets concentrate on what to do with the oven when you get it. This process is called seasoning your Dutch oven. Generally, it is only done once, unless your oven becomes rusty or something happens to the seasoned finish and you need to start over. Follow these simple steps and youll be successful every time.

1. Remove the oven from the box. Make sure the lid is there and everything is intact and free of cracks and chips. If your oven is cracked or broken, return it for exchange or refund.

2. Wash the oven in warm soapy water. When the oven leaves the Factory it is sprayed with a clear sealant to keep it from rusting while in storage. This sealant must be removed before trying to season the Oven. Look for any rust. If there is any, remove it with steel wool or a small wire brush. it is very important to start the seasoning process with a clean, rust- free oven.

3. Dry your oven thoroughly and place it on a heat source. A heat source could be a hot fire, a gas barbeque grill or in a 350 to 400 oven. Regardless of the heat source, never allow the oven to become heated to the point of being cherry red. This causes the oven to warp or even break. The lid will never seat properly again, which will limit what can be cooked in the oven. Most people do not like seasoning their Dutch oven in the kitchen because it tends to smoke up the house.

4. When the oven is hot (approximately 350 to 400) remove it from the heat source and wipe on a very thin coat of all-vegetable oil, coating the entire oven and lid inside and out.

5. Return the oven to the heat source until it stops smoking.

Seasoning a Cast-iron Dutch Oven

6. Remove the oven and wipe on another very thin coat of all-vegetable oil and then let it cool.

7. The oven is now considered seasoned. If a Dutch oven is well-seasoned and cleaned properly after each use, it will turn jet black with the beautiful shiny surface typical of a well-cared-for Dutch oven.

There are many ways to dean a Dutch oven. I have seen people turn ovens upside down on the fire and burn them out. Another method is to wash them out after each use. I dont care for either method. They both destroy the seasoning you worked so hard to establish, making it necessary to re-season the oven after each use. Thats a lot of extra work, and if you re-season after each use you are missing out on some of the best-tasting food you can make. After you have used a Dutch oven for a period of time and have built up the seasoning, you get tastes out of your oven otherwise not possible. Personally, this is why Dutch oven cooking is so distinctive and everyone says that everything tastes better when cooked in a Dutch oven.