I was reading the book Dutch Oven Cooking 4th edition by John G. Ragsdale and I came to the realization that the recipes were not adapted to Dutch oven cooking. These were recipies that could be made on the stove or in the oven at home. The only difference might be the use of easy to store ingredients or putting the dough into a pan that fits into the circular oven instead of a cookie sheet.
With that thought, many cooking experiences open up to us.
Enjoy this vegetarian casserole.
2 med eggplants peeled and cubed
1 egg
1 cup cottage cheese
1 10.75 oz can mushroom or tomato soup
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
4 oz Mozzarella cheese
1 cup bread or cracker crumbs
1. Boil eggplant until tender (approx 5 min). Drain.
2. Beat egg and stir in with cottage cheese, soup, and seasoning. Stir in the eggplant and put into oiled pan or Dutch oven.
3. Place sliced cheese over mixture and sprinkle with crumbs.
4. Bake for 30 min.
You could use zucchini but don't boil. This will be more watery than when using eggplant.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Friday, September 27, 2013
Pot Roast and Gravy for 8 people
Pot Roast Time: 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours
Ingredients:
Taken from Camp Cookery for Small Groups, BSA 1986 printing, pg 26-27
Ingredients:
- Chuck roast 2 1/2 - 4 1/2 lbs ( a large bone or lots of fat requires the high side of the range)
- Flour 1/2 cup
- Salt 1/2 teaspoon
- Pepper 1/8 teaspoon
- Shortening 3 Tablespoons
- Carrots 8 medium
- Onions 8 small
- Potatoes 8 medium
- Water 2+ cups
1. Place shortening in Dutch Oven and place over coals to heat
2. Mix flour, salt, and pepper together in a bag or bowl. Place meat in flour mixture.
3. Press flour mixture into meat. Use your hands.
4. When Dutch oven is hot, put meat in and brown thouroughly to seal juices in. This should be a hard dark brown.
4. When the meat is browned, place a rack in the oven, place the meat on the rack and then WITH UTMOST CAUTION, pour 2 cups of water into the oven. (THE WATER WILL CAUSE THE GREASE TO SPLATTER POSSIBLY CAUSING BURNS. Add water fast along side of pan and use the lid as a shield to protect your face)
5. Put the lid on and put oven over fire to heat liquid. As soon as the liquid starts to simmer, remove a few coals from under the oven and maintain the simmer. (Simmer means the water is just about to boil, but is not doing it much)
6. Check the roast in 30 minutes. If the water is almost gone, or it is boiling hard (lots of very big bubbles popping all the time) the coals are too hot. Reduce the heat and add more water to pot. If their is no water movement, the temperature is too cool.
7. Check every 20 or 30 minutes to make sure the water is simmering.
8. One hour before you anticipate eating, prepare the vegetables and put them in the oven. Add water if the it is almost gone. Maintain simmer.
9. Keep checking every 20-30 minutes. The meat and vegetables will be done when the vegetables are fork tender. (Fork will easily go into the vegetables)
GRAVY
- Drippings in the pan from the meat
- Water
- Flour
- Salt
- Pepper
1. Remove meat to platter for resting and then carving
2. Put enough water into pan to bring the drippings to approximately 2 cups. Bring to boil.
3. Put 4 Tablespoons cool/cold water into small bowl.
4. Slowly add 4 Tablespoons of flour to cool water, stirring as you do to form a smooth paste.
5. Once the drippings are boiling, remove from fire and slowly stir in the flour paste. Put back on fire and cook slowly for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.
(steps 3 and 4 are very important for making gravy without lumps)
Taken from Camp Cookery for Small Groups, BSA 1986 printing, pg 26-27
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Tortilla Lasagna
This recipe was found on line and is scant on details, but experiment!
This recipe can be used with whatever you usually like to add to lasagna.
Meat - 1 lb
Sauce - 1 jar or make your own
Mozzarella grated - 1 pk
Chopped tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant (optional)
Flour tortillas
Cook the meat. Layer tortillas, sauce, cheese, and other ingredients in a Dutch oven and set over coals for approximately 45 minutes or until heated through.
Source:
http://www.cooks.com/recipe/qy0bc2pj/dutch-oven-tortilla-lasagna.html
This recipe can be used with whatever you usually like to add to lasagna.
Meat - 1 lb
Sauce - 1 jar or make your own
Mozzarella grated - 1 pk
Chopped tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant (optional)
Flour tortillas
Cook the meat. Layer tortillas, sauce, cheese, and other ingredients in a Dutch oven and set over coals for approximately 45 minutes or until heated through.
Source:
http://www.cooks.com/recipe/qy0bc2pj/dutch-oven-tortilla-lasagna.html
Monday, September 23, 2013
Cinnamon Rolls for 8 people
Time to complete 25-30 minutes
Temperature required 425 degrees
Ingredients
Temperature required 425 degrees
Ingredients
- Shortening
- Biscuit mix 2 cups
- Milk 2/3 cup
- Brown sugar 3 Tablespoons (white can be used if needed)
- Cinnamon 1 Tablespoon
- Butter 2 Tablespoons
- Flour
- Nuts or Raisins 1/2 cup each (optional)
- Wax paper
Instructions
1. Preheat Dutch oven with a rack
2. Grease cake pan or pie pan that will fit in Dutch oven.
3. Mix together milk and biscuit mix.
4. Prepare an area to roll the dough. If needed, cut wax paper approximately 12x18 inches and sprinkle lightly with flour.
5. Roll dough into 8 x 14 inch rectangle.
6. Sprinkle cinnamon, sugar, nuts, raisins, and small bits of butter all over the dough.
7. Roll the dough lengthwise into a long log (think jelly roll)
8. Cut the roll into 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices ( a serrated knife makes this easier)
9. Place slices into greased pan with cut side on the bottom.
10.Put pan quickly into oven so as to not loose heat.
11. Check in 5 minutes. If a slight crust has not started to form, add some coals. If the rolls have started to brown, reduce the heat by removing some of the coals. Recheck in 5 more minutes.
With proper heat, the rolls should be ready in 15-20 minutes.
Taken from Camp Cookery for Small Groups, BSA 1986 printing, pg 63-64
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Cooking Terms
Some terms you might encounter in these recipes or ones from home.
Baste To moisten food with a liquid or fat while cooking. Think of turkey.
Beat Combine ingredients vigorously until the mixture is smooth and a uniform consistency. This is often needed to put air into the mixture. Think cake batter, meringue, or scrambled eggs.
Blend Combine ingredients until smooth. This is similar to beat but not as hard. Sometimes the different ingredients might still be identifiable. Think blended drinks, cookie dough, soups, or sauces.
Braise Cooking tougher cuts of meat in an covered pan with the addition of water
Brown Cook something at high heat until the surface turns brown.
Cut in This refers to the method of combining solid fats into dry ingredients when making pastries or biscuits. The butter is cut or chopped with a pasty blender or two butter knives and then covered with the flour, repeatedly until the consistency is similar to corn meal or peas.
Dredge To coat meat, seafood, or vegetables in a flour mixture before browning or frying.
Fold Gently spoon one mixture over another mixture until combined in order to prevent the loss of air. Think whipped cream in a pie mix, or beaten eggs in a souffle.
Fork Tender If a fork can easily penetrate and/or cut the item, it is done. Usually for vegetables.
Hard Boil Different degrees of boiling refer to how fast the bubbles rise to the surface, pop, and release steam. Hard boil is sometimes considered rolling boil. For this definition, the bubbles are so fast, that stirring the pot will not cause the bubbles to slow down.
Knead Folding and squishing of dough on a floured surface to improve the gluten content (Air pockets and rising) of the dough. This is essential for yeast doughs, however over kneading some biscuits can make them tough.
Mix Combining ingredients less vigorously than beating. Often stated mix until moist, or just combined. This is often used for biscuits some cookies, non-yeast breads, or alternatively items that are too big to loose their uniqueness like chopped vegetables in a one pot meal.
Poach Cooking something in liquid that is at a simmer. Eggs, fish, and chicken are the most common examples.
Saute Cooking in hot fat over medium heat with lots of tossing and turning.
Sear Similar to browning. Usually used in reference to meat.
Simmer Cook liquid just below the boiling point, bubbles will slowly rise and pop below the surface of the liquid
Tenderize To make meat easier to cook or chew by softening the tissues by pounding, with chemicals, or by covering in acidic juices (vinegar, lemon juice, apple juice...)
Whip Beating ingredients for the sole purpose of adding air and increasing volume.
Sources:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/tips/glossary-page/techniques
Cooking, BSA 1999 printing
Mrs. Herrera
Baste To moisten food with a liquid or fat while cooking. Think of turkey.
Beat Combine ingredients vigorously until the mixture is smooth and a uniform consistency. This is often needed to put air into the mixture. Think cake batter, meringue, or scrambled eggs.
Blend Combine ingredients until smooth. This is similar to beat but not as hard. Sometimes the different ingredients might still be identifiable. Think blended drinks, cookie dough, soups, or sauces.
Braise Cooking tougher cuts of meat in an covered pan with the addition of water
Brown Cook something at high heat until the surface turns brown.
Cut in This refers to the method of combining solid fats into dry ingredients when making pastries or biscuits. The butter is cut or chopped with a pasty blender or two butter knives and then covered with the flour, repeatedly until the consistency is similar to corn meal or peas.
Dredge To coat meat, seafood, or vegetables in a flour mixture before browning or frying.
Fold Gently spoon one mixture over another mixture until combined in order to prevent the loss of air. Think whipped cream in a pie mix, or beaten eggs in a souffle.
Fork Tender If a fork can easily penetrate and/or cut the item, it is done. Usually for vegetables.
Hard Boil Different degrees of boiling refer to how fast the bubbles rise to the surface, pop, and release steam. Hard boil is sometimes considered rolling boil. For this definition, the bubbles are so fast, that stirring the pot will not cause the bubbles to slow down.
Knead Folding and squishing of dough on a floured surface to improve the gluten content (Air pockets and rising) of the dough. This is essential for yeast doughs, however over kneading some biscuits can make them tough.
Mix Combining ingredients less vigorously than beating. Often stated mix until moist, or just combined. This is often used for biscuits some cookies, non-yeast breads, or alternatively items that are too big to loose their uniqueness like chopped vegetables in a one pot meal.
Poach Cooking something in liquid that is at a simmer. Eggs, fish, and chicken are the most common examples.
Saute Cooking in hot fat over medium heat with lots of tossing and turning.
Sear Similar to browning. Usually used in reference to meat.
Simmer Cook liquid just below the boiling point, bubbles will slowly rise and pop below the surface of the liquid
Tenderize To make meat easier to cook or chew by softening the tissues by pounding, with chemicals, or by covering in acidic juices (vinegar, lemon juice, apple juice...)
Whip Beating ingredients for the sole purpose of adding air and increasing volume.
Sources:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/tips/glossary-page/techniques
Cooking, BSA 1999 printing
Mrs. Herrera
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Dutch Oven Heat Control
Heat control or temperature control is going to be the art to cooking with a Dutch oven. Everyone agrees that is better to err on the side of lower temperatures and cook longer, than to cook too hot and end up with charcoal inside and outside the oven.
Things to consider when establishing the heat.
http://www.dutchovendude.com/campfire-cooking.shtml
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/DutchOven/DutchOvenCooking.htm
Cooking, BSA 1999 printing
Camp Cookery for Small Groups, BSA 1986 printing
Things to consider when establishing the heat.
- Weather conditions
- Placement of coals vs. what is being cooked
- To preheat the oven or not (don't put cold items in a heated oven or it might crack)
- Use of charcoal briquettes vs. fire coals
- Aluminum vs. iron ovens
Weather conditions: Cold, wind, and rain will all make maintaining the temperature more difficult. Aluminum foil could be used as as a insulator blanket if the ground is cold or wet. Foil can also be used as a windbreak, or to reflect heat back towards the oven. Depending on what conditions and helps are used, you might need to use more coals, or check the cooking times more frequently. Altitude can increase cooking times.
Placement of coals vs. what is being cooked: There is some contradiction between sources as to what is the proper placement of coals. I am using, for this article, the two internet sources as they are more recent and are more closely related to regular cooking.
The Cooking merit badge book also describes placing a teaspoon of flour onto a oven safe plate which is then placed in the Dutch oven. In five (5) minutes, the color of the flour will estimate the temperature of the oven.
Use of charcoal briquets vs coals: Charcoal briquets are often what cookbooks will recommend because it is easier to specify how many briquets to use. Unfortunately not all briquets are of the same quality. One way to double check the recommendations or your briquets is to double the size of your oven and use that number of briquets. Lay them around the circumference of the cover and base. For a 12 inch oven, you should get a complete circle with about 15-16 briquets on the top and a complete circle with the remainder on the bottom. This will result in a 350 degree oven. If you do not get this, or if it is not similar to the cookbook, it is possible that a different quality briquet is being used. Dutchovendude describes how to modify the temperature of the oven by adjusting the circle of briquets.
If you wish to use coals instead of briquets, the circle technique described above can be used to get the correct temperature.
Aluminum vs Iron ovens: Cast iron ovens are very traditional. They heat up slowly and evenly. Aluminum ovens are going to heat up faster and cool down faster. The various references I looked up did not have any modifications in the amount of coals, timing, or temperatures for the different types of oven. Although the sources said they did not have any troubles using aluminum ovens, try out the recipe and monitor it closely to ensure the temperatures are correct before entering into a cooking contest.
Once you have the heat established, there is one more aspect to controlling the heat: Rotation.
There is a natural variation in the amount of heat that either a briquet or coal gives out. To ensure even heating, it is important to rotate the oven and cover. One way to do this is:
1. Lift the whole oven off the campfire by the wire bail and rotate clockwise 1/3 of a revolution.
2. Set the oven back down (it should fit in the same spaces in the coals)
3. With a lid lifter, lift the lid and rotate counter clockwise 1/3 of a turn ( logo should be where it started.)
You might want to do this every 10 minutes or so.
With these tips, you are on your way to preparing feasts that will amaze your fellow campers.
- Frying-all heat from bottom
- Stew, soups - 2/3-3/4 heat on bottom, 1/3-1/4 heat on top
- Roasting meats, vegetables, cobblers - even heat on top and bottom
- Baking bread, cookies, cakes - 1/3-1/4 heat on bottom, 2/3-3/4 heat on top.
Preheating: While preheating is normally done for frying or roasting of meat in order to create an instant "crust" which retains the meat juices, the requirement for preheating other dishes is contradictory. Perhaps cooking times might be increased without preheating, or more fiddling with coals and temperatures of the items going into the oven might be encountered with preheating. The BSA source states,
"I have found with the oven set over 27-30 charcoal briquettes and the same number of briquets on the lid, the temperature in a 12 inch diameter oven will reach 450 degrees F or higher within 12 to 15 minutes. This temperature can be maintained for 30 minutes or more with the number of briquets under the oven reduced to 12 and with the number on the lid reduced to 9."Dutchovendude has a method to estimate temperature on his website called the hand test.
The Cooking merit badge book also describes placing a teaspoon of flour onto a oven safe plate which is then placed in the Dutch oven. In five (5) minutes, the color of the flour will estimate the temperature of the oven.
Use of charcoal briquets vs coals: Charcoal briquets are often what cookbooks will recommend because it is easier to specify how many briquets to use. Unfortunately not all briquets are of the same quality. One way to double check the recommendations or your briquets is to double the size of your oven and use that number of briquets. Lay them around the circumference of the cover and base. For a 12 inch oven, you should get a complete circle with about 15-16 briquets on the top and a complete circle with the remainder on the bottom. This will result in a 350 degree oven. If you do not get this, or if it is not similar to the cookbook, it is possible that a different quality briquet is being used. Dutchovendude describes how to modify the temperature of the oven by adjusting the circle of briquets.
If you wish to use coals instead of briquets, the circle technique described above can be used to get the correct temperature.
Aluminum vs Iron ovens: Cast iron ovens are very traditional. They heat up slowly and evenly. Aluminum ovens are going to heat up faster and cool down faster. The various references I looked up did not have any modifications in the amount of coals, timing, or temperatures for the different types of oven. Although the sources said they did not have any troubles using aluminum ovens, try out the recipe and monitor it closely to ensure the temperatures are correct before entering into a cooking contest.
Once you have the heat established, there is one more aspect to controlling the heat: Rotation.
There is a natural variation in the amount of heat that either a briquet or coal gives out. To ensure even heating, it is important to rotate the oven and cover. One way to do this is:
1. Lift the whole oven off the campfire by the wire bail and rotate clockwise 1/3 of a revolution.
2. Set the oven back down (it should fit in the same spaces in the coals)
3. With a lid lifter, lift the lid and rotate counter clockwise 1/3 of a turn ( logo should be where it started.)
You might want to do this every 10 minutes or so.
With these tips, you are on your way to preparing feasts that will amaze your fellow campers.
http://www.dutchovendude.com/campfire-cooking.shtml
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/DutchOven/DutchOvenCooking.htm
Cooking, BSA 1999 printing
Camp Cookery for Small Groups, BSA 1986 printing
Friday, September 6, 2013
Dutch Ovens
If you are going to be campfire or charcoal camping, then the Dutch oven will become an invaluable resource to allow you to make a great variety of meals. Stews, roasts, lasagna, or pies can all be made in a Dutch oven.
A Dutch oven used in camping differs in a few significant ways from one you might find in your kitchen. The first difference to notice is three legs that allow the oven to sit above the coals. Look for sturdy legs approximately one inch high. The second difference is the lid. A Dutch oven lid for camping is going to have a raised lip around the outside that allows coals to be placed on the cover for more efficient heating. This lid should fit snugly, without any rocking, Also look for a strong wire bale handle for moving the oven, and a looped handle on the lid which is not riveted.Dutch ovens can be made from either cast aluminum or cast iron. While cast aluminum can be used and washed like normal cookware, cast iron cookware requires some special care.
The first thing to do with a brand new cast iron Dutch oven is to "season" it. Seasoning is basically cooking layers of grease into the pan to protect it from oxidation and water. This will benefit both the taste and the cleanup as it acts like a non-stick layer when done well. Both websites in the source section offer procedures on how to season, condition, or break-in cast iron ovens.
A big question that newbies to cast iron cooking often ask, is "How do we clean this, so that it does not need to be re-seasoned all the time. 1. Remove as much food as possible. 2. Pour a few inches of water in the oven ( make sure it is neither too hot nor too cold for the present temperature of the oven otherwise it could crack) 3. Put the lid on the oven and heat it up. The water and steam will soften any remaining food residue. 4. Remove from heat until it is safe to handle and then using either plastic or a sponge, scrape off the remaining food. 5. Discard the water and rinse. 6. Thoroughly dry the oven. Setting it near the fire for about 5 minutes will help evaporate the moisture 7. Allow to cool to a safe working temperature and use a paper towel to rub a small amount of vegetable oil over the interior and exterior. There are many warnings about using soap because it will degrade the seasoning and even impact the taste of food cooked in the oven.
If someone did not do a good job cleaning the oven, and fuzzy life is now inhabiting your oven, fear not, it can be reclaimed. Dutchovendude in the sources section has a description on reclaiming your oven by the use of fire.
Sources:
Camp Cookery for Small Groups, BSA, 1986 printing pg 14
http://www.dutchovendude.com/camp-cooking.shtml
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/DutchOven/DutchOvenCooking.htm
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