Camp Ovens

[Sixgun Symphony]

Also called "Dutch Ovens", anyone here cook in them?

No, I don't mean using one for a melting pot.


I use mine for cornbread and sourdough bisquits.

[bruce drake]

My Personal favorite is Brunswick Stew for mine. Wife won't touch the thing. She might want to wash it out and lose the seasoning.

Bruce

[Bodydoc447]

Having lived in Georgia, I know there are as many recipes for Brunswick stew as there are cooks. What's yours?

Doc

[bruce drake]

Here's my recipe for B Stew. You can switch out the meat but I prefer Squirrel and Rabbit but have been known to offer a civilized chicken.

INGREDIENTS:
2 pounds of Rabbit/Squirrel/Chicken or Pork or a combination, diced and cooked in the Dutch Oven
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons Tobasco hot sauce, or to taste
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 or 2 tablespoons dried minced onion, optional
3 to 4 tablespoons bacon drippings
1/2 cup barbecue sauce, your favorite
1 1/2 cups ketchup
2 to 3 cups diced potatoes
3 cans (15 to 16 ounces each) cream-style corn
PREPARATION:
Peel and Dice Potatos and place into the Oven with a few cups of water. Cook until soft and drain water off and place the cooked potatoes off to one side.
Place meat into Dutch Oven with bacon drippings. Brown the meat over a medium set of coals. Add remaining ingredients and the cooked potatoes and cover and simmer until hot and bubbly. Taste and adjust seasonings with more salt and hot sauce, as desired.

[Bodydoc447]

May have to try that, Bruce. sounds darned tasty.

Doc

[Junior1942]

I have a couple of Lodge 2-quart Camp Dutch Ovens, the ones with the rim around the lid for holding coals. I cook stews, chili, etc., in one, but the other one is strictly bread only. If you want to see a sleeping morning camp come alive just open the lid on a Dutch oven filled with nicely browned biscuits!

[Swede]

You guys are making my mouth water.

[MT Gianni]

We have 5, 3 12"s a 14" and a 10". We generally cook chicken breast and potatoes when we get talked in to catering for 10 - 40 people. Start with 1/2 -1 lb cheap bacon and lay in the chicken breasts boned and skinned. Add a layer of onions between each layerer of chicken. Slice the spuds thin and do the same with onion. Salt and pepper to taste. Garlic powder or grated for all but the wimps. Just before the potatoes are done add a layer of grated cheddar.
We also do roast's, bbq ribs, turkey and cornish game hens. Turn the lids over and cook breakfast, eggs, sausage, warm tortilla's, if its a really flat lid you can cook pancakes. Wipe with paper towell or old cotton cloth to clean it out unless anything was really stuck or had a tomato base in it in which case boil a couple of i nches of water in it for 15 min than dump and wipe again. If you go to buy one make sure you can take it out of the box and check the lid for a perfect fit. Even Lodge is slipping now and you can get a lid that won't seal tight.
I cook with wood coals or briquettes. Charcoal gives an even heat. Don't buy match lite as it burns too fast. The rule of thumb for no wind and moderate outside temperatures is take the diameter of the oven in inches [12] subtract 3 from theat and put that total of briquettes on the bottom [9 ]. Then add the 3 to the top [15] and you have a 350 degree oven. The only other thing I will not do to one is add cream soup to any reciepe as I feel the cook does a real disservice to offer any body that junk. Make a sauce or add a little moisture and you will get great results. Gianni.

[Junior1942]

>If you go to buy one make sure you can take it out of the box and check the lid for a perfect fit. Even Lodge is slipping now and you can get a lid that won't seal tight.

That's good advice. Wal-Mart had a set of Chinese cast iron cookware a while back at a very low price. Seems like it was $35 for a six or eight piece set. However, the lids on all the pots weren't even close to a tight fit. You could rock the lids back and forth. The set was worthless, IMHO.

A close-fitting lid on a cast iron pot or Dutch oven makes a pressure cooker effect.

[btr-cj]

Friday I de-boned a Boston butt into about 8 pieces, seasoned with Tony’s Creole seasoning and a few turns of the pepper mill.
Added
1 LB whole mushrooms
1 bunch of celery chopped into 1 inch pieces
3 chopped onions
6 or 8 cloves of crushed garlic
2 chopped bell peppers

Layer in a Dutch oven and throw into a 375 Deg. oven for about 3 hours.
Rotate the pork every hour or so and the exposed top portion will brown.


C.J.

[redneckdan]

yup, I have one and regularly use it, both on the range/oven and out side with real fire.

[LET-CA]

Chicken and rice was always a favorite of ours on camping trips. Made up with Cream of mushroon soup. Very easy and very good.

[PatMarlin]

I've got a big one and never have used it. I gotta check the lid on it.

[Lee]

Swede, your avatar is making MY mouth water.
To all, thanks for the recipes. Got me spurred for a couple fall "cook-outs" now.........................Lee

[Bad luck Bill]

Wish my name was Joe!

[Four Fingers of Death]

a Bidoorie is an aussie dutch oven made from steel so that if dropped off a pack horse onto rocky ground will not break. The lids make great frypans. The name came from a big cattle station (ranch, 100's of square miles big) which developed them originally.

Rabbit:

I take a couple rabbits, chop the rear end into about 4 bits (usually hoike the front of the lil critter, not enough meat to worry about), wrap in bacon strips, roll in flour or a mix of flour and gravy mix, brown over a quick heat with onions, garlic and chillis if yer that way inclined (watch the fumes, bit like tear gas at this stage). I wash the veges very carefully before peeling and then use the peels as a base for the pieces of rabbit (they get thrown out when the rabbit is cooked, they are just to keep the rabbit from sticking and to give flavour to the gravy, you can do this with any roast, even at home, it is the traditional french way of doing a roast). Chop veges into about largish pieces, not too big as the rabbit will cook before them, toss in oil or smother in oil as I do. I use potatoes, Carrots, parsnips, whole onions whole cloves of garlic sometimes, but they gonna smell you coming! Sweet potatoes are ok too. You can roast this and then use the pan juices as a gravy base (red wine gravy is yummo) or make a stew out of it. Do not use the peels under the meat pieces for a stew and add some liquid, water beer, red wine, white wine, whatever.

Bread:

Self raising flour, big handfull of butter or margarine, can of beer.

rub fat into flour until absorbed. add beer to form a dough, knead a bit. Leave with a cloth or tea towel (what we use for wiping up, don't know what you guys call them) close to the fire or in the sun to 'prove.' It should double in size, knead again and place in coals, place some coals on top of the oven to brown the top of the loaf. Practice a bit at home before announcing your skills at camp, it takes awhile to get used to using the coals.

Darn it, I'm hungry again! Mick.

I tried to post a couple pics of the Bidoorie, but the pics were too whatever.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Actually if you are out hunting by yourself (the best way), you can make bread by throwing a rough lump of dough directly into the coals, when its cooked, it will sound hollowish when tapped, dust it off and eat it! Or cut it in half and fill it up with your meal and eat! Mick.

[Hackleback]

Harbor freight as 12" ovens with the legs and a rim on the lid for $15. They look a bit thin, but for the price you can't complain.

If the lid does not fit well, hit the hight spots with a file.

[45 2.1]

Harbor freight as 12" ovens with the legs and a rim on the lid for $15. They look a bit thin, but for the price you can't complain.

If the lid does not fit well, hit the hight spots with a file.

I looked at a pile of them in a Harbor Freight store a couple of weeks ago. They look good and have legs, but the casting was a little too grainy for cooking, but would be fine for smelting.

[ovendoctor]

My wife and youngest son bought a large dutch oven a few years back
as a joke
I use it on a regular basis
can cook a 16 lb. turkey
also 160 servings of german goulash