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Greenhorn
Picture of Blind Dog
posted
Since discovering cast iron, and more to the point my Dutch Oven, I have been on a quest to learn more, So far I can make a killer venison and potato roast, a wonderful game hen with wild rice and a great fruit pie. So what are your recipes, best dish with your cast iron Dutch ovens?

Dog
 
Posts: 5 | Location: Western Slope of Colorado | Registered: 21 June 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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The beauty of cast iron dutch oven is the versatility. Your imagination can be your guide. But some time on Google will find you tons of information. There are dutch oven societies and competitions everywhere. One of my favorite dishes peach-a-berry cobbler.
 
Posts: 1487 | Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas | Registered: 08 October 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of SCLoyalist
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For a wide variety of recipes, look at
http://papadutch.home.comcast....tch-oven-recipes.htm

The two recipes I use most often are the pineapple-apricot chicken and an apple/peach/cherry dump cobbler.


Here's a health to the King and a lasting Peace. May Faction end and Wealth increase....Old Loyalist Ballad
 
Posts: 767 | Location: Panhandle Florida | Registered: 02 February 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Use the same recipes you would use in the oven in the house. A dutch oven is about the most forgiving tool imaginable. Two of my sisters have 16 inch dutch ovens and they bake pizzas in them by putting the pan on a trivet. My wife does the same thing to bake pies in a pie pan inside the dutch oven. She uses canning rings for a trivet. One thing that I think is pretty good is flour and brown some chunks of meat and make a stew with carrots and onions and garlic and whatever else you like and when it's done put a layer of mashed potatoes on top and cover the lid with coals again for a while. Really, anything you would cook in an oven. The only desert I've ever personally made in a dutch oven is pineapple upside down cake.
 
Posts: 507 | Registered: 14 August 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
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You can cook anything in a Dutch oven. The important thing is to learn to season, clean, and care for the ovens properly.

One thing I've learned from experience is to have an oven dedicated to sweet deserts and another dedicated to roasting meats. Otherwise, your buffalo roast will taste strangely like cherry cobbler. Don't ask how I know this.

Another bit of advice, consider the number of folks you will be cooking for and the volume of the recipes. I have a difficult time trying to cook small batches in an oven that's too large. They seem to work best when full. So mach the size of the oven to the volume of your recipes.
 
Posts: 51 | Location: North Texas | Registered: 26 October 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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another important point to using dutch ovens and cast iron is preheating. preheating solved a lot of the problems we had cooking with dutch ovens. another thing is using a pie pan for things like biscuits, cinnamon rolls and such. just need something to keep it off the bottom, three big nail, canning rings and a trivet mentioned above. i usually keep a few steel pie pans around and use them for a plate so they are multiple use.

mholder
saline county mo
 
Posts: 4 | Location: Saline County MO | Registered: 16 January 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Look up the book My Bread,by Jim Lahey.He's the guy behind the recent popularity of No Knead bread.He makes bread in dutch ovens.Ive kinda branched off of his technique with my Sourdough,but believe me,you can make some good bread with his techniques.I don't use dutch ovens anymore,but if I was to have to cook over an open fire,I could produce a very edible loaf of bread with one.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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I prolly should tie in my last post with HC/PC...Before modern dry yeast became available,everybody used natural leavening,sourdough is just a natural leavening technique brought to it's logical endpoint.With a young starter,it's indistinguishable from ancient bread making.Jim Lahey's development just re-created an ancient approach to bread making that uses Dutch Ovens to replace the traditional earthen bread oven.Dutch ovens are actually a fairly recent development,compared with the time we've been making bread...


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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We have Jim Lahey"s book and his technique does make some very good bread. Crusty and full of holes and just right with a good rich soup and a glass of red wine. But that dutch over is dang hot coming out of the oven. I make sourdough hotcakes about three times a week and sometimes use my sourdough for bread, But usually stick with standard Basque sheepherder bread, cooked in a dutch oven, of course.
 
Posts: 507 | Registered: 14 August 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Lots of info on this site !! Thanks fellas; just ordered Lahey's book.

gonnabakesumbreadRupe
 
Posts: 467 | Location: NW Pennsylvania | Registered: 20 December 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Last week I was in a Lodge store and they had some small #6 Dutch oven lids, but no pots. They said the #6 was discontinued. It was very small, probably 6" sis I guess. I guess that is what the 6 represents. I can't find anything online about them on a quick search. Does anybody have any info of these or maybe a forum for Dutch ovens? I kinda collect cast iron now. Thanks.


"...having Providence for their founder and Nature for shepherd, gardener, and historian."
 
Posts: 44 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 01 May 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Actually you don't need a Dutch Oven to do Dutch Oven cooking. A cast iron pot with a lid will work. Even a cast iron pot with a frying pan set in the top as a lid works quite well. (Well actually you can use a steel pot too)

The first Dutch Ovens apparently had domed lids. Then right near the beginning of the 1800's, somebody added the raised lip you see on our Dutch Ovens today. Wink The originals you were supposed to lay the lid on the hot coals until it was starting to go red, and then close the oven with it. Folks found it easier to pile on coals/embers on the lid and heat it that way, BUT if you try to lift the lid you run a good chance of dumping ash and coals on your cooked item.....so some bright person came up with the lip.

I have two cast iron pots with lids. One had a handle which I removed and I ground down the spot where the handle went. It was a tiny sauce pan, BUT now it's a DO for one..., just large enough to bake four biscuits. The lid is domed, and I can invert it to fry two eggs.

My larger one is about medium DO size, and like it's smaller brother, is domed. It can get tricky putting coals on the lid, but it does work AND the lid too can be inverted for frying. It's also lighter than a proper DO, but I do need a three legged trivet for it as it has no feet.

I also have a cast iron pot without a lid, BUT I did find a steel frying pan that will sit just inside the edge of the rim of that pot, AND if I put coals into the frying pan, voila, it works like any other DO. I call it my Jury Oven since it is "jury rigged".

I do have a very large proper DO that the neighbor threw away. That's right threw away while moving...on purpose. Apparently the guy used it as a make-shift fire holder on his deck, so his kids could do marshmallows and smores. He dumped it out the following morning and put it in his basement and it rusted up something fierce. (DUH he cooked off all of the seasoning). So when he moved he just put it out on the curb. I came home after working a double shift, and at 4 a.m. I thought I was imagining things... that looks like a full sized Dutch Oven on the curb. So I grabbed it, used some Evaporust on it, re-seasoned it and voila...a $120 DO for $15 worth of Evaporust. Big Grin But that sucker IS heavy.

Of all my setups I like either my mini-DO or the Jury Oven since they are the lightest.

OH and apparently the volcanic rocks out in Australia played havoc with wrought iron Dutch Ovens. (I mentioned using a steel pot, remember?) It was common if one dropped such, it would crack. Something about the sharpness of the rock edges, or something like that. Well they came up with steel variation, that would dent and not crack, and if a hole was poked in one it was a small hole and could be repaired. Big Grin The Bedourie Oven you will note also does not have the lip for the coals on the lid, so it is thought it was a variation on the older style ovens. However, if you check the rest of the website they offer a very DO looking contraption they all an Ausie Camp Oven, which has a lid a bit improved for frying instead of using an inverted DO lid. Wink

Most of my friends like me to bake instead of cook in my DO's.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
Picture of bangfxr
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Ive made several Dump cakes in mine.
its 3 cans of fruit pie filling.
1 Yellow cake mix (plain)
1 stick of butter.
lightly coat oven with oil.
pour fruit filling and smooth out.
sprinkle dry Yellow cake mix over the filling.
cut butter into slices about 1/2 TBLSN size and liberally place all over the cake mix.
set hot coals under oven and coals on lid.
allow to bake checking at times until cake mix is a golden brown.
I make mine with apples in the fall and peaches in the late spring to early summer in keeping with the seasons availible fresh fruit. Enjoy !!!


Families sleep peaceably in their beds at night as there are rough men about who will do violence in their behalf.
 
Posts: 48 | Location: Indianapolis. | Registered: 05 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Ah yes,dump cake,an old friend of mine.. Big Grin


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Graybeard
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I have a 1qt Lodge DO and a 5" Lodge skillet that are the perfect size for one or two people. I usually cook cubed deer meat with some bacon and spuds. For seasoning I use Weber Roasted Garlic and Herb. Occasionally I top the potatoes with grated cheddar. Sometimes I add carrots to the meal.

The skillet is the perfect size for a small batch of bannock bread. I cut it into three portions. If I'm alone and cooked enough for two meals, I usually have one piece of bannock with each meal. I cut the third piece in half and put some strawberry jam on it. Half a piece covered in jam makes a good dessert.

Here's a pic of a meal from a winter camp a year or two back. There was enough for dinner that night and breakfast the next morning. With a cup of hot tea its a great meal!



Experience is the best teacher, hunger good sauce.
Osborne Russell Journal of a Trapper
 
Posts: 212 | Location: SW Montana | Registered: 17 December 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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That's enough to get a good drool going!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
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The little lady started lining the inside with aluminum foil when cooking pies or cakes. Makes clean up a lot easier.
 
Posts: 82 | Location: north georgia | Registered: 12 April 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
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I have found that adding sauerkraut into the mix of meat, potato's, carrot's, etc. and then pouring dumpling doe on top late in the cooking time, has added to my waist line immensely!
 
Posts: 197 | Registered: 15 January 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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I can see how it would!Yum!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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