Dutch oven miracles … from Utah - includes recipes

Sunset, Sept, 1988

Dutch oven cooking has survived from the days of the open hearth, and flourishes still. When Lewis and Clark made their pioneering trek to the Northwest in 1805, they listed the Dutch oven as one of their most valued pieces of equipment.

Today, river-runners, wilderness campers, and even home cooks echo the sentiment. On the enthusiastic forefront of Dutch oven cookery are Juanita and Mike Kohler, Pat and Wally Kohler, and Pat and Dick Michaud. Not only do they teach the cooking technique; since 1985, they've also run the Great American Dutch Oven Cook-off, which takes place at the Festival of the American West at Utah State University in Logan.

On these four pages, the six cooks share their expertise and a half-dozen of their Dutch oven specialties.

How did the Dutch get involved?

Some say the name stuck when Dutch traders sold this pan door-to-door, along with other black cast-iron ware, to early American colonists.

The classic cast-iron Dutch oven is very heavy (an empty 12-in. pan with lid weighs about 20 lb.) and very durable. Many a pot has seen more than a generation of service, and there are people who still own and use Dutch ovens that made the trip West by covered wagon.

Although the name Dutch oven applies to several devices in which food can be cooked, here it refers to a heavy pan made of cast iron, with three short metal legs and a bail (wire handle) as well as a tightfitting lid with a handle and a deep rim. The legs stand the pan over hot coals; the lipped lid holds more coals on top. Heat from both bottom and top creates an environment for baking or braising-as in a conventional oven.

Most Dutch ovens are 10 to 14 inches in diameter; smaller and larger ones exist.

How to set up a Dutch oven to cook

Use a double thickness of foil that is 3 to 4 inches wider than the Dutch oven's diameter (or use an old baking sheet you don't mind ruining with coals). Trace around lid in center of foil. (On baking sheet, draw outline with a felt-tip marker.)

Lay foil flat on a fire-safe, level surface in a draft-free spot. Or use a two- or threesided wind barricade that is a little higher than the pan and 4 to 6 inches away from its sides. (A three-sided folding metal splashguard or windguard, sold at hardware stores, costs about $3.)

About 30 minutes before you start cooking, ignite the appropriate number of charcoal briquets for the first phase of cooking (directions follow; or check recipes on pages 78 and 79). If you will need to add more fuel later, ignite those briquets 30 minutes before you need them.

For bottom cooking, arrange about 1/3 of the ignited coals (or the number specified by a recipe) on the foil, spacing them evenly and keeping the outermost coals about 1/2 inch inside the ring you have traced. If you have more coals than the ring accommodates, arrange remaining coals evenly within the circle. When baking batters or doughs, do not set a coal directly in the center or food may burn.

Set Dutch oven over coals.

For top cooking, arrange remaining coals evenly over the lid.

If air moves in spite of the wind barrier, rotate the Dutch oven 1/4 turn every 15 to 20 minutes so contents will cook evenly. Check foods periodically to determine if cooking rate is appropriate. To reduce heat, remove a few coals in a symmetrical pattern (so cooking continues evenly), keeping the number of coals removed proportional to original numbers under and on top of the oven. To increase heat, add ignited coals in the same fashion.

For fuel flexibility, you need 10 to 12 additional ignited coals; start these coals with the measured batch. To maintain heat, add more ignited coals as directed in fuel section, following; push coals equally under pan or place evenly on lid,

Ash accumulates as coals burn, which tends to block air circulation. With a poker or a stick, gently push soft ash (not coals) aside, or scoop from lid.

If the coals are still hot when food is done, and you want to keep the food warm a bit longer, remove all but 4 or 5 coals.

Enclose cool ash in the foil for disposal.

How much fuel, and how to use it

Uneven lumps of glowing wood coals were the original fuel for Dutch ovens, but today's long-burning, uniformly shaped 2inch charcoal briquets make heat regulation much more a science than an art.

First, count out the number of briquets you need for the kind of heat you want, and for the size of your Dutch oven.

You need moderate heat to simmer or bake foods, high heat to boil or saute.

For moderate heat, multiply diameter of Dutch oven by 2, and use that many coals.

For high heat, multiply diameter by 3 and use this number of coals. In most cases, 1/2 of the coals go under the pan; the rest are placed on the lid.

To maintain even heat to cook 50 minutes or longer, you need more hot coals. After the first 30 minutes, add freshly ignited coals, then add more at 20- to 30-minute intervals. Do not add coals the last 30 minutes of cooking. For moderate heat, add 4 or 5 coals each time. For high beat, add 8 to 10. Use the maximum number for large pans. Put 1/2 of the coals (or at least 2) under pan, the rest on the lid.