Cast Iron Dutch Oven

[Pepsigal]

What are the best types of foods to be cooked in a dutch oven? I just got one as a gift for my birthday and I am excited to break it out and use it.

[Grandpa]

All foods. But if tomatoes are used, clean immediately after.

And never use soap to clean cast iron. The soap will permeate into the pourous metal and leave an after taste for some time. Best to flip the oven upside down over a burner and burn it clean. Wipe the char out and coat thinly with a non animal cooking oil.

Most good dutch oven cookbooks will give you info on the care of your oven.

[Judy Ann]

My mom gave me her old cast iron frypan and it is the workhorse in my kitchen. I use my dutch oven for cooking soups, stews, chili, and spaghetti sauce on top of the stove. I like to braise a pot roast with potatoes, onions, carrots and mushrooms in the oven. I've deepfried fish, shrimp and hushpuppies outside over gas.

As Grandpa wrote you can cook anything, however you can mess up good cast iron in an instant. I used soap on a new grillpan and it hasn't been right since. Instead of having a nonstick surface everything sticks which means cleaning it is a bear instead of just boiling off any residue, wiping it completely dry, and oiling it down. Never soak it!!!

Have fun with your new toy!

[Grandpa]

My wife makes the best yeast bread in a dutch oven. I can founder on that even without butter or honey. But if I have them........well, don't care if it goes to waist. lol.

[Judy Ann]

Grandpa, I've heard of "cowboy" rolls and cornbread being cooked over coals, but never loaves of bread. Do you think that your wife would be willing to share her technique on how to do it (if not her recipe)? I bake a lot of bread, but can't begin to figure out how she does it in a dutch oven. Does she leave the lid on?

Butter...never thought of honey or letting the loaf cool completely! ;-)

[Grandpa]

She is napping right now. But she uses her standard bread recipe. Lets it rise in a pan in the shade with a cloth over it. It is just one big round loaf in the dutch oven. Yes she puts the lid on and uses coals on top and bottom. Funny, but her bread at home in the oven doesn't turn out near as well, still good but..........

She doesn't put the oven in the fire. Brings a shovel full of coals out and sets the oven on them and then another shovel full on top.

I'll try to get her to come down and say more after she wakes up.

[Judy Ann]

I knew it!!! If anyone was doing it the old way I figured it would be your lovely wife at one of those reunions or perchance just for you Grandpa. My dutch oven doesn't have a flat lid, but it was a gift that has been dearly loved...I wonder if I could flip the lid so that I could pile coals on it without ruining the handle?

Would you please ask her about how many coals she sets it on and how she "knows" when the bread is done? My sister is meeting me in the mountains for an afternoon in a few days and I would love to try this experiment on both of us. She inspired me to bake my own bread a few decades ago. Thank your wife for me please Grandpa. You just made my day!

[Grandpa]

I just talked to her. She used a standard yeast roll recipe and after rising, formed the dough in balls in the bottom. The key is the coals on the lid. The heat draws the dough upward as it rises. As she used pine coals, we'll have to chalk timing up to her intuition I guess. Modern DO cookbooks should tell you how many briquettes to use top and bottom though as well as time.

[Grandpa]

The cookbook that came with our volcano II stove said to make two loaves in a 12" dutch oven. They were recommending the briquette function top and bottom. (The volcano is multi-fuel; propane, charcoal, or wood.

So it looks like you can shape the bread anyway you want, as long as you have the correct heat on the top.

[Judy Ann]

Interesting about the balls of dough. I figured intuition was a key player. I wonder if she can smell the bread as she would at home when it is ready, notice any physical changes on the lid or sides of the DO, or any other helpful hints that she might not be aware of because she has done this so often. I suppose that if the lid were to be lifted during cooking that something could happen to the end product other than coals falling in.

Grandpa, would you please ask your wife if she thought that the basic bread dough could be made the night before, refrigerated and then transported to the campsite and allowed to rise and then baked? After joining this site I have learned to make friends with my neighbors (on both sides since I camp alone) and freshly baked goods would help the budget a lot.

I was surprised by how much fun I had by getting to know the people around me on my trip a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to all of you who offer quality advice to everyone!!!