I like the outdoors. I like cooking. Today they were joined in a new way. Last week I purchased a dutch oven with my birthday money, and today was my first foray into cooking with my new cast iron cookware.
I did some research on the Internet over the past week and determined I should piece together a dutch oven table to make cooking easier. I saw dutch oven tables being sold for around $100, but after doing some research found some make shift tables for much cheaper, and came up with my own idea.
I used two old saw horses, and bought a couple of galvanized pipes from home dept for around $6. I then went to Tractor Supply Company and bought two heavy duty feed pans for under $4 each. While I was there I picked up a pair of welding gloves, and a steel crow bar to use to lift the top of the dutch oven. All said and done I invested around $30.
Next I picked up some charcoal and a charcoal starter. Another $10. Well, I bought this “cowboy” charcoal not realizing that it was not briquettes, but rather chunks of wood. It worked, but made it hard to evenly distribute the heat.
I decided to make the “lazy cobbler” recipe that was in the cookbook that came with the dutch oven. Basically you dump a couple cans of peach cobbler, a yellow cake mix, and top it off with some butter. I had some trouble keeping my coals hot, and ended up putting more coals onto the fire. I put too many and it actually started boiling the peach juice. So, in the end I threw all the caols on top to try and brown the top of the cobbler.
The end result was actually really good. Jen and I had two helpings, with plenty of vanilla ice cream on top. Hopefully in the future we’ll be able to do some camping and I can make up some good dinners in my dutch oven.
July 15, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Excellent pictures. I love the table you made.
I’ve just created a link to your post in our newest “Cast Iron Around the Web” entry at http://www.cookingincastiron.com
July 15, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I occasionally read your blog because I am a Christian and I fly fish. Can’t remember how I found your blog.
That said here are my two cents on dutch oven cooking.
Use good regular charcoal and a chimney starter like you have. You will want to put coals under it and on top of it. You can use a simple ratio using the size of the oven. If it is a 12″ you will need 24 briquettes of charcoal. you put 14 on top and 10 on bottom. So for a 14″ oven you put 12 on bottom and 16 on top. This will give you about 350 Degrees and then you can cook anything like you would cook it in a regular oven. You also want to rotate the pan and the lid every 15 minutes.
Fun stuff.
July 17, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Tim, thanks for reading. I bought some Kingsford charcoal and baked a loaf of bread yesterday and it turned out fairly well.
I guess practice makes perfect.
October 21, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Very nice. Just goes to show, sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.