Dutch Oven Cookin’
Dutch Oven Cooking with Ed Keenan, cowboy poet

Good ol’ Dutch Oven cookin' dates back to the frontier days, some 200 hundred years ago. The authentic Dutch oven was, and still is, a heavy cast iron kettle or pot with a cast iron lid. The inventor is said to be Paul Revere. It was the original outdoor cooking utensil of preference, carried by early trappers, explorers, cowboys and settlers and of necessity, became their most essential piece of equipment. Without a doubt it is one of the most important pieces of survival gear that helped tame our southwest.

Dutch ovens are designed like a large cast iron frying pan with high sides and a heavy lid, and a heavy wire bail for a handle, instead of an extended grip handle. The lid has a lip that fits tight and the top dips concave to hold hot coals. It has a flat bottom and three short legs. When the Dutch oven is placed over hot coals it becomes a cooking pot. When it is placed over hot coals with top of the lid filled with coals, it becomes an oven. Like cast iron frying pans, they are made in various diameters. The most common size is 12 inches. The lid itself can be turned upside down and used for a griddle. Ovens can even be stacked, one on top of the other to cook various courses of a meal at the same time. The Dutch oven is an amazingly versatile cooking utensil for stewing, roasting, frying and baking over open fires. (Yes, the Dutch oven can also be used in the manner of any cast iron pot on a stove).

Today, it becomes a generational bonding experience for those who gather around the campfire to tell stories about their ancestral pioneers and cowboys or recite legends of old prospectors.

Since the presence of charcoal briquettes, hot coals are easier to control and with just a little experience anyone can bake a wonderful cobbler or cook a sumptuous pot roast in a Dutch oven.

I can hear that chuck wagon cook hollerin; “come’n git it or I’ll spit in the skillet!”

Estimating oven temperature

A cast iron Dutch oven absorbs and distributes heat from coals very evenly, but such things as wind, outside temperature and foods being cooked are factors affecting oven temperatures. Since the arrival of charcoal briquettes, controlling oven temperatures became a little easier. When baking in a 12” Dutch oven, here is a simple formula using charcoal briquettes. Place 9 hot briquettes underneath and 15 on the lid. Generally speaking one third below, two thirds above. This will hold the oven at approximately 325-350 degrees. Oven temperatures are affected approximately 25 degrees higher or lower, for every two coals added or subtracted. Knowing this formula helps in estimating the use of any campfire coals. Baking biscuits is a good way to start. If your Dutch oven is too hot, biscuits tend to bake too fast and turn out hard. If temperature is too low, biscuits bake too slow and turn out soggy. Enjoy!

Ed Keenan © 2003