Any tips for dutch oven cooking buried in coals with a layer of soil on top?

Comments

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

    @silvertipgrizz pretty sure reading this right before going to bed will broaden my backside. lol At least give me something to dream about.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    Wow! These are some pretty fancy Dutch Ovens in the article. I certainly wouldn't be putting any of them in a pit oven!

    I have a traditional camp oven style Dutch Oven. The kind with feet, that holds the coals on the lid. I have used it many times when out in a camp situation.

    Tip #1: Prepare carefully. Make sure you have enough, good-quality coals to do the job. Light a fire in the pit to make coals for under the pot and up the sides and have another fire nearby to make coals for the lid of you pot. I think this is a part where some people might go wrong. Not enough coals. Dry hardwood is the best. Pre-heat your pot and lid; then brown the meat in the hot oven before adding other ingredients and burying.

    Tip #2: For baking, don't bury the oven. It works great to bury it if you are doing long cooking as for a stew or roast. But baking is so short and you need to be able to remove the lid to check on your baking. So coals underneath the pot and coals on the lid. This way, its easy enough to put the lid back on if your cake or biscuits are not quite done. And pre-heat the Dutch oven and lid before adding your baking. In the article, the picture of a loaf in the oven has parchment paper. I wouldn't do that. Just put your bread or biscuits directly on the oven surface.

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,290 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @silvertipgrizz When I was 11 I was introduced to Dutch Oven cooking inside a deep earthen hole dug into the ground. The wood went under the dutch oven then the meat, potatoes, carrots and onions went into the Dutch oven and pot was carefully placed over the wood coals, then more wood coals and then a lot of dirt and that was how my great aunt and uncle cooked when they were camping. The food was amazing. There was some snow on the ground and a chill in the air and it was June.

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @torey

    @Dianne Petersen

    Both of you, in your descriptions, took me back to a time that I believe must have been the best era to live in. Hard work yes, but quality living with family near, integrity and honor meant something, and when someone needed help, the neighbors were there because they all knew they needed each other. Thanks for that trip down memory lane that brings back memories of the old John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart movies/westerns mostly because I only got to live it through the movies.

    And thanks for your input on the in ground cooking methods.