Become a Dutch Oven Master! |The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Dutch Oven Cooking

what have I always told you never Fear cast iron you know whether you're a beginner whether you're a pro or maybe you're just looking for some more tips to make you a better Dutch oven cook we have got you covered to go from zero to a hundred miles an hour right here and become the best Dutch oven cook ever in the world [Music] hey let's get right into it you want to become a more confident Dutch oven cook well we've got you covered we do really there is the indoor version of Dutch oven cooking and the outdoor version now the outdoor Dutch oven really has a flat lid to where it can set coals on top and legs underneath to hold it up and the indoor Dutch oven which has no legs and has a domed lid to where you can cook in the oven or directly on a flat surface but today we're going to be talking about outdoor cooking using our dutch ovens well you can see I've got two dutch ovens up here two 12 inch now when we're talking about 12 inches 12 inches in diameter but as as I move them over here closer together you'll see is one is what we call a deep and one is a shallow we cook different things in them in a 12 inch shallow hay we're going to do biscuits we can do pizza in there we can do casseroles it's better to use this 12 inch Dutch oven if you've got something that's going to rise Plum up here close to the top of the lid because if you were putting it in this one with the lid on you could get this close to the top and with them coals on there it's so much easier to burn something in this oven if you're cooking it so I recommend really if you're just starting out with Dutch oven cooking I would get these two 12 inch ovens because they're so versatile that you can cook anything in either one of them that you might need to go camping and they're really pretty light [Music] well let's talk about the tools that you're going to need if you're going to start cooking in a dutch oven the one the first one really is a good lid lifter because you want to be able to get a hold of a lid lifter that you can pick up shake the coals off do anything you want so make sure you have one but if you're in a tight ever popular claw hammer will work it will get you the job done but look how close you are from here to here it will burn the hair off your knuckles now we've got them hot coals and we've got to put them on here now I've known people they'll use tongs they'll use whatever but this is the best method that you can have is a shovel that you can buy get you somebody to blow either cut it in there with a torch blow you some holes about as big as a quarter or you can use a drill it's when you scoop the coals in there you shake the Ash off of it because Ash will not cook it will insulate you know a dutch oven let me just bring this one back up here has these little legs here they're not very tall they aren't and I have cooked a lot of stuff just like this on the ground but I feel so oh my God that bug was biting I feel so much more confident when we can set on a trivet we have designed these trivets we have them there on our website it's where they have interchangeable legs either a three or a five inch to get you closer or further away from what your cook but we'll walk you through the process today of showing you how to use a trivet if you've got one or cooking just right on the ground with colds [Music] next let's talk about fuel something that we've got to cook with what are we talking about hard wood now hardwood as in firewood Oak Mesquite those were my two favorites they're very hard wood they do make a good lumpy coal but if you can't get some of that you can go to the store and you can buy hardwood lump charcoal now there's a lot of different brands out there and a lot of it really works I just ask you to be careful when you pick up a sack of that turn it over you can hear it if there's a lot of crumbs rattling around you're after more this size but I don't like a whole lot of this is all you're getting is this right here if you've never used it or don't want what it is we're going to take this wood and we're going to chunk it up to where it's in pieces and then we're going to build a fire with it after it is burnt so long and starve it for oxygen and then it will come out looking like this it's going to catch a little faster and make colds quicker than this will but this is going to last longer in the long run if it is a good hard wood but I know a lot of you are asking hey Kent what about a briquette do you use them no things I mean you can see them they're everywhere people use them in charcoal grills people try to use them to cook with Dutch ovens you know when you're using a briquette too it doesn't burn as long it's not as hot you're usually going to have to refire an oven maybe twice sometimes three times to get it done I want you to use whatever you're comfortable with whether it's a hardwood lump whether it's real hardwood or if it's briquettes if you're using them and you think hey this is all I'm going to do go for it just keep on cooking but I highly recommend that you switch over and use it use wood or you use a hardwood lump and I'm going to walk you through and show you just how to do that with cold placement top and bottom [Music] foreign let's talk about getting that fire ready to make coals and doing some cooking with it now you see me dump all that hardwood lump out there and I prefer to use a torch or propane torch hey them things start a fire I don't care even if it's half wet that stuff will get to burning with that but if you ain't got that you can use one of them chimneys but if you're burning hard wood like real Mesquite or oak or something like that and you're wanting to cook start early because it takes a little while for that wood to burn down to make you a coal and don't start with some big old piece of wood like this thinking that you're going to start that you're going to have a cold here in a little bit use you some littler wood that's going to make a cold pretty quick I think a mistake that people make is they rush it too much you want them colds to be white hot whether you're cooking with a dutch oven or you're grilling I get a lot of questions from a lot of viewers saying I don't have a wood stove like this that you call Bertha that has a bottom in it that I can put wood in and make colds I don't have that well I'm gonna tell you this do you have a charcoal grill that you can actually reach in there and get cold out of with a little shovel you can use them I have used a wash tub I've cooked in a wheelbarrow a half a barrel I've dug a hole in the ground to tell you one thing too if you're going to try to do this on concrete and say you've got just something a flat tub or something sitting out there directly on the concrete don't do it it'll get hot enough that it'll blister and pop and crack that concrete so get it on some concrete blocks or something to where it's off that concrete patio and you can cook that away and you'll be better off I think just as important as prepping coals to get ready to cook is also prepping the ground that you're going to cook on now I've been in stuff to where the grass was really green and I'd burn me off a spot because when you're dumping them colds out there if there's a lot of deep tall green grass you're using a lot of that heat just to go ahead and get that ground hot I like to prep the ground whether it's wet whether it's green but one thing I will tell you be really really careful if you're in dry conditions and man they are everywhere this year they are with the amount of heat that we had this summer clean you off a spot down to the bird ground as much as you can or cook in a wash tub or cook on a flat metal surface if you'll go back and watch our video to where we did the Mexican chocolate cake you've seen that we had a big old cooking table when we was cooking in drought conditions we got to be careful Smokey Bear told me we could be friends if we could be careful [Music] coal placement most important thing when you're learning how to cook in a dutch oven it is and you see me go over there and place that Dutch oven right there on the ground where we had burned it off remember went over and got me a shovel full of coals do the sift and Shake shaking them Ash out of it because that way we're left with hot colds now we're going to use the ring method which is around the outside edge of the Dutch oven but not too close because remember we're just sitting on them tiny little legs of that Dutch oven as you widen the circle you are turning down the knob for heat as you bring them in closer to your Dutch oven you are turning up the heat I never hardly ever if I'm baking something like breads pies cakes brownies put coals directly under a dutch oven because you're going to end up burning something you can add coals to it but you cannot take them away when something is already burnt and if it's windy even bring it some more because that wind's going to transfer that heat you are making a forge that away time to fire that top up load that top up you can see the top you can take the lid off you can see what it's cooking what it's looking like so don't be afraid to load that top up you can rake that heat off as it begins to get done or take your lid lifter and shake it a little off on one side put it back you'll be in good shape is it hot enough to cook now I always use this method to where I place this this much of my hand as close as I can to a dutch oven and I feel of it a hand width away if I can hold it more than five seconds it's not hot enough but most the time on good hardwood lump when you're down there checking that heat you're going to know it's hot really quick and you're all right so let's talk about cooking on a trivet now when you can place that Dutch oven on the trivet there it's still the same ring method but you can bring them coals in closer when you've got a trivet really it is a buffer is what it is and it is a Helper because if you're new to Dutch oven cooking I would recommend that you start out with a trivet you can control heat really to me better cooking with the trivet I think is very important when you're cooking in windy conditions because it it gives you a little more elevation off that ground to where that is getting so hot when you're cooking whether it's on the ground or with the trivet is rotation you pick the lid up and you rotate it halfway and then you turn the bottom the other way it evens out any hot spot that you might have down there in your colds top or bottom to regulate the heat more evenly but if it's windy conditions I like to rotate about every maybe four to five minutes because if that wind is howling things are really happening if it's not windy I'd probably do every 8 to 10 minutes but you can also remember pull them coals back at any time if you're still on a trivet to slow the heat down you can pull the coals off the lid to slow that down and if you need to slow it down more than that if you think hey this is cooking way too fast take the entire Dutch oven and set it off the coals let it slow down a minute then you can bring it back really rule of thumb is cakes pies brownies something that's got some moisture to it or something that you want to cook slow to let it rise to its maximum capacity is let's pull the coals a little further away from it than just right around the outside diameter of that oven always keep an eye on it to make sure that you're not too hot put that hand down there like we was talking about to regulate that temperature because if it's a cake it's got a lot of moisture in it you need to cook that thing as slow as possible because cakes are really I would say hey probably going on up there not to beginner but maybe on up there to intermediate and on up to the top of the scale because they can be a little tricky if they've got a lot of moisture to them but bread I really love to cook it as slow as I can it's really nice when the top and the bottom can be done at the same time it's going to give it that maximum rise out there and then biscuits are going to be so light now when we're talking about cakes pies or brownies and we're not got no knob on there and it's not Pyrex and we can't see what's really actually happening in there there is a visual cue that cast iron will give you every time and that's when it gets closer to getting done things shrink and pull from the end inside but you'll see separation from the inside of that sidewall of that Dutch oven as things begin to set up there on the bottom and get done what that cast iron is telling you at this time hey take it off the bottom heat because remember cast iron is holding heat this is not copper t-fall stainless steel when you take it off the fire it's still cooking but look for that visual cue and the one that I think you should start with that is the easiest thing to cook that will give you this cue every time and that is cornbread it'll pull harder than anything practice on that before you jump on them cakes and brownies I got faith in you becoming the best Dutch oven cook in the world so let's talk about the best things that I think you should start with as being a beginner and that is like casseroles something like that something that you can stir you can see the bottom of doesn't hurt you to take that lid off and reach that spoon in there and stir it around a little bit you know this is really just what you call jumping off the boat and getting to it right now but our channel is all about Cast Iron cooking and we've got a cast iron plate list but also if you're thinking hey I want to cook a chocolate cake we'll just tap in on that little computer there can't Rollins chocolate cake it'll pop up we're going to show you everything that we talked about today but more in specific as we're cooking that actual recipe it is so simple really you just gotta watch and pay attention [Music] foreign pretty generous today so I think I'm going to give you some more bonus footage here I am and let's talk about inserts it's a aluminum cake pan you take a a 14 inch aluminum cake pan will fit in a 16 inch Dutch oven a 12 inch will fit in a 14 and you just sort of go down by that two inches is always going to get you in there it will but when you're cooking something in the Dutch oven like that and you're going to use an insert make sure that you always Grease the bottom of that cast iron before you start on the inside before you lay that insert on top of it because cooking just dry Heat against a metal surface is really hard on cast iron hey we have used it a lot to cook biscuits because it's really saving me time if we got a lot of Dutch ovens going to where I'm not having to fire another Dutch oven right behind another I can just take an insert of bread out that is done slip another one in there put the lid back on it because the oven's hot it is ready to go but there are also people tell me this all the time it's so much easier to clean up when you don't use would you just use an insert and you're not cooking any cast iron well folks you're sort of shooting yourself in the foot there because you're not getting the benefit of cooking in cast iron you're not getting what it brings out and that is a great flavor and a great taste another little tip I'm going to give you is stacking oven this really is a great way to cook but folks things can cook so fast this way too it is helping you conserve colds because remember the lid that you have on the first oven that is heated becomes the heat for the next oven up but if you're going to do this and you're thinking well I'm going to cook a whole meal this way make sure whatever is needs to cook the longest is on the bottom that way if you've got your meat there or maybe you got some some bread in the top one make sure that you can check it easily so let's talk about targeting heat you know when you have a cake or something that's really got to wiggle in the middle there and we need to get that cooked out to where everything is going to cook even there at the last be sure and get everything all the coals right down from underneath that Dutch oven then we're going to find us a good hot one two of them maybe slip right under there put it to where it is dead center in that Dutch oven rake all the coals off the lid pull your two right up there to the center of that we are targeting heat in a specific area top and bottom to help that to cook throughout people ask me this too do you clean a dutch oven when you're through the same way you clean a skillet yeah most the time on a bread oven you know you just got crumbs in there you can wap them out make sure all the residue is gone but re-season that oven every time you know you've got a lot of cake set before you can dump it out of a dutch oven you've got to let a pie set before you can cut it out of there but always remember you're going to treat that cast iron just like you would your Skillet in the house well we hope you enjoyed this because we did everybody but the pups the pups said there wasn't no food in this video everybody is boycotted but we hope we answered some of your questions about Dutch oven cooking and remember folks you're going to burn something I still burn stuff when I'm cooking it's going to happen it's about getting out there and cooking enjoying yourself feeding the friends and the family and there is so many resources out there on our Channel that'll help you become the best Dutch oven cook ever just remember practice practice more practice and a lot of firewood you're going to need it but it is with great pride honor and privilege that I tip my hat to all our veterans and all our service men and women who have kept that old flag of flying above camp we commend you all the rest of you come on in here we're going to have a cast iron God bless you each and every one and I know you're going to be the greatest Dutch oven cook ever [Music]

Channel: Cowboy Kent Rollins

Views: 238,034

Keywords: dutch oven, dutch oven cooking, dutch oven recipes, how to cook in a dutch oven, outdoor cooking, dutch oven campfire cooking, dutch oven cobbler, dutch oven camping recipes, dutch oven camp cooking, camp cooking equipment, camp cookware, best camp cookware, dutch oven recipes camping, camp oven cooking, camp oven, kent rollins, cowboy kent rollins, how to bake in a dutch oven, dutch oven rezepte, camp oven cooking for beginners, camp oven cooking recipes

Id: FnLHDBO1jqE

Length: 16min 34sec (994 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 02 2023