Dutch Oven Basics for Beginners

hello it's mountain mom I'm here to talk about Dutch oven basics for beginners [Music] welcome today we're talking about Dutch oven basics for beginners first you probably are asking yourself what exactly is a Dutch oven well Kerry what is it's a cast-iron pot really heavy made specifically for cooking outdoors this Dutch oven has legs and it's got a nice flat top so you can rest coals right on top now there are other dutch ovens that are made for indoor use some are enameled have a colorful coating others just have a domed top and no legs those are dutch ovens you can use indoors there's also cast-iron skillets or griddles they those items are similar to cooking with a Dutch oven they just don't have the lid on top now why do I love Dutch oven cooking for camping well basically you can cook anything you can cook at home in a Dutch oven you can bake things like bread or desserts or you can cook things like you would on a stovetop soups pasta rice meats anything that you can cook at your home kitchen you could also cook in a Dutch oven now how do you actually cook in a Dutch oven the first step is to heat your coals you can use either charcoal briquettes or just the wood coals from your camp fire we've cooked both ways charcoal briquettes tend to retain their heat a little longer you don't have to replenish them quite as often if you're using charcoal briquettes I highly recommend one of these this is a Dutch oven chimney now we have a video on this channel in this camp cooking series all about the tools you need for Dutch oven cooking and this is one that we highly recommend basically it's just a metal tube and it's got a screen in the middle so that you can burn Oh easy fire down here put your briquettes on top and it'll help them start without any of any hassle once those coals are warm you want them to be hot enough that when you blow on them they'll glow orange so they'll have a little bit of ash around the outside mostly covered in ash actually then you know they're ready to go now how many coals should you use for your Dutch oven now how many coals should you use for your Dutch oven the typical ratio is take the diameter of your oven usually it's written right on the lid this one's a 12 double that number that's 24 take 24 coals put 2/3 on the top and one-third on the bottom so you have your coals you have your dutch ovens put all your food in there I like to start with stews and soups as a beginner because it's a lot easier to keep those things from burning and then put your lid on and your charcoal on top while that's cooking this is really important you want to set a timer and every 10 to 15 minutes you'll rotate your Dutch oven so right now I have the handle lined up with the handle every 15 minutes I will rotate this a quarter turn clockwise and I'll rotate the lid a quarter turn counterclockwise what that does is it helps distribute the heat evenly so you don't get any hot spots in your food this is especially important if you're making desserts baking bread or or making something that can easily burn on the bottom the final thing to know about basic Dutch oven cooking is how to clean your Dutch oven when you're all done with it once you've made your food and eaten your food and put away any leftovers you'll want to scrape out your Dutch oven with a plastic or wooden tool now I have another video in our camp cooking series where I talk all about reasoning your Dutch oven and one trick that I share there sher here too if you have an old library card or season pass for something just a plastic rectangle those work great as a food scraper we use them all the time what you don't want is any metal utensils or any metals or abrasive scrubbers because that can damage the seasoning of a Dutch oven one of the appeal of a Dutch oven is this black hot oil thing works its way into the metal it burns in there and it creates a nonstick coating or seasoning that helps give delicious flavor to your food and it helps it have nonstick and keeps it from rusting so if you have a rusty that's Dutch oven not to worry check out our video on reasoning your Dutch oven and you will know just what to do once you've scraped all the food out of your dirty Dutch oven rinse it with hot water if you need a little bit of soap you can put a little soap on a washcloth wash it out rinse it well and this is important dry it right away if rust forms on your Dutch oven then you'll have to go through the whole process of reasoning it it's a lot easier to prevent that from happening in the first place by keeping your Dutch oven nice and dry those are my tips for Dutch oven cooking for beginners we'll see you in the outdoors

Channel: MountainMomTots

Views: 166,304

Keywords: Cast Iron Cooking, Dutch Oven, Camp Cooking

Id: 9uP1mauAtuI

Length: 5min 40sec (340 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 09 2020