Believe it or not, these past few days was the first time we managed to get away and do a bit of camping with the kids this year. Of course, we had a lot of fun, played plenty of games (my arm about fell off playing catch), and we got to break in a new Dutch oven by Lodge Logic.
As much as I’m a fan of using my Sun Oven, there are obviously plenty of times where it won’t work worth a darn. In fact, the first day we camped it wouldn’t have worked much due to overcast conditions… enter the Dutch oven.
The Dutch oven is a great addition to any survival preps, perhaps even more so than a Sun Oven. Why? For the simple reason that it CAN be used when overcast and even when raining if you keep the rain off your fire. In fact, it’s a tried and true method of cooking food outdoors for (probably) many hundreds of years, or for however long cast iron has been around.
If you’ve never used a traditional cast iron Dutch oven, you could be in for a surprise as they’re REALLY heavy! Yes, you will get a workout in just moving it around. 😉 On the plus side that means they’re incredibly durable, likely to outlast you if you take proper care of it. Heck, as long as it doesn’t crack or warp you’re in good shape.
The best part is that you can cook nearly anything in one… “if it fits it ships”… oh, wait that a USPS slogan… “if it fits it cooks” might be more appropriate. Because it has a lid you can do many things, including traditional stews and anything that might cook in a oven, from baking bread and even a cake (though I’ve never tried that one) and whatever else you can think of. To use one is remarkably easy. Get a good set of coals going and typically place twice as many coals on the top as underneath the oven–it does depend on the recipe–because heat rises you don’t need as many coals underneath the Dutch oven as atop to get proper heat distribution.
I should note that it does take some fiddling with and experimentation. While I’ve used Dutch ovens before, it’s been a while and it showed. The meals we cooked (shown below) turned out just fine but cooked MUCH faster than we anticipated because we inevitably used more coals than were needed. This was in large part due to the charcoal we used (I hastily grabbed a bag of mesquite charcoal that was not the typical charcoal briquettes we’re accustomed to using) so we had to improvise a bit. Regardless, it worked out quite well and everything tasted wonderful despite my best efforts otherwise. So long as you watch what you’re doing–my other failure point–it’s hard to burn your food or get things terribly wrong.
We cooked a few things on our Dutch oven while camping. The first meal we cooked was a simple recipe, chicken and rice…
We also made a hash brown and egg mixture (with cheese) for breakfast the next morning…
We also started to make a pizza but I ended up using our Sun Oven–because the sun was out and I wanted to try it–so I can’t show that here (I will post a Sun Oven Sunday post, however). The point is that a simple Dutch oven or two is great for your family’s preparedness. They are so incredibly versatile and can be used with both charcoal and firewood, your preparations wouldn’t be complete without one. And, if you get a good Dutch oven cookbook you’ll be ready to cook in no time!
Certainly, there are a few other additions you should have, including a lid lifter (for removing the lid to check the contents and for moving the Dutch oven around) and possibly a tripod (for suspending directly over a campfire). I would also suggest a pair of heat-resistant gloves (a Dutch oven can get REALLY hot and fast) as well as a Dutch oven cookbook, tongs (to move coals, etc) and other BBQ-related utensils. Honestly, you don’t need much… and that’s yet another beauty of a Dutch oven.
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