Dutch Oven Recipe Cooking Tips - Heating Chart

A cast iron Dutch oven is a basic piece of outdoor camping cookware, and mastering the art of using one for your campfire recipes is something every good campfire cook strives for.

As simple as the Dutch oven itself is, getting great results from using it is more than just setting it on a bed of hot coals. Different campfire recipes call for different cooking methods, and although a Dutch oven can handle almost any kind of cooking task, you have to know the right way to use it to get the desired results.

This outdoor camping cooking guide and included heating chart will give you the information you need to make great camp meals.

There are 3 basic styles of campfire cooking with a Dutch oven. Each style works for different kinds of campfire recipes.

1. Tripod - Use a tripod to hang a cast iron Dutch oven directly over a campfire for fast direct heat from the flames, or slow cooking from the ambient heat of campfire coals. Read More Tripod Dutch Oven Cooking
   
2. Fire Grate - Using the Dutch oven sitting on a fire grate over the campfire flames, or even directly on the campfire without a grate will give you the fastest most intense heating. Read More Fire Grate Dutch Oven Cooking
3. Hot Coals - Using hot coals for both cooking and baking with a Dutch oven is the most controllable type of cooking. You can cook slow or fast, and bake, just by adjusting the amount of coals or briquettes under and on your Dutch oven.

Using hot campfire coals or charcoal briquettes for Dutch oven cooking is where Dutch oven cooking begins to become an outdoor camping art. A good, experienced campfire cook will use this method to come up with campfire recipes, (including baked goods), that you will remember for a long time.

This method is so popular that there are major Dutch oven cooking competitions that draw a national slate of competitors. But with a nod to outdoor campers and real campfire cooks, these type of competitors almost always use charcoal briquettes, instead of campfire coals, to give them more dependable and regulated heat sources.

Using a Dutch oven and hot coals you can cook any camping recipe you can think of, from frying steaks and bacon to made-from-scratch stews, from baking biscuits to cakes and strudels, and everything in between.But handling your dutch oven for all these tasks could be hot stuff, so a good pair of leather campfire gloves is a must-have campfire tool. Here are some examples of good campfire gloves at discount prices. (just use your back-arrow to return here

With just a general knowledge of how to use the hot coals, (and how many to use, which the cooking chart below will give you), you can cook any campfire recipe you want. It is the ability to put a heat source under and on top of the Dutch oven, (if it's a camping Dutch oven with a lid that has a raised rim to hold the coals), that allows you to use it like an oven to bake.

read more about Cast Iron Dutch Oven care/use and discount sources.

Cast iron Dutch ovens come in several sizes, primarily for different quantities of food, but sometimes the size is also applicable to different types of food or recipes.

These size/serving quidelines are just that - guidelines! The type of recipe and appetites of your campers will affect these recommendations.

• 4 - 5 qt. - (8"-10" dia. x 3" - 4" deep)......................... serves: 2 - 4 people
• 6 qt. - (12" - 13.5" dia. x 3.5" -5" deep) .....................serves: 4 - 7 people
• 8 qt. - (12" - 15.5" dia. x 7" deep)..........................serves: 8 - 10 people
• 10 qt. - (14" dia. x 7" deep)........................................serves: 10 - 14 people
• 12 qt. - (14" dia. x 7" deep)........................................serves: 16 - 20 people

* There are many variations of these sizes. For example: you can get a 12" Dutch oven that can be as shallow as 3.5" or as deep as 7.5".

** Generally speaking - the 12" 8 qt. model is the standard size camp Dutch oven most outdoor campers use.

"Rule-of-Thumb" Dutch oven cooking Guidelines

1. one charcoal briquette, or equally sized hot coal, will equate to approx. 10-15 degrees of heat on a fair camping day, (not real cold, rainy, or windy)
   
2. generally, to get a 350 degree inside-oven temperature the number of coals would be 2 times the Dutch oven diameter. e.g. 12" oven = 24 briquettes. (use a little judgment here, sometimes more - sometimes less)
   
3. for baking, put twice as many coals on top as under the bottom. For example if your heat range calls for 15 briquettes, then put 10 on top and 5 underneath. For simmering, reverse this with 2/3 of the briquettes underneath.
4. for even heat, rotate oven and lid 90 degrees in opposite directions approx. half-way through recipe cooking time.
5. hot coal amounts are not a set-n-go thing, to maintain desired temperature you will need to replenish coals/briquettes as they burn down.

How to build a key-hole Campfire for Dutch Oven Cooking

Note: In the chart below, the hot coals/briquettes amounts are conservative, especially for the temps above 375 degrees. You will probably have to add more coals/briquettes after the initial warm-up.

*The numbers represent charcoal briquettes, so use your own judgment comparing the numbers to hot campfire coals.

**The top number is total briquettes and the 10/5 numbers are the over/under amounts.

Dutch Oven Swiss Steak with Onions and Green Peppers

Serves: 6-8 people Prep time: 30 minutes Cook time: 1.5 - 2.5 hours

Ingredients:

• 3 - 4 lbs round steak, sliced 3/4" thick slabs
  
• 1 med.or lg. green pepper
• 2 - 3 lg. yellow onions (not sweet)
• 2 pkg golden onion soup mix
• 1 stick, (8 tbsp), butter
• 1 & 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 to 1 tsp. pepper
• 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp. cooking oil
• 1 cup water
• flour - as needed for thickener
  

Prep:

• Slice onions into wedges approx. 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide, slice green pepper into 1/2" strips. * experienced campfire cooks would do this at home and just put in ziplock bags for the camping trip.
  
• tenderize steak slabs by pounding with a tenderizer hammer, or butt-end of large knife or utensil. *again, a prep easiest done at home and packed in ziplocks

Cook:

1. Add 2 tbsp. oil to Dutch oven and heat until it is hot enough to quickly sear and brown the meat, then sear and brown each piece, then remove. Continue until all pieces have been seared. * use a very hot Dutch oven, you are searing the meat to seal in the juices, not to cook it through.
2. Remove Dutch oven from fire and allow to cool slightly.
   
3. Add 1/2 cup water, Worcestershire sauce, butter, salt & pepper, and 1 pk. onion soup mix. Stir to mix.
4. Add the sliced onions and green pepper, and meat slabs in layers, ending with a layer of green peppers and onions. Sprinkle top layer with remaining pk. of onion soup mix.
5. Cook at approx. 300 - 325 degrees using the baking method with hot coals on top and under the Dutch oven. This is a slo-cook recipe so the meat will be tender, you don't want to cook too fast. (but you can speed it up if necessary)
6. Maintain heat temperature. Rotate and stir approx. every 30 minutes. At 1-1/2 hours, start poking meat for tenderness - your call when done.
7. When done - remove meat - sprinkle in small amounts of flour and stir to thicken juices, ( you can add a little more water if you need more juice to thicken, and season with more salt & pepper to your taste). Replace the meat a piece at a time, spooning over with juice and vegetables as you do. Serve from Dutch oven.

Camping Tip: Use a camping meal checklists to make sure you don't leave any wital ingredients at home.You can find an assortment of outdoor camping checklists at Camping with Gus.

More Outdoor Camping and Cast Iron Cookware Resources you might like:

• Campfire Cooking with a Dutch Oven
• Cooking with Cast Iron Skillets
• Tripod Dutch Oven Cooking
• How to Build a Key-hole Campfire for Cooking
• Best Prices for Cast Iron Cookware on ebay Now!
  
• Buy Cast Iron Skillets, Griddles, Cookware Sets
• Buy a Dutch Oven Lid Lifter Online
  

Camp Dutch Oven and Cast Iron Cookware Keywords and tags for this hub include cast iron dutch oven, castiron skillet, griddle, frypan. Campfire recipes, campfire cook and outdoor camping cookware. a good campfire cook knows how to build a key-hole campfire for dutch oven recipe cooking.