Dutch Oven Cooking on the Coals

When the calendar page turns to August, I get the sense that summer is on the wane. There’s still time to get in some summer activities even though many schools now start up in August, which should be illegal. Summer shouldn’t end ‘til after Labor Day weekend for crying out loud!

What is summer without the smell of bacon cooking around the campfire, there’s nothing like it! We have been cooking over the campfire with cast iron Dutch ovens for awhile now, and cast iron always had a place in the small kitchen of our family’s cabin at Lake Almanor. My dad kept multiple sizes of perfectly seasoned frying pans for vacation cooking of trout, buttermilk pancakes and bacon of course. I keep a pair of those pans in my camp box now. When I got started cooking with cast iron, Google helped me find a number of tips and tricks for Dutch ovens, one helpful site was papadutch.net.

Last weekend, we took a camping trip to Lake Alpine in the high Sierra’s with our nephew’s new wife’s family. There were still a few piles of snow on the ground, the campground had just opened up two days before our arrival, so the grass was fresh, campsites clean, and the bears had not arrived yet, whew. This was the first year I brought my Dutch oven cooking table, which added some storage space in the campsite to boot. Cooking while camping is actually fun for me, there’s no rush, it’s rustic, you don’t have to worry about spilling (which I do a lot), and everyone appreciates the results! This round I brought a pair of ovens, my grandfather’s vintage Wagner Ware 8”, and my more modern Lodge 12” oven with legs and rimmed cover, along with a variety of recipes to try out on the family.

Sometimes I will do some advance cooking at home, and bring some items to be finished or warmed up at the campsite. This year I made up a large batch of mashed potatoes in advance, froze them, and used them for potato pancakes for breakfast.

This is one of our favorites at home, we use a little olive oil and butter, and brown them with onions into tasty individual pancakes, or one large pancake to be shared. We made up a monster potato pancake for the crew (check out the picture), and a batch of Gravel Gerties Gravy on the camp stove. I’ve also made the gravy in the past directly over the campfire. I found the recipe on Betty’s Trail Rides website, with a variety of other campfire Dutch oven recipes. It is really easy, and absolutely delicious (probably not that healthy, but when you’re camping, does it really matter?).

Gerties gravy is served over biscuits, and since the last time I tried to make biscuits from scratch they resembled hockey pucks, I cheated with refrigerator buttermilk biscuits, baked them in the Dutch oven on the table with charcoals underneath and on top of the oven, and they came out perfect! I found a baking chart online that gives you the specific count of charcoal to reach a certain temperature in a variety of oven sizes, and it works! And of course we had a pot ‘o black coffee for breakfast. When we camp with my in-laws, sometimes up to 20 of us, we have at least 3 pots of coffee brewing in the early morning. I prep them all the night before so all we have to do is light the stove in the morning (or for me, I can start a mean campfire, but for some reason have trouble startin’ the darn stove!).

Dessert is always a winner camping, this time the Apple Crisp turned out great, my first try at Pineapple Upside-Down Cake not so successful! It’s easy to measure out the dry ingredients at home and pack them in Tupperware or a ziplock bag, and you’re ready to bake at the campsite. This recipe is also cooked with charcoal on top and underneath, with the recipe below.

Unfortunately, the fishermen came home empty handed this trip, so we didn’t have the chance to fry up any trout, but we certainly didn’t go hungry! Grilled Tri-tip, Linguica sandwiches with grilled bell peppers and onions are a staple for our Portuguese families. Our camping hosts brought a bunch of home grown wax peppers that they sliced open and stuffed with a hunk of Jack cheese, rubbed with olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper, and grilled over the fire. They were absolutely delicious, and so simple. Fortunately, I didn’t grab the hot variety, they were hard to tell apart!

We did take the easy way out on the last day of the trip. We drove on over to Lake Alpine Resort for breakfast on the patio overlooking the lake - hash browns, scrambled eggs, toast, coffee, and bacon of course! Great way to end the trip, we didn't have to wash dishes and got to use a real bathroom!

We have a few other Dutch oven tips and recipes on our Cowgirl’s Foodie Blog, just search “Dutch Oven” on the site. Now get on out there, spark up a campfire and get cookin’! Autumn is just around the corner.

Dutch Oven Apple Crisp

Filling             

10 granny smith apples, peeled and sliced        

2 tbsp. lemon juice (I couldn’t find them in my ice chest!)        

3/4 cup sugar   

1/2 cup brown sugar   

1/3 cup flour    

2 tsp. ground cinnamon                       

3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg             

1/4 tsp. ground cloves               

3/4 tsp. salt

Topping

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups flour

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

1 cup butter, melted

Prepare Filling: In a 12" Dutch oven add apples and lemon juice; stir to coat apples. In a separate dish combine remaining filling ingredients and stir to mix. Pour dry ingredients over apples and stir until apples are well coated.

Prepare Topping: In a separate bowl combine brown sugar, flour, oatmeal, and walnuts; stir to mix. Using a fork, mix in butter. Spread topping evenly over apples.

Cover Dutch oven and bake using 12-14 briquettes bottom and 16-18 briquettes top for 60 minutes. Serves: 12-14.