Click here to view the embedded video.

If you aren’t familiar with Gary House, check out his website.  He has all kinds of great recipes for cooking outdoors.

Parts one and two of “Taking your Dutch oven to the Max” brought you cooking with Skewers/Kabobs and Smoking in your Dutch oven. Part three will give you an opportunity to expand your Dutch oven cooking to even greater heights. This technique pushes your cooking arsenal of “One Pot Cooking” to really mean “One Pot Cooking!”

How many times have you gone camping and had to lug so much equipment with just to satisfy all of your styles of cooking? If you think back to you last camping trip, did it include your Dutch ovens, Camp stove, BBQ/Grill, etc? I bet it did! Could you camp for a week without all of that gear?

Could you camp for a week with just one Dutch oven? Yep! Besides ever great Dutch oven recipe in your arsenal, I have showed you how to cook Kabobs and smoke food in your Dutch oven. So that just expanded your arsenal of cooking techniques to make that camping trip enjoyable. But I have a few more “Max” techniques up my sleeve.

Have you ever tried a BBQ recipe that really worked? Probably. I know my Dutch oven ribs are over the top and you might have a few that are as close to good BBQ as you’ll ever get out of a cast iron pot. Not traditional BBQ by any stretch of the imagination but close enough for backwoods cooking.

This time you are going to push that old Dutch oven a little bit more and add “Grilling” to your arsenal. Yep, grilling! Same concept as part one where you cooked skewers on your Dutch oven. This time we are adding a grill grate and you will be grilling steaks, chicken, vegetable and fruit and what ever else makes your tummy growl.

No need for me to give you detailed instructions on how to grill but I do have a few pointers:

• Line your Dutch oven with foil.
• Purchase a grate that fits properly on the top of your Dutch oven.You don’t want it wobbling.
• Use good charcoal. 100% hardwood will give you the best flavor.
• Single layer your charcoal for cooking.
• Put your grate on right after you place your charcoal in your Dutch oven. This will get it hot enough to leave grill marks.
• Hold your hand over the grate and use the hand count method to tell if its time to grill. 1001, 1002, 1003 go!
• Need more coals, lift up the grate carefully and add more before you need it.
• Add some smoker chips also – maximize that flavor!

Here are some pictures of how I do it!

Give this a try and let me know how it went for you! My steaks were awesome how was yours?

Thanks Gary for some wonderful tips on Dutch oven cooking.  Be sure to check Gary’s Cooking-Outdoors.com blog.

Taking Your Dutch Oven to the Max, Part 2
My love for BBQ, Grilling, Dutch oven cooking and Open fire cooking has allowed me to try many different styles of cooking. Recipes galore have been available to explore, compare, deviate from and blend with my outdoor cooking arsenal. However, when I get the desire for some down home comfort food, I usually go to my Camp Chef Dutch ovens for inspiration and fulfillment. Creativity has inspired countless dishes while inspiration has created a few clever tricks to do what cannot be done, (So they say).

In this, three part series, “Taking Your Dutch oven to the Max” I am sharing with you some of my “aha” moments of creation while Dutch oven cooking. Part one explored transforming your Dutch oven into a Kabob Grill (Taking your Dutch oven to the Max part 1).

Part two is a takeoff from my love of BBQ – Smoke!

Yes, you can smoke food in a Dutch oven!

Not like BBQ or even close to traditional BBQ, though I have eaten some mighty tasty BBQ recipes cooked in a Dutch oven, you can and should try adding a little bit of smoke to your next Salmon, Chicken or Pork chop recipe. Now, do not get me wrong, I am not saying add smoke sauce or bottled smoke flavor. I am saying smoke, as in real wood chip smoke!

No fear here and no splinters in your food either!

You have probably seen those smoker boxes they sell next to the BBQ’s and Grills at your favorite outdoor cooking store. They come in several sizes and materials. The one that caught my eye was the cast iron one. Cast iron smoker box = Cast iron Dutch oven = smoking in Cast iron = smoking in my Dutch oven and so the thought process went.

After sharing this new discovery with a few friends one mentioned that they knew someone else that did something like this also. Oh well! Dashed my dreams of patenting this concept and hanging around on the beach watching those big checks roll in!

Dutch oven smoked Salmon

This technique will work with almost any type of food you choose but keep in mind you do have a short smoking window of about 30 – 45 minutes depending how many wood chips you use. I choose Alder chips for my recipe, it blend very well with Salmon. You could use Apple, Mesquite, Hickory, Cedar or many of the other flavors of wood out there. Just take the time to match it up with your food.

For Dutch oven smoking, I do not soak my chips, they go in dry.

This was also the first time that I used “Coconut” Briquettes from www.Coshellcharcoal.com and they are fabulous!

Steps:

1. Place a hand full or two of wood smoker chips onto the bottom of your Dutch oven
2. Place a wire trivet over the smoker chips
3. Line the inside bottom and sides of your Dutch oven with aluminum foil
4. Poke several holes in the bottom of the foil. I used a sharp knife for this
5. Pre-heat your Dutch oven with coals (12″ = 12 coals, 14″ = 14 coals, etc) on the bottom for 10 – 15 minutes to get the chips smoking
6. Place your food on the foil
7. Cover and add coals to the top (12″ = 8, 14″ = 10, etc depending on what you are cooking)

The cooking process will vary depending on what you are cooking and how long till it’s done. I can’t help you there, but for my Salmon and Pear slices, I cooked them for 20 minutes.

That’s it! Really!

Just follow these simple steps to add a unique flavor to your next Dutch oven meal.

One final pointer: If you are cooking some thing with a lot of juices, then place an insert over the foil or just poke some holes on the sides instead of the bottom. You don’t want those chips to get wet!

Give this a try and let me know what you smoked in your Dutch oven!

For more pictures visit my Flicker page: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjvergVs

Gary

“Taking your Dutch oven to the Max part 3″ coming up next.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Hot Apple Cider with
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Nothing says Chistmas more than the cinnamony scent of hot mulled cider simmering on the stove. Here are instructions for how to make hot cider at home with Camp Chef’s Hot Water Pot.

Hot Cider Ingredients:

• Fresh cider
• Whole cloves
• Cinnamon sticks
• Whole allspice
• Cheesecloth
• Large stock pot
• Brown sugar
• Ladle
• Mugs

Instructions

1. Pour one gallon of fresh cider into a large pot on the stove or into a crockpot or slow cooker.
2. Add a half cup of brown sugar.
3. Place 1 teaspoon of whole cloves, 1 teaspoon of whole allspice, and 3 cinnamon sticks on a square of cheesecloth and tie up. Add to the pot.
4. Heat the cider to a boil, stirring regularly. Leave the pot uncovered so that you and your family or guests can enjoy the warm, delicious aroma.
5. Once the cider boils, lower the setting to simmer for at least another 15 minutes to allow for thorough infusion of the spices. Stir occasionally.
6. Remove the spices from the pot and ladle hot mulled cider into mugs or other glasses designed for hot beverages.

Tips

1. If you don’t have cheesecloth on had, use a tea ball or a coffee filter to hold the spices.
2. (Optional) Add a splash of rum or brandy to really warm up a chilly day.
3. For a decorative touch, you can stud an apple with cloves and allow that to float in your cider pot instead of adding cloves to your spice bag.

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