More Dutch oven cooking

Over the weekend my GF and I went camping in the Catskills with my sisters and their significant others and we brought the Dutch oven. One of my sisters also brought a Dutch oven so we were able to stack them and cook stuff at the same time. We did rabbit creol in my oven and roasted the potatoes in my sisters oven. Sorry only one pic.

Thats the rabbit in the bottom one and the potatoes in the top one.

We also made biscuits and gravy and did spaghetti and venison meat balls.

Last night I decided to try and do a roast chicken. First I browned the chicken in bacon grease, then let it roast by itself for around 20/30 minutes before adding the veggies. Total roast time was probably close to 2 hours. Man it came out great. Like fall off the bone great.

I'm really getting into this hobby, lol. So many delicious recipes to do in these things. Not that you couldn't do this stuff indoors with a normal oven but there is something about cooking outside like this I really enjoy.

HighlandLofts said:

I need to pick one up, looks like fun.
I have one of them things there in the second picture for getting the charcoal going, they work GREAT!

I just got into breeding meat rabbits, I have two litters (13 babies" that will be ready to butcher here in about a month.
Two black New Zealand does bred on a Rex buck. Tomorrow I will be buying a broken red New Zealand doe and a white New Zealand buck.
I like rabbit cooked in the oven with Shake & Bake for chicken.
I'm going fry some and use Franks Hot Sauce, and marinate some in Italian Dressing to cook out on the grill.

Rabbit Pot Pie in a Dutch Oven sounds good.

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I don't think you'll regret it. It takes some getting used to as far as the amount of coals and the timing of swapping coals out, but it's usually pretty forgiving. It's messy as well, but still worth it.

HighlandLofts said:

Can you line the dutch oven with aluminum foil? It would cut down on soaking and scrubbing.

What do you use for bricketts? Kingsford?

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I wouldn't use foil. It would probably tear and be more in the way than anything. The cast iron has a seasoned surface that is naturally non- stick. You always want to use some kind of cooking oil/ grease with the hot metal (helps with the non-stick as well as adds to tbe seasoning). You also want to clean them while they are warm with a brush, cloth, non abrasive sponge or rag and then set them back on a heat source until all the water/moisture is gone.

You can use kingsford or your favorite charcoal, lump or briquette. You can use coals from a campfire or hang it above a campfire.

It is, but thats part of the fun.
Here are some videos that got me interested. These guys have a lot of vids on the subject.

I want to do a pizza and a lasagna too. I think I'll need a wider and more shallow oven for the pizza though. These guys are awkward as hell but I like their recipes.

Lol! I'd still be down for trying it.

Making the pizza tonight!!!

In it goes!!

Here it is. Took longer than expected. I don't think I pre heated the oven right. Anyway, like I've said before, it's a learning experience.

It was very good. The bottom crust was crispy and the edges were nice and crispy/soft. The cheese just didn't brown up the way I would have liked it to. Perhaps it had to do with the type of cheese used. I love fresh mozzarella slabs but they tend to take longer to brown than shredded. Maybe I should have used less cheese ( I know, fuck that I should have used more!). The oven is also a deep oven. I think a wider and more shallow oven would be more ideal. Anyway, I'll be trying this again for sure.

Bringing back a zombie thread, lol. First of the season!!! Doing a chicken with carrots, onions and purple and red potatoes.

Many thanks to @phatfarmerbob for the secret santa dutch oven gift. It's a massive 16inch shallow dept dutch oven. Sadly never got to use it this summer, but finally did last night. Thus thing is perfect for pizza! We made two pizzas one cheese and the other pepperoni mushroom. We used a whole wheat crust which was not bad to be honest.

Preheating the oven.


Dropping that F'r in there!


Baking like a boss

BAMM!


Can barely hold the dogs back!

And the pepperoni Mushroom one..

cgrutt said:

We recently moved and I was halfway through making a baked ziti last night before I realized we didn't bring any pans that were deep enough to hold 2 lbs of pasta etc. Used my stainless Dutch oven as a work around (I know, I know not what most of you might consider but still technically called a Dutch oven). Came out surprisingly great! Think I may be using this as preferred method in future...

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Awesome! Whether it's the outdoor type or the indoor type meant to be put in the oven, dutch ovens are great cooking tools. For me, it's cooking outside with friends and family. Using the outdoor dutch oven is both fun and challenging.