Dutch oven size??

[whatcharterboat]

Dutch oven

Hi If you're really into this type of cooking, there is an enormous range of books here on the subject but in Australia Jack Absalom is arguably the guru. Check out this link. We just call them camp ovens. Also used for making "damper" which is a type of bread. A "Dutch oven" is ......... well I'm not even going to admit what it means here.

http://www.exploroz.com/Shop/Books/Misc/Outback_Cooking_in_a_Camp_Oven.aspx

 

[JeepN95YJ]

A "Dutch oven" is ......... well I'm not even going to admit what it means here.

LOL. I looked it up. Found it here:

http://www.geocities.com/napavalley/4699/slang-atoe.htm

 

[whatcharterboat]

CAMP oven

Yep . That's what it means allright. Guess you won't be asking for one in a camping store in Aus. Haha.

Seriously this book is great.

Also not sure about others but ours all have a raised lip around the lid for holding coals when you bury them in the fire and if you lift the lid it won't let the coals/ash drop into the pot.

 

[paulj]

In American usage, Dutch Oven traces back to cast iron pots either made with a Dutch sand-mold process or distributed by Dutch traders. The lid could be domed or rimmed, with or without legs. In modern usage it covers any heavy pot of similar size and shape, such as the enameled Le Creuset pots from France (some times these are called French Ovens). So you have to pay attention to context to determine what is being talked about.

Camp oven is a good term to clearly denote the pots designed for use with coals on top and below - one with the rim and optionally legs.

 

[Joanne]

What size dutch oven do you all use? There is minimum 6 of us, and quite often 8. All very, ummmm, VERY big eaters.

I'm thinking either the Camp Chef 14" or 16". Too big?

Thanks.

Oh heck, just go for a BIG oven! LOL! I got carried away last time I was in Reno and purchased a 20" oven at Cabellas.

A few months ago my friend Kelly came up with the recipe for a dish she calls the Coal Mine Breakfast. This dish is composed of a layer of biscuits, sausage, scrambled eggs and gravy. The sausage layer represents the coal that you have to dig down and scoop out.

At the recent International Redwood Teardrop Gathering, Kelly and I decided to try out my new 20" oven to get a feel for how it cooks. We weren't quite sure of the necessary coal counts so this was a good opportunity go give it a test run. I don't consider this recipe a real Dutch Oven recipe since the sausage, eggs, and gravy are precooked then assembled in the pot, but it's still a great camping recipe.

Ingredients:

3 tubes of Pillsbury Grands biscuits
4 pounds of country sausage
5 dozen eggs
5 packages of McCormick Country Gravy mix (makes 10 cups of gravy)
salt, pepper, granulated garlic

Procedure:

Here's how we did it. First we fried up the sausage and set aside. While Kelly scrambled all of the eggs, I baked the biscuits in the oven using 20 bottom coals and 25 on top. As the biscuits were baking I made up the gravy in my big pot. (This volume of sausage and eggs required us to cook the ingredients in batches) Once everything was cooked we layered in the sausage on top of the biscuits, followed by the eggs, sprinkled seasons to taste, and finally covered the entire dish with the gravy. We put the lid back on and let the meal heat for about 10 minutes.

I was surprised just how easily this recipe scaled up from the 12" and 14" ovens that we had previously done. The biggest surprise though was how quickly the folks emptied the oven. In about 10 to 15 minutes the oven was empty! I was concerned that we might have leftovers but in fact we could have made quite a bit more. I think if we announced this as an "official" group breakfast we could have made 2 of the 20s.

Here is a photo to give some perspective of just how big these ovens are!

The one thing I would change is to use regular sized biscuits rather than the Grands biscuits. People were using the spoon to cut the biscuits in half. Smaller biscuits would have been more appropriate for the serving size that most folks wanted.

Here's the same recipe scaled to a 12" oven.

Ingredients
2 tubes of biscuits (the small ones with 8 per tube)
12 eggs
1 lb sausage
2 packages of country gravy mix (2 cups per package)

Procedure
- Fry the sausage & set aside
- Scramble the eggs & set aside
- Bake the biscuits in the 12" oven
- Mix up the gravy while the biscuits are baking
- Layer the sausage, scrambled eggs, and gravy over the biscuits
- Heat until piping hot and serve


Seriously, a 12" is probably the best oven to start with since the majority of recipes that you will find are for 12" ovens. I personally prefer deep ovens since they hold more, but a 12" regular is also a great oven.

Joanne