Van Essential: Dutch Oven

[Van-Tramp]

I bought what I thought was a Dutch Oven but turned out to be a Bean Pot Kettle. In only two days of cooking with it I am in love with this form of cooking and thoroughly endorse getting a Dutch Oven (or Kettle) as part of your RVing or Van-dwelling cooking arsenal.

My first cooking attempt was simply to bake some potatoes and yams. I went as far to do the majority of the cooking with four tealight candles which, once the kettle was preheated using my propane stove, held the interior above 300 degrees for four hours.

Only a day later I went for the big-ticket item; chicken dinner. After preheating the kettle I placed a half-breast of chicken in it and closed the lid and set the propane stove to the lowest flame I could achieve. Even with the lowest setting, the interior of the kettle stayed above 400 degrees and within 45 minutes the chicken was fully cooked. I added in my favorite vegetables and a yam to reheat for a few minutes while I pealed the chicken meat off the bone. A few more minutes and I had one of the best van-cooked meals I have ever had.



Why use a Dutch Oven?
There are some major advantages to using a Dutch Oven over a BBQ or Microwave.
First, it requires no electricity at all so it can be done anywhere.
Second, it can be done both inside or outside the van. This means, I can cook up a proper meal even while parked in a Walmart parking lot. Or I can start up a fire at a campground and set the oven in the coals to slow cook.
Lastly, I can bake with it. While a normal cast-iron pan only allows frying, a Dutch Oven allows complete and proper baking. You can place a heat source (coals) on top of the flat lid too. Want biscuits? You can have them. Want apple pie? You can bake that too!

Although you have to manually manage the temperature, the cooking process is pretty much fire-and-forget once you have the temps you want.

For more, I found Dutch Oven Dude

What is the difference between a Dutch oven and a bean kettle?
A Dutch Oven has legs (so coals can be placed under) and a flat top (so coals can be placed on the top). A Kettle has no legs and the top is domed. A kettle can still be used as a Dutch Oven with a little extra effort.

 

[akblack10]

Thanks for sharing! Food stories are always good!
-AK

 

[highdesertranger]

I love dutch ovens for all the reasons van tramp stated. btw van tramp that's a good looking bean pot, looks like it has good seasoning. where did you pick it up? highdesertranger

 

[sl1966]

They are great and I had one but gave it to a friend. It was a 12 quart one, and a little too big for just me and the beagle. I'm going to replace it with a 4qt version. They average about $30-40 on amazon.com for anyone interested.

 

[Van-Tramp]

Yea you can get a Dutch Oven at Walmart for $60 brand new. The Bean Kettle I got from a flea market for $28, seasoning included

 

[sl1966]

I wish there were as many Bass Pro's & Cabela's in socal as there was in Texas. They had them there in all sizes. Fairly competatively priced too.

 

[Unchained]

I got mine at Wally World in Socal. It's a 5 qt bean pot (no feet) and was $39.95, already seasoned.

 

[Unchained]

Found this:
http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-LCC3-Lo...id=1391746881&sr=8-2&keywords=lodge+cast+iron

Looks interesting, since you get the dutch oven and skillet. Good price, too.

 

[hippiechk]

Lodge is considered one of the best of the camp style (with legs) Dutch oven makers. My grill is designed to hold a Dutch oven and with its Kevlar hood does an awesome job of baking.

You sure come up with some good food for yourself, good for you, I think a lot of us too often get caught in the fast. 45 minutes kicking back and ending up with such fine fare sure beats my far too often scrambled eggs with assorted stuff.

I'm also finding the weight of the bigger Dutch oven hard and have been playing with some Mexican calderos...cornbread came out okay...

Van-Tramp, I sure hope you're taking notes...I'll buy your cook book! *smile*

 

[Van-Tramp]

Alright, I admit that apple pie was the primary reason I wanted a dutch oven. A van-cooked pie tops off a long day hiking or biking like nothing else, so after my recent successes in dutch oven cooking I whipped up my plans for van-made apple pie.

A ‘from scratch’ crust (my first since I was a pre-teen) evolved from flour, salt, butter, and a little water. This was then formed into a small loaf pan, filled with apple filling (canned this time), and set in the already pre-heated Dutch Oven, elevated off the bottom to prevent bottom-burn. I kept my heat just one notch above the minimum, which I knew would give me 400-450 degrees inside.

5 minutes later the crust had browned and pulled away from the sides of the loaf pan… my cue to pull out my knife and fork and get ready to eat. My next attempt will include a top-crust… something I was concerned would not brown, but now I believe the butter will take care of that for me.

The end result:

 

[Mackerous]

I've had the one Unchained linked too for a few years now and love it. The bottom is a large sauce pan, the top a skillet, and combines to a dutch oven. When I lived in a house I used it mostly to bake bread in. In the van I only have that and a small copper-bottom pot (which gets the most use). I don't use it as much in the van but I have used it to bake a small frozen pizza when I had a craving.

It tapers at the bottom so you wouldn't be able to fit a bread pan in it. If you're really into baking or making LARGE portions, you're not going to beat a dedicated dutch oven. For my purposes (and I would venture to say most vandwellers), the combo model is fantastic and space-efficient.

 

[highdesertranger]

good job van tramp. I love apple pie too. this year I want to try an apple pie in my dutch oven. I know of several places with apple trees out in the boonies. usually we just eat so may apples we get sick. highdesertranger

 

[Unchained]

I decided to join Van-Tramp's "Awesome Cast Iron Stove Top Baking Experiment' after seeing that apple pie

Tonight, it was uber-simple and cheap refrigerated biscuits. I wanted to butter the tops, but decided not to this time around and see what happened. Preheated my 5 qt bean kettle on the propane stove top, put an empty tuna can on the bottom to prevent burning, then the biscuits in an ungreased 7" foil pan and replaced the lid.

Turned the heat way down and waited 11-12 minutes. Yay, biscuits!!! No real browning on top, so will either flip them or brush butter on top next time. Still, they were fluffy, perfectly baked and plenty brown and crispy on bottom and sides. Success!

Having lived without an oven for wayyyy too long, a huge thanks to Van-Tramp for this thread! Can't wait to try again with filled crescent rolls, shepherd's pie and whatever else I can come up with

 

[Van-Tramp]

Yum!

I have some biscuit and cornbread mix that I planned on cooking up when the urge struck. I will be sure to use some butter to brown the tops a bit.

I still have half my apple pie mix, so tonight might be another apple pie night

 

[akrvbob]

I'm a big fan of Dutch ovens, but what makes them work like an oven is you can put charcoal on top and heat them evenly. Is there any way to do that other than charcoal?

Have you considered using charcoal? Weber makes a metal container designed to start the charcoal then all you have to do is set the dutch oven on them and put some on top. They have a formula for how many degrees you get for each briquette.
Bob

 

[Van-Tramp]

I have a bag of charcoal in the van already, just waiting for the right time to fire some up to use them.

The link I have in post #1 talks about that formula and ratio of how many to put top and bottom.

 

[Trekking]

Dutch oven with or without leggs?

 

[highdesertranger]

the legs are so you can put your charcoal underneath and the oven does not sit directly on the coals. you can also use coal out of your campfire but this takes a little more knowledge and practice. I have also baked bread in a dutch oven on a bbq. what I do is put a heat sink on the grate place the DO with legs on the heat sink and close the lid of the bbq. again this take a little practice but works good. as far as the legs go if they fit down through your stove grate you can use it on your stove top like a regular pot. I do this also on my camp chef stove. highdesertranger

 

[Lucky mike]

it might help.....dutch ovens also are available without legs.......mine doesnt have them.

 

[Heyday]

I love my Dutch oven and plan on taking it on the road with me.

It seems like it would work great with a Wonderbag. I have one on my to-buy or figure-out-how-to-duplicate list.

If you haven't heard of these, they're a heavily insulated bag that turns any preheated pot into a slow cooker with no ongoing heat source.

Just heat the pot however you usually do, put the food in the pot, put the pot in the bag and leave to cook.

http://nb-wonderbag.com