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CAMP COOK CARL Dutch oven & campfire cooking from Tucson, Arizona My name is Carl and I have been a scoutmaster for going on nineteen years, which means I have cooked for more hungry twelve-year-olds than I could count if I tried. Somewhere around the second year I bought a 12-inch Dutch oven at a yard sale for four dollars, and I have never looked back. I now own seven of them, which my wife says is six too many. She is wrong. This page is everything I know about feeding a crowd outdoors: the recipes that actually work, the coal counts, how to keep your cast iron from rusting, and how to do all of it without leaving a mark on the desert. If you are a new scout leader, a parent stuck with the food job on the campout, or just a guy who wants to make a cobbler in the backyard, this is for you. Nothing here is fancy. All of it has been tested on kids, who are the harshest critics on earth. [ Briquette Chart | Peach Cobbler | Chili | Foil Dinners | Breakfast Burritos | Cowboy Coffee | Cast Iron Care | Fire Rules ]

THE BRIQUETTE CHART The single most useful thing on this page. Cut it out and tape it inside your chuck box. The rule of thumb: for about 350 degrees, use a total number of charcoal briquettes equal to twice the diameter of the oven in inches. For baking (breads, cobblers, cakes, biscuits) put about two-thirds of the coals on the lid and one-third underneath. Heat rises, and you want the top to brown, not the bottom to burn. Oven size Total coals On top Underneath Feeds about 8 inch 16 11 5 2-4 (side dishes) 10 inch 20 13 7 4-6 12 inch 24 16 8 8-10 (the one to buy first) 14 inch 28 19 9 12-16 16 inch 32 21 11 a whole troop A few more things I've learned the hard way: On a 12-inch oven, adding or taking away one briquette top and bottom changes the temperature by roughly 25 degrees. So 26 coals is about 375, 22 is about 325. Frying, boiling or browning: all the coals go underneath. Lid off or lid on, doesn't matter. Stews, chili, roasts: even split, or a few more on the bottom. Arrange the coals in a ring around the edge, on top and underneath, not in a pile in the middle. A pile in the middle burns a hole in the middle of your cornbread. Rotate. Every 15 minutes, turn the oven a quarter turn one way and the lid a quarter turn the other way. Hot spots are the enemy. Wind steals heat. Cold steals heat. Add a few coals in either, and start them in a chimney starter (a coffee can with holes punched in it works) so they're all going at once. A briquette gives you about 45 minutes to an hour of useful heat. For anything longer, have a second batch going. Get a lid lifter. Get two, because a scout will lose one.

DUTCH OVEN PEACH COBBLER The one everybody asks for. Three ingredients, one oven, zero skill. 12-inch oven, serves 8 to 10. You need: 2 large cans (29 oz. each) sliced peaches in syrup 1 box (18 oz. or so) yellow cake mix, dry 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, cut into thin pats 1 teaspoon cinnamon Optional: a handful of brown sugar, a splash of vanilla in the peaches Coals: 24 briquettes, 8 under, 16 on the lid. Do this: 1. Line the oven with heavy foil if you want easy cleanup (I usually do at camp, never at home). 2. Drain one can of peaches. Leave the syrup in the other. Dump both in the oven and spread them out. 3. Pour the dry cake mix evenly over the peaches. Do not stir. That is the whole trick. 4. Lay the pats of butter all over the top of the cake mix. Try to cover it; where there's no butter you get dry powder. 5. Sprinkle the cinnamon over everything. 6. Lid on, coals on, and leave it alone for 45 minutes, rotating a quarter turn every 15. It's done when the top is golden brown and the peaches are bubbling up around the edges. If the top is still powdery at 45 minutes, give it 10 more. 7. Let it sit five minutes with the lid off. Serve with a big spoon. If somebody brought a cooler with ice cream in it, that person is now your best friend. Variations: apple pie filling with spice cake mix. Cherry pie filling with chocolate cake mix (the scouts call this one "the volcano"). Two cans of crushed pineapple with yellow cake mix. It's the same recipe. It always works.

CAMPFIRE CHILI Saturday night dinner for the whole patrol. 12-inch oven, feeds 8 hungry people or 12 polite ones. You need: 2 lbs. ground beef 1 large onion, chopped 1 green bell pepper, chopped (optional, some kids will pick it out, let them) 2 cloves garlic, chopped, or a teaspoon of the stuff from the jar 2 cans (15 oz.) kidney beans, drained 1 can (15 oz.) pinto beans, drained 2 cans (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes, with the juice 1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce 3 tablespoons chili powder 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon salt, more to taste 1/2 teaspoon black pepper Bag of shredded cheese and a sleeve of saltines for the top Coals: start with all 24 underneath for browning. Then move to about 10 under and 14 on top for the simmer. Do this: 1. Brown the beef with the onion, pepper and garlic in the oven with the lid off. Break it up as it cooks. Drain most of the fat (pour it into an empty can, not on the ground, and pack the can out). 2. Add everything else. Stir it up. 3. Lid on. Simmer 45 minutes to an hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so when you rotate. If it's too thick add a cup of water; if too thin, lid off for the last 15. 4. Serve with cheese and crackers, or over rice, or in a bowl of corn chips if you want to be a hero. This chili is mild on purpose because eleven-year-olds. Put a bottle of hot sauce on the table for the adults.

FOIL-PACKET DINNERS Every scout's first camp meal, and still a good one. Each kid makes his own. Amounts are per person. Per packet: 1/4 lb. ground beef, made into a patty about an inch thick 1 medium potato, sliced thin (thin! thick potatoes are the number one reason foil dinners come out raw) 1 carrot, sliced thin A few slices of onion Salt, pepper, a pat of butter Two sheets of heavy-duty foil, about 18 inches long each Do this: 1. Lay the first sheet of foil shiny side up. Put the onion slices down first, then the patty, then the potatoes and carrots on top. Salt, pepper, butter. 2. Bring the long sides of the foil together over the food and fold down twice. Fold the ends in twice. Now wrap the whole thing in the second sheet the same way. Two layers. Always two layers. 3. Write your name on it with a marker. Trust me. 4. Set the packets on a bed of coals (not flames; you want coals that have burned down to gray) and rake a few coals on top. 20 to 25 minutes, turning once with tongs at the halfway mark. 5. Open one carefully (steam!) and check the potatoes with a fork. If they're soft, they're all done. Other combinations that work: chicken breast with a can of cream of mushroom soup poured over. A piece of fish with lemon and butter (only 10 or 12 minutes). Sliced apple with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon for dessert.

BREAKFAST BURRITOS Sunday morning, camp has to be struck by ten, and everybody's starving. Feeds 10. 12-inch oven and the lid. You need: 1 lb. breakfast sausage (or bacon, chopped) 1 bag (about 30 oz.) frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed overnight in the cooler 1 onion, chopped 1 dozen eggs, cracked into a jar or a zip bag at home and kept cold 2 cups shredded cheddar 10 large flour tortillas Salsa Coals: all underneath, about 20. This is a frying job. Do this: 1. Brown the sausage in the oven, lid off. Add the onion and the hash browns and fry until the potatoes get some color. This takes longer than you think, about 15 minutes, so be patient and stir. 2. Push everything to the sides and pour the eggs in the middle. Scramble them, then stir everything together. Salt and pepper. 3. Sprinkle the cheese over and put the lid on for two minutes to melt it. 4. Meanwhile flip the lid of another Dutch oven upside down over a few coals and warm the tortillas on it. (This is the second best use for a Dutch oven lid. The first is a griddle for pancakes.) 5. Spoon it in, roll it up, salsa. Wrap extras in foil and hand them to the kids for the ride home.

COWBOY COFFEE For the adult leaders, who have earned it. No filter, no percolator, no problem. You need a pot (an old enamel coffee pot is best, but any pot with a lid works), water, and coffee ground coarse. Fine grounds turn into mud. 1. Fill the pot with cold water and bring it to a rolling boil over the fire. 2. Take it off the heat. Add the coffee: about 2 tablespoons of coarse grounds per cup of water. Stir once. 3. Put the lid on and let it sit 4 or 5 minutes. 4. Now the trick: pour in a splash of cold water, maybe a quarter cup. The grounds settle to the bottom. Some people tap the side of the pot with a spoon instead. Some people swear by dropping in a clean, crushed eggshell. All of it works. 5. Pour slow and stop before the last inch, which is grounds. That's it. Strong, black, and it'll wake you up. If you boil the grounds instead of steeping them you'll get something bitter enough to strip paint, and there are leaders in my district who like it that way, and I don't judge.

TAKING CARE OF CAST IRON A Dutch oven that's treated right will outlive you and your grandkids. My four-dollar yard sale oven is at least fifty years old and cooks better than the new one. Here's the whole secret. Seasoning a new (or rusty) oven. Wash it once with hot soapy water to get the factory wax off (this is the only time soap ever touches it). Dry it completely; put it on the stove or over coals for a couple minutes to be sure. Rub a thin coat of vegetable shortening or cooking oil over every surface, inside and out, lid too. Wipe off the extra; you want it to look almost dry, not greasy. Put it upside down in a 350-degree oven with foil on the rack below to catch drips, and bake it for an hour. Turn the oven off and let it cool inside. Do this two or three times and it'll be black and slick. The more you cook in it, the better it gets. Cleaning after a meal. Scrape out the food. Add hot water and scrub with a plastic scraper or a stiff brush. Never soap. Soap takes off the seasoning you worked so hard for. For stuck-on stuff, boil an inch of water in it for a few minutes and it'll come loose. Dry it right away over the fire or the stove until it's bone dry. Wipe a thin coat of oil over the inside while it's still warm. Storing. Keep it somewhere dry, with a paper towel folded inside to soak up moisture and the lid set on a little crooked so air can get in. A sealed oven with a drop of moisture in it will rust by spring. Two things that ruin an oven: putting a hot one in cold water (it can crack), and letting a scout "help" by scrubbing it with steel wool and dish soap. I have re-seasoned more ovens than I care to admit for that second one. Rust isn't the end of the world. Scrub it off with steel wool (this is the one time), rinse, dry, and re-season from scratch.

ABOUT FIRES: LEAVE NO TRACE I'm putting this on a cooking page on purpose, because a lot of the damage I see in the backcountry comes from people cooking. The Scouts teach Leave No Trace and so do I. The parts that matter for the cook: Check the fire restrictions before you go. In Arizona in a dry summer there may be no open fires at all, and charcoal counts as an open fire. That's what the propane stove is for. Cobbler works fine on a stove with a Dutch oven and a little patience. Use an existing fire ring. Don't build a new one. If there isn't one, you're probably somewhere you shouldn't have a fire. Keep it small. You cook on coals, not flames. A bonfire is for show and it wastes wood. Dead and down wood only, no bigger around than your wrist, and only what you'll burn. Never cut anything living. Never strip bark. Charcoal briquettes: cook on a fire pan, a metal tray or an old cookie sheet, not on the bare ground. It keeps the ground from scorching and makes cleanup a snap. Pack out the ash with your trash once it's cold. Burn it all to ash and then drown it with water, stir, and drown it again. Feel it with the back of your hand. If it's too hot to touch, it's too hot to leave. Never bury a fire; it can smolder for days. Food scraps and grease get packed out, not burned, not buried. Animals learn fast. Leave the site looking like nobody cooked there. That's the whole idea.

Friends on the Backroads ring and around GeoCities.us: Desert Rats Off-Road Club (Rick out there has borrowed my cobbler recipe for their fall run; good luck, Rick) · Hank & Peggy's Great American Road Trip · Dayhikes with Dad · Rosa's Kitchen Table (real cooking, indoors, with a sink) Coming this winter: Dutch oven biscuits, a pot roast, and my sourdough starter that has been going since 1991. Also pictures, once I get the roll from the August campout developed.

This site is a member of the Backroads WebRing, owned by Carl D. [ << Prev | List Sites | Next >> ]

Hungry visitors fed since November 1998: Got a recipe? A question? A better coal count? [email protected] Last updated September 12, 1999, the day after the fall camporee, where we fed 60 people out of four ovens and nobody went home hungry. © 1998-1999 Carl D. Recipes are free; pass them on.