I have baked rolls, cake and even pizza in a Dutch oven. One dish meals such as stews and soups are the best when made in a Dutch oven. Meat, even the cheapest cuts can be made tender and delicious in a Dutch oven.

There are a few tricks concerning the cooking source that are important to successful Dutch oven cooking. They can make the difference between undercooked or burnt food.

When I am preparing a meat dish such as ribs, chicken or roast, I like to brown the meat in the Dutch oven on a camp stove. Then the flavor from the browned meat is in the Dutch oven and adds to the taste of the finished product. Also this gets the Dutch oven hot so when it is placed on the coals, they maintain the heat and energy isn’t lost trying to heat the Dutch oven up.

The heat for Dutch oven cooking can’t be too hot or too cool. To take a line from the three bears, it must be, “just right. ” This might seem hard to determine, but if you are using charcoal briquettes it as easy as counting the number of briquettes to put under and on top of the Dutch oven.

Put as many briquettes under the Dutch oven as it size and two more than that number on the lid. That will give you a temperature of 350 degrees. For example if you are using a size 12 Dutch oven put 12 bricketts under the Dutch oven and 14 on the lid. If you are baking anything I recommend using bricketts.

If you are using a campfire you need to burn the wood down to coals and use the coals to heat the Dutch oven. I like to keep a campfire burning to replace coals as needed. Usually ever 30 to 40 minutes. This requires you to make a place outside of the campfire to place your coals for the Dutch oven. If you don’t do this and leave the Dutch oven in the fire pit with the fire burning you will probably end up with the food burned on the side closest to the fire.

I usually use a fire pan of some kind, the lid of a metal garbage can works great, to put the coals in. That makes for easy clean up of the ashes and you don’t have coals and ashes scattered all over your campsite.

Cooking with wood coals requires some skill learned by experience to determine the proper temperature for the food you are cooking. There are different types of wood that make better coals than others. Usually we don’t have the luxury of having the best wood available every time and just use what is available. So it takes a little more watching to make sure the dish you are preparing gets properly done. I don’t worry about this too much when cooking meats and stews. This may be more of a problem when baking products such as cakes and rolls. The correct and consistent temperature is more important when baking so the item doesn’t burn or become under cooked. Doughy rolls or soggy cake is a real disappointment after all the work you go through to make them.

You can also just use a camp stove and not have a fire or coals at all. This works great with one dish meals and dishes with a lot of moisture in them. A camp stove doesn’t work that great for baked items though because there isn’t any heat on the lid.

The best thing to do is just try it find Dutch oven recipe that looks good. They are on the internet or in special Dutch oven cookbooks. Follow the instructions and you will have a great meal that tastes better than anything you have ever cooked before. Especially if you cook it while camping in the mountains.

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The whole experience should be fun, so if you can plan out a few simple camping dishes, it can make it a lot more enjoyable. Well with some traditional campfire cooking recipes, this can be a lot easier than you think.

Try out a couple or even all of the easy recipes below and see how much more exciting and interesting you can make your camping meals.

BREAKFAST

Oat and nut pancakes.

Ingredients.

1 & 1/2 half cups of oats,

1 cup of flour,

2 tablespoons of brown sugar,

Pinch of salt, to taste,

3 teaspoons of baking powder,

½ a cup of mixed chopped nuts,

1 & ½ cups of milk,

2 eggs,

2 tablespoons of butter,

Mix together all the dry ingredients (oats, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, nuts,) and put to one side, while you whisk together the milk, eggs, and butter. Pour this onto the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Lightly grease a griddle or frying pan and pre heat on the fire. Pour about half a cup of the pancake mix into the pan and cook until bubbly and edges look dry, turn pancake over and cook until golden brown. Serve with maple syrup or similar.

LUNCH

Simple Spam snack.

Ingredients.

1 onion,

3 or 4 potatoes, (depending on size),

1 tin of Spam,

1 tablespoon of butter,

Salt & pepper to taste.

Peel and chop the onion and potatoes into roughly ¾ inch pieces, and cook in skillet or frying pan until tender. Chop spam into similar size cubes as onion and potatoes and add to skillet or pan add salt and pepper and continue cooking until all ingredients are, crispy and spam is well heated through. Allow to cool slightly and serve with some crusty bread and butter.

MAIN MEAL

Foil cooked Meatloaf.

Ingredients.

2 pounds of ground beef,

1 egg,

½ a cup of bread crumbs,

½ a can of tomato soup,

Salt & pepper to taste.

Mix all the ingredients together in a suitable container or bowl until it all binds together and can be moulded into a loaf shape of your choice. Place into a large piece of tin foil and wrap well, leaving an air pocket at the top for steam. Cook on small grill on top of fire embers for approximately ¾ of an hour, turning as necessary. Serve with potatoes and vegetables of your choice. Will serve 4 people.

SWEET

Baked Banana.

For a quick tasty desert, simply split a banana lengthwise leaving the skin on. Insert brown sugar and butter into split. Wrap in tin foil and bake in embers of fire until sugar and butter melt into the banana.

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An amazing collection of original, homegrown recipes for the versatile yet simple to use Pie Irons. The recipes in this book contain the best of the best and were all personally selected by the founder of Pie Iron manufacturer, Rome Industries. 100 recipes. 64 pages. Published by family camping cookware specialists, Rome Industries.

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Good Old S’mores

* Hershey’s chocolate bar

* marshmallows

* graham crackers

Place half of a Hershey’s® Milk Chocolate bar onto a graham cracker half. Carefully toast a marshmallow over a grill or campfire. After the marshmallow is toasted a nice golden brown, place it on top of the chocolate bar half. Sandwich it with a second cracker half and gently press it together. Enjoy! Comment: Use Nestle’ crunch chocolate bar for nut lovers.

Melty S’mores

* Hershey’s chocolate bar

* marshmallows

* graham crackers

* aluminum foil

Sandwich marshmallow and chocolate between 2 graham crackers. Wrap in tinfoil. Place on top of fire and let it melt together nicely.

Cookie S’mores

* 1 package Keebler Fudge Stripes cookies

* 1 package large marshmallows

Roast your marshmallow over the campfire on your fire-stick. When marshmallow is done, place it between two cookies and gently pull the marshmallow off the stick. The cookies seem to melt in your mouth. Easy and very tasty! Comments: Not as rich as a slab of Hershey’s chocolate used in the classic recipe.

Smothered S’mores

* semi-sweet chocolate morsels

* marshmallows

* sprinkles (jimmies, cinnamon, colored sugar, etc. )

Melt chocolate in aluminum pie plate or disposable bread tin. Place marshmallow on skewer and roll in melted chocolate. Then roll in your favorite topping. Topping ideas: crushed graham crackers, nuts, or colorful jimmies, shredded coconut, etc. Comments: If you don’t want to bother melting chocolate chips, use Hershey’s chocolate syrup instead.

Peanut Butter S’mores

* graham crackers

* miniature Reese’s peanut butter cups

* marshmallows

Toast the marshmallow. Place one peanut butter cup on a graham cracker. Top with the toasted marshmallow and a second graham cracker. Comments: Try the new white chocolate Reese’s peanut butter cup. Or use Andes Mints for mint lovers.

Mexican S’mores

* peanut butter

* chocolate chips

* miniature marshmallows

* flour tortilla (small)

Spread peanut butter on tortilla, sprinkle with chocolate chips and marshmallows, then roll up the tortilla shell. Wrap in foil and twist foil ends. Cook on grill grate over your fire for about 5 minutes. Unwrap and indulge.

Banana Boat S’mores

* banana

* mini marshmallows

* chocolate chips

Leave banana in peel. Slice it horizontally, NOT in half, and NOT fully through, only through top of banana and peel. Open it up like a hot dog bun and put in chocolate and marshmallows. Wrap in tinfoil and heat over fire. Tips for Adults: I can’t compete with the kids. They can down unlimited marshmallows and chocolate bars with impunity. My body’s not made the same way (sigh). So, I try to make the best experience out of my one s’mores. Enjoy it with a hot cup of unsweetened herbal tea or sugar-free hot chocolate. You’ll spare your system a sugar shock, and you can save the calories for that juicy steak tomorrow.

To watch a video on how to start a fire, go to:

http://www. joyofcamping. com/category/campfire/build-campfire/

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Graduating to 37 feet of delightful space and convenience, we spent a month preparing and hit the road.

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