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Cee Dub Welch on Creative Camp Cooking

© C.W. "Butch" Welch

You'd expect a guy like Cee Dub Welch to have had a long and rewarding career in the culinary arts. After all, he's a top-notch camp cook. Put Cee Dub into a trail or river camp and you'll see a cook in his prime -- one who can wrestle a dozen cast iron Dutch ovens without spilling the beans.

Well, the truth is that Cee Dub's education and experience have nothing to do with food -- officially, at least. As an Idaho State game warden and conservation officer, Cee Dub spent over twenty years riding Idaho's backcountry enforcing the law. Read on to find out what this camp cook has to say about his favorite subject -- Steve Karoly

Being creative in camp

This article is used with permission of Back Country Press of Grangeville, Idaho. It's excerpted from More Cee Dub's Dutch Oven and Other Camp Cookin' by C.W. "Butch" Welch.

Few things in life end up being written in stone; the exception of course, a few short words on a gravestone that marks a final resting place. I've run across cooks who treat every recipe card as a piece of granite. Changing a recipe crosses their mind just before they consider voluntary commitment to an institution!

In an extreme case, a cook I knew totally changed his menu one night for the lack of a certain spice! Camp cooks rarely have that luxury. My personal opinion is, if someone is that hidebound they should cook for survival purposes only and take up something like underwater basket weaving when they want to have fun.

If you truly enjoy camp cooking, an empty Dutch oven should be to you what an empty canvas is to an artist. The artist begins with dabs of paint on a palette while the camp cook opens the grub box and takes stock. Regardless of the colors used or the contents of the chuck box, only imagination and creativity limit the final product. The end result should be pleasing for both artist and cook. The difference being the painting ends up gracing a wall and the meal graces a table.

Many recipes in this book and those still in my files got their start in camp. Hunting season ends up being a month-long carousel of company can camps. Everyone shows up with plenty of grub. For convenience, we'll prepare some main dishes at home then take them to camp frozen. Also we have plenty of basics such as spuds, onions, dried beans, rice, and baking supplies.

The copyright of the article Cee Dub Welch on Creative Camp Cooking in Outdoor Cooking is owned by C.W. "Butch" Welch. Permission to republish Cee Dub Welch on Creative Camp Cooking in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.