Just as cookie nursed his piping hot sourdough biscuits to perfection, you too can become a master at cast iron cookery. Soon you'll be cooking Dutch oven treats like chicken enchiladas with cilantro lime rice and cucumber relish -- all in Dutch ovens.
But before you master meals that have "great natural taste," as Jess McCall of Hunter, Utah describes them, you need to learn a few Dutch oven basics.
Get started with home recipes
Where does the novice Dutch oven cook begin? You don't need fancy Dutch oven recipes, says McCall. Familiar home-style recipes work equally well in the Dutch oven because "the Dutch oven is nothing more than a cooking vessel."
They don't have to be complex either. McCall, a Dutch oven cook from Hunter, Utah, advises against buying the latest Dutch oven cookbook. Instead, recipes from Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, Fannie Farmer Cookbook or Joy of Cooking will work just as well. These are cookbooks that you're likely to have in your home, says McCall.
And hold off on offering your first Dutch oven meal to friends and neighbors. Like test driving a new car, McCall says to serve your first meals to "people you mind poisoning." Although he speaks in jest, it's important advice. McCall says that it's easy to ruin your first few Dutch oven meals.
You'll soon discover that the Dutch oven is the original slow cooker. But before you start cooking, one of the first principles any Dutch oven cook learns is temperature control.
Dutch oven temperature control
"The biggest problem new cooks have," says Ross Conlin, a Dutch oven instructor for Idaho State University, "is burning a chocolate dessert. They have too many coals under the oven and get in too big of a hurry."
For most recipes, Conlin recommends using two-thirds of the hot briquettes on the lid and one-third of the briquettes underneath the oven. The quickest way to calculate this number for a 350-degree 12-inch oven is to subtract four from the size of the oven for underneath the oven. Then add four to the size of the oven for the lid. This gives you 16 briquettes on the lid and eight briquettes underneath the oven.
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