Outdoor Cooking
Steven C. Karoly
Articles
How to Outfit a Chuckbox for Camping or Backpacking
I searched for a new chuckbox until my wife and I attended the Spring Conference of the International Dutch Oven Society in Farmington, Utah last March. I found the perfect chuckbox when I walked past Kent Mayberry's K&B Going Dutch booth.
Kepahrt's ideal cooking fire produced little smoke or flame, yielded a bed of clear, glowing coals and gave off a heat like "small blast furnace." These principles remain true today.
Battle Plan for Food Safety - Questions and Answers
After I published my last article, "Battle Plan for Food Safety," I posted a message on the Yahoo! Dutch Oven Club Bulletin Board. My note pointed Yahoo! readers to Suite101. Here's their feedback.
According to the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, outdoor cooks count on two food safety principles to ward off disease. They are "Keep hot food hot and cold food cold" and "Keep everything clean."
Don't Let a Brownout Spoil Dinner
Commentary aside, Camp and Outdoor Cooking is not here to solve California's power woes. But we can certainly help our readers wrestle up gourmet meals under the oaks while conserving a little electricity and sending less cash to your local investor-owned utility.
Pinto Bean Soup with Roasted Tomatoes
Pinto bean soup with roasted tomatoes is one of those recipes that was made for camping. Adapted from a recipe by the Idaho Bean Commission, it can be made with dry or canned pinto beans. The soup makes the perfect first-night dish for a famished crew of campers when prepared with ...
Pot pie in an American classic. It's comfort food. And it easily adapts to most tastes. Use this recipe as a starting point and add and remove vegetables to your liking. Peas, carrots, celery, mushrooms, potatoes -- most any vegetable will work.
Puttin' Irons to Work - Basics of Dutch Oven Cookery
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.
Dutch Ovens for the Camp Kitchen
"You can cook just about anything ... in a Dutch oven," says Duke, a Dutch oven cook from Cypress, Texas. "You can fry, bake breads and desserts, make soups, stews, and roasts and cook just about any thing you wish." Cooks even find that low-fat recipes work equally well in Dutch ...
Spuds are the star ingredient in dozens of camp dishes. Mashed, baked, grilled or fried -- it doesn't matter how you cook them. They're the perfect camp food for morning, noon or night.
Cookie was Right - the Dutch Oven's All You Need
Although the camp stove is popular in many camps today, cooks still find that the Dutch oven is the most adaptable piece of camp cookware.
Sauté Dishes for the Great Outdoors
Contrary to any impressions that you've formed from reading articles in Camp and Outdoor Cooking, I don't spend every afternoon preparing large multi-course meals for the family. Except for two or three dinners during a typical week-long camping trip, many are quick skillet-based meals.
Elizabeth's Easy-Bake Dutch Oven Lasagna
Although Elizabeth doesn't cook this lasagna in a Dutch oven, it's one that she often at home for her family. She often divides this recipe in two and freezes half for quick meals or to give to friends or those in need from her church.
Cee Dub Welch on Menu Planning
A menu for a group isn't too tough if all you're going to do is line up a bunch of cans, open them and then dump them in a pot. Likewise, hot dogs on a willow stick are easily accomplished without taxing ones creativity. If you're going to be a camp ...
Dutch Oven Cooking on the Internet
The problem for rising Dutch oven cooks is this: Where do you find quality information? Although scores of cookbooks are published each day, few are devoted to Dutch ovens. So what's a Dutch oven cook to do?
Getting Ready for the Camp Cooking
December is the low point in my annual quest to replicate my last camping trip to the Alpine country of California's Sierra Nevada range. Like many areas in the United States and Canada, a blanket of snow covers campgrounds. It's winter. Everything's frozen. In many places -- especially at Woods Lake, ...
Cee Dub Welch on Creative Camp Cooking
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.
Top Ten Tools for the Camp Kitchen
By now, you've seen that I'm a proponent of anything cast iron, especially camp Dutch ovens. Sure, they're heavy. But nothing beats cast iron. It's versatile, holds heat and cooks evenly. So, it's no surprise that cast iron cookware is king in my camp cooking outfit.
A barbecued turkey at Thanksgiving -- or any other time of the year -- is simply divine. Its browned to perfection in the barbecue. Instead of filling the house with the pleasant aroma of a roasting turkey, you'll be inviting all of your neighbors as its scent wafts over the fence ...
Handling Leftovers in Camp or Spaghetti that's Better Leftover
Leftover spaghetti makes a great meal for the first night in camp. It heats up quickly with little fuss. Just fire up the stove, preheat a cast iron skillet over a medium flame and reheat the spaghetti. But before you toss the spaghetti into the skillet, you need to understand few ...
Orange-Pineapple Upside Down Cake with Blackberry Drizzle
Here's a tropical alternative to traditional Dutch oven pineapple upside down cake. Pineapple and oranges have benefited from a long association with each other. Instead of using a caramelized brown sugar topping as in Pineapple Upside Down Cake, drizzle warm blackberry jam over each piece of cake.
Fresh Herbs Add Flavor To Your Camp Cooking
Fresh herbs transform any dish into a culinary delight by enhancing the flavor of a dish. Who doesn't enjoy Italian pasta dishes flavored with basil and thyme? Or Mexican meals spiced with cilantro and oregano? Using fresh herbs in camp cooking will produce many flavor-packed meals for your family.
This chicken enchilada recipe uses a mild cream-based green chili sauce that's a refreshing change from the heavier red chili sauce. For a creamer texture, substitute half-and-half for the milk in the recipe. Imitation crab can also be used in place of chicken for seafood enchiladas.
A few weeks ago, I cooked hotcakes and bacon over a campfire in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. During the four-day backpacking trip, the two hotcake breakfasts tasted much better than freeze-dried scrambled eggs and homemade granola cereal. These golden brown wheat cakes brought back fond memories of childhood camping vacations and ...
A Camper's Dozen: 13 Tips To Successful Meals In Camp (Part 2)
Many prepare appetizing family meals while camping. But the last thing you need is to helplessly sit in the tent while a black bear ravages though your cache or to be frantically searching for an emergency room because your child has stomach cramps and diarrhea. Putting some thought into how you ...
A Camper's Dozen: 13 Tips To Successful Meals In Camp (Part 1)
You can be a wonderful cook who's able to balance sourdough proofing in the sun with a lasagna that you've layering in a Dutch oven. But your sense of timing won't salvage the meal if you forgot yeast or left the noodles on the cupboard shelf. Putting some thought into your ...
Outdoor Cooking in California's Gold Country
Each spring, as the weather in California's Gold Country slowly warms to the century mark, the Karoly family moves its culinary operation into the front yard.