Good dutch oven recipe

[ol' blue]

Just got done with boy scout duty, and was reminded of one of my favorite recipes for the dutch oven. Very easy, and is a great one for people new to dutch oven cooking. Not to mention that it is DELICIOUS.

Cobbler:

Line a dutch oven with foil. Not necessary for the recipe, but you'll thank me when you get ready for cleanup. Second, add 2 cans of peach pie filling in the bottom. Third, add the contents of one box of white cake mix on top of the filling. Last, slice 1 stick of butter/margarine and distribute evenly along the top of the cake mix. Cover and put on a layer of coals, with a layer of coals on top as well. Done in 20 minutes or so, depending on coal type.

Feel free to improvise here. Any fruit filling will work. Try cherry filling with chocolate cake. Or apple with spice cake. They all come out great. Peach seems to be the favorite in general, but we have some who prefer the spice apple, and cherry is hard to beat, too.

[Uncle Jesse]

I believe that is very close to what my wife calls a "Dump Cake." Things like that with vanillas ice cream are the reason I will probably never maintain what the medical community considers my ideal maximum weight.

Speaking of ice cream and such.....I believe the wife is planning on me getting out the White Mountain hand crank for labor day. It has been over 20 years I know but it's a special treat for our daughter who doesn't remember us making homemade ice cream. I will keep you posted.

[Heritage Angler]

Great recipe! Cobbler is a tradition at the PA Fish-In every year. Our cobbler master (wetflyguy) brought it from his experience with Scouting.

One of my fondest memories of this year's Fish-In is of over 20 FAOL members sitting at the dinner table, ready for dessert, and chanting "cobbler, cobbler, cobbler...". Check out the slide show from the Fish-In, and you'll see plenty of cobbler porn.

http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...view=slideshow

[Sonny Edmonds]

Another real beauty of cast iron I learned as a teenager (may have been younger) was how to clean it.
A Family we went camping with would bring along their cast iron skillets and such. When the campfire was dieing down, Joe would bury his skillet in the coals.
The next morning when the coals were cold, he'd pull it out. Bare as a new babies butt! All the iron was totally >new< clean.
You have to re-cure it, but a years worth of build up was in the ashes and gone.
I've done that myself from time to time with the few we have.
My Daughter has and uses a lot of cast iron cookware.

Warning:
Don't use this method with anything but cast iron cook ware.

[Gemrod]

I posted the recipe for a "Dump Cake" in the What's Cooking section. I just forgot to mention it was a good recipe for Dutch Oven as well. I like the cherry filling best. Also, as odd as it may seem I like it cold and no topping. No ice cream or whip cream. Whip cream "sounds" like it would be great. But IMHO I think it is much better with ice cream than whip cream. Anywhooo....you can find the step by step instructions in
"What's Cooking" Dump Cake by Gemrod
I also neglected to say in the home oven....you are only looking for barely brown crust around the edges. I think the recipe I posted said cook till golden brown. Not true. Well, maybe it could be. I just never let it cook THAT long. The whole center will look white and not cooked but it really is done. It might need to set up a bit but it's pretty much done in the time stated.

Just fyi

[dudley]

This is a timely post. I need to come up with a couple of dutch oven recipes for our Labor Day camping weekend.
Last year I made a yummy papaya cake for dessert one night and a banana bread for breakfast one morning.

The banana bread was based on this;
Byron's Dutch Oven Recipes - Sour Cream Banana Bread
But of course I had to tweak it to my needs.
As I remember, for the dry ingredients, I subbed a full box of store-brand biscuit mix and instead of the sour cream I added a quart or so of Amish Friendship Bread Starter
I don't remember the amounts exactly, but the batter was mixed to the same consistency that you'd mix any other quick bread. Other ingredients were more or less doubled.
This bread went over BIG TIME
I've set the bar pretty high for myself so now I'll be needing to come up with some new magic

[ridgeliner]

My wife makes a dump cake similar to what has been mentioned. Instead of canned pie filling she uses canned fruit cocktail. A varied mixture of tastes in each bite.

[Gemrod]

Now THAT's an interesting twist Ridgeliner. I will have to try that one.

Thanks for that.

And Dudley, thank you for your information and links too.

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

LowtecJoe makes this absolutely awesome Lasagna in the Dutch Oven. I begged for the recipe and Joe unselfishly as always gave me it.

I pass it on to you confident that Joe wouldn't mind. Joe is that kind of guy. Believe me folks, I have made it for my family and friends in a 12 inch lodge dutch oven and they fight over it. I always have to have fixins on hand for two batches.

DUTCH OVEN PIZZA LASAGNA
Ingredients:
12? 3 legged Dutch Oven
Kingsford Briquettes
1 box (16 ounces.) Lasagna Noodles
1 jar (26 ounces.) Italian sauce
1 pound hamburger
1 pound Italian sausage meat ( I use the mild but you can sub in the Hot )
1 pound fresh sliced pepperoni
1 small can sliced black olives
1 small can sliced mushrooms
Chopped green pepper
1 package shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 package sliced Provolone cheese

Precook the Lasagna noodles till El den-ti (1/2 done), and store in cold water till ready to use.

Precook the hamburger and Italian sausage separately.
Add to the bottom of the Dutch about a 1/5 th of each ingredient and top with 3 Lasagna noodles. Repeat 5 times. Each time I add noodles to the Dutch, I change the direction they lay. If you go north and south with the first layer, go east and west with the next. This helps to hold the entire thing together when served.

Briquettes 12 on bottom 6 on top

Cooking time is about 1 hour. This dish served 6 people with enough left over for 1 serving of cold pizza-lasagna the next morning. If you like cold pizza as a snack, you like this dish too.

FROM THE DUTCH OVEN OF LOTECH JOE

I usually use the mild Italian sausage in the first batch and make the second batch with the Hot for hot spicy food fans.

If making just one recipe I chop some jalapenos and add them to 1/2 of the Lasagna to satisfy the spicy food addicts.

[cheffy]

If anybody get the Boy Scout magazine for adults "Scouter". ther is a good article on Dutch oven basics. Including the number of coals needed for certain temps. It's usually available on line at scouting.org but right now they only have last months issue up. maybe the current sept/oct will be up soon.