Tawàyama Safaris - Dutch Ovens

We've got 4 Dutch Ovens, have been using them for about 2 years now, so even though we've got a few really good recipies under our belts, we're still admitted novices.

My fascination with Dutch Ovens came from watching my parents and scout leaders use them. Magically they would throw in a bunch of ingredients, place it in a bed of coals, and without even touching it the food was cooked perfectly! I had always known I'd return to using them someday, and when we started taking people out we knew we'd need to have several in our ChuckWagon.

Dutch ovens come in all sizes, and even a few different shapes. The shape we've standardized on is the three-legged lipped-lid oven. Dutch oven sizes are measured in lid size in inches, and depth of the sides. We have 4 Dutch Ovens currently, two are 12-inch shallow, one is 12-inch deep, and one is an 8-inch shallow (for small desserts).

We recently rescued an old rusting 12-inch shallow oven by having it beadblasted, then reseasoned it as normal. Looks perfect now that we've treated it, and can't wait to get it to work.

Perhaps the absolute best thing about a Dutch Oven is the fact that the food that comes out of it is darn near always good. We don't think that with proper attention to the ingredients, and watching the oven that it doesn't overheat, you'll hardly ever fail to cook up something delicious in one. It's made us look like real 'heros' on many occasions.

To cover our Dutch Ovens when not in use we use some very convenient covers that are made by Kirkham's Outdoor Supply in Salt Lake City, Utah. They come in all sizes to fit nearly every oven made. Very inexpensive, and they make the storage and transport of the ovens very easy. Offering some good protection and a way to keep the lids on the ovens in the back of the truck, the covers are definitely worth having for each oven you own.

From time-to-time we'll include some of our favorite recipies you can try at home in your own Dutch Ovens. We take no responsibility for how the food actually turns out, but can guarantee that when we've made it, the results have been fabulous!

This is a 12-inch deep Dutch Oven. We usually cook our main dishes in it, and food out of this oven can feed 4-6 really hungry adult men. We like to cook our main dishes and desserts in this oven, just wiping it out between courses is enough clean up for a Dutch Oven.

Part of the real charm of cooking with cast iron pots, pans and ovens is the porous nature of cast iron. The metal absorbs oils and flavors from the prior food that has been cooked in it. This gives subsequent dishes a unique flavor found only in using an oven that has been used often.

We never use soap on any of our cast-iron ovens, merely wiping them out with a brown paper bag or pieces of a gunny sack leaves them clean enough for the next use.

Here's a 12-inch shallow oven that we recently rescued. It was found rusty and with the remnants of something we'd rather not try to identify inside it. We thought 'what the heck', and our rescue efforts ensued. We took it to a local sandblaster who does all of our automobile parts sandblasting, and told him to see what he could do. He beadblasted it perfectly clean, it almost looked like an aluminum Dutch Oven (there actually are such things),the cast iron was so clean.

We took it home, washed it with warm soap and water (the only time I'd ever recommend using soap on a Dutch Oven honestly), rinsed it off and placed it into a warm oven to dry off.

After drying for a few minutes, we wiped it off again with dry paper towels and seasoned it. Seasoning the oven can be a somewhat mystical and intimidating thing if you've never done it before. It's very simple actually, you just have to be willing to use a little elbow grease (and a lot of Crisco).

Speaking of Crisco, it's what you use to season the Dutch Oven (or any cast-iron cookwear for that matter). Grab a scoop and plop it inside the oven (if it's warm like ours was it gets soft very quickly). Use some paper towels to push the Crisco around covering EVERYTHING on the surface and handle. Grease up the outside, bottom and legs, then do the lid, top, bottom and sides.

Put the oven into a 550 deg. farenheight oven that has been pre-heated. I like to put mine in like this so that the Crisco doesn't drain out, but gets the maximum chance to soak into the metal. It is the Crisco in the cast-iron that makes the Dutch Ovens non-stick. You can also see an old cookie sheet I like to throw in the bottom to catch any drippings. Don't really know why I do it, I just do. With an oven this hot, it's almost like you're doing the self-cleaning feature.

Let the oven sit in the 550 deg. oven for 1 hour. Turn off the heat to the oven and let it cool slowly still inside the oven. Careful, it's going to smoke a little, so you might want to have the windows open. We've set off the smoke detectors at our place more than once seasoning ovens!

You can see that the oven gets a very dark patina to it once it's been seasoned. This patina will never leave the oven, unless you have it sandblasted! It truly is a last resort. We don't recommend doing it regularly.

Now the Dutch Oven is 'seasoned'. It's really just beginning it's seasoning process though, it'll take several meals cooked in it to truly get the flavor that is unique to cast iron. A Dutch Oven that has been cooked in often and taken care of well is worth more than a new one.

You can also see the super hot oven did a good job of cleaning our cookiesheet! A side benefit if you have some dirty ones.

I have been taken to task for not photographing more of the food we cook while on safari. The problem is when the food is ready, it's READY! I am a firm believer that you eat the food precicely when it's done, otherwise it gets too cold to enjoy. When we're out in the bush on safari the evenings can get chilly and unless you eat immidiately, your food can get cold. That said, it's usually when I'm cooking at home that I get the photographs of the type of food we like to cook while on safari.

Above you can see a 2-lb pot-roast we cooked for Sunday dinner recently. I wanted to try out the dutch oven we had rescued to see if it had truly been brought back from the dead. It had!

I love this recipie, you can substitute just about any type of meat you'd like. Basically we just take a bunch of red potatoes (unpeeled), whole carrots (unpeeled), peppers, onions (forgot them in this recipie), and whole cloves of garlic (the more the better!). Cube them similarly in size, cover them in olive oil, add some salt and pepper and mix. I like to sear a large piece of beef like this one in the pan before tossing in the ingredients and sealing it up. I seared it on the stove top on all six sides, then removed it. Put a bed of vegetables on the bottom of the oven, placed the pot roast in and surrounded with the remaining vegetables. The more peppers you have the more juices you will have after the dish is done to make gravy with. Onions are also a great source of juices to make your gravy from. We usually don't time the food, the smell of the steam and a quick check will tell us when it's done. Typically a pot-roast calls for 1-hour for every pound of meat. I think that's a little too long, as I do not like my meat to be overcooked or dry. We cooked this dutch oven in our gas oven at 350 deg. f. for about 1.5 hours.

This is how the meat looked when taken out after 1.5 hours at 350 deg. f. Nice and pink on the inside, a slight crust on the outside. Perfect. My wife and I have differing opinions as to when meat is 'properly cooked'. She likes it a little overdone (in my opinion), so in order to keep everyone happy, I snitched a thick slice of the meat as it is shown above, then put the rest of it back in the oven and cooked it for another 30 minutes. 30 more minutes was a little too much (my wife even agreed), so maybe I'm slowly changing her attitude?!

To make the gravy bring the remaining juices to a boil and stir the remaining juices all over the sides of the oven to get the bits of vegetable and meat that have cooked onto the side. Add flower and beef boullion to taste, stirring rapidly over medium heat. If your gravy is too salty, add flour, if it's too thick, add some water (or a little apple juice if you're cooking Pork).

Enjoy!