Dutch Oven Cooking

[Coughsyrupsucks]

It’s just occurred to me if for some reason Brexit brings about some electricity shortages (will it?) I only have electric to cook with. I was hoping to have a log burner with a flat surface for cooking on in by now but it’s not happening.

Cooking outside in the garden is fine, but limited to BBQ stuff at the moment. I was thinking about getting a Dutch oven and a tripod and cooking stews and curries that way. Has anyone done that? Does anyone have recommendations for kit to buy? Thanks

Hi, I'm not a prepper and have no idea about the likelihood of brexit causing electricity outages so won't comment there but I do have a dutch oven and tripod which we use for camping. We enjoy using it, it takes quite a bit of set-up and maintenance in terms of getting it seasoned (which you'd struggle to do without a domestic oven so do sort that out pre-Brexit) and then it needs careful wiping down and gentle washing without scrubbing off the seasoning if it has bits stuck on (which it nearly always does!) and sometimes re-seasoning after each use. We use it over an open fire usually in a fire pit and it works very well for our purposes which is mainly either boiling water for pasta or boil in the bag rice or re-heating pre-made stews and curries etc which we've brought with us from home. We also warm up/griddle rolls/bread/jacket potatos on the lid which is nice.

For your purposes I'm not sure how totally suitable it would be, for instance before you start cooking you have to faff around making and lighting a fire (difficult in the rain!), plus it's not that easy to vary the heat if you wanted to first brown your meat and veggies and then simmer it over a low heat to cook the sauce (you can raise or lower the oven on the tripod to make it nearer or further from the heat but it's really quite an imprecise art compared to simply turning a dial on a normal hob, many a time we've scorched the bottom of our dinner from letting it get too hot). While cooking you need to keep a constant eye on the fire, adding more fuel, making sure it doesn't get too big or small or go out - because it's a small fire for cooking it can easily blow out if it's a windy/rainy night if not carefully attended too. The oven is also really heavy when full of food and it gets red red hot so it's usually a two man job to adjust it - all this is quite fun when on holiday camping with time to faff around but probably not so much after a long day at work and you have hungry kids waiting for their dinner.

If you are inclined to make an investment I wonder if a less fun but more practical option would be a camping stove/burner and a supply of calor gas bottles these are so much quicker and easier to use than a dutch oven, you can use your normal pans, you may even be able to use indoors?

Have you heard of a wonderbag? It's essentially a big insulating bag that you put your hot pan in to leave the contents to slow cook. Similar to the hay box idea. Would be less faff than hours of cooking on a Dutch oven for hours with the issues that maxelly just listed. You would need to be able to heat up the pan and contents first, so bbq or tripod needed there.

I would suggest for anything small you get a camping stove or Kelly kettle. If power is on and off then at least you can have a cuppa and add water hot meal.

I've thought about this but don't know if i could get the fuel for it

@maxelly thank you! Doesn’t sound like a goer then. I wanted to get a little camping Gaz cooker and then every review on Amazon kept saying they melted! Maybe they are just rubbish ones they are selling? Thank you for sharing your experience with one.

@DennisTMenace I hadn’t heard about that at all, I’m off to look them up now. Thank you!

No worries, well we've had our camping stove for at least 10 years and no melting yet! I don't think it's a particularly expensive or fancy brand, just a bog standard argos job for £20 or so I think (awaits confession from DH that in fact it's a top of the line ferrari of stoves that he secretly purchased for £££, he does love his camping kit and has been known to omit to mention how much it costs!) .... Admittedly it doesn't get heavily used, only the few weeks of the year we camp for 20 mins at a time or so (however long it takes to heat up a tin of beans or fry an egg or similar) and always outside and on a picnic bench or camping table - perhaps if used indoors on a kitchen worktop or for 6 hours at a time to slow cook a stew or similar it might overheat, I don't think long term they're a good replacement for a proper hob but should do OK in an emergency ?

We have a Kelly kettle but have not got the knack yet. Only tried it once. Also got a disposable BBQ and stand. For emergencies. Plus a bag of charcoal for refills.

Got a solar kettle I want to try. Not had time yet. Thinking about getting a solar oven similar to Bellini's and a wonderbag or using old coats to make one.

If you get Morrisons boxes they come with insulation material. My last lot is stapled to the inside of the loft hatch but could be used to make your own hay box.

im not in Uk so am not sure re brexit and power issues. we have built a solar oven for times when we lose power (generally bushfires in area and local grid goes off) for lengthy periods. it is obviously a slow cooking method but it is something to keep in mind. plenty of plans/tutorials online. i dont know the efficiency of these in british climate but im sure there will be some info somewhere online.

generally we just use a gas camping stove (canisters so just buy a 4 pack every 6 months). this summer we are also buying a weber Q, i hate the excessive space normal bbqs take up so this is on the wish list

@juniperandrage if you did want to try you can use any flammable material as fuel for the oven, all it needs is a heat source (obviously do use a fire basket, fire pit or other safe location for the fire, don't just set your house/garden on fire ) - ordinary barbeque charcoal is probably the easiest to light and the most even heat, but if you're wanting to cook something for longer than 20 mins or so you'll need to keep adding more, so we use kindling and some charcoal to get it going then add dry seasoned logs (the same kind you put in a log burner/stove), you could also use charcoal or compressed wood briquettes which burn quicker but more evenly than logs (don't smell as nice though, as a side benefit). These aren't hard to get hold of at all if you wanted to give it a go (you can buy online or from homebase type stores or garden centres) - but as per the above the whole thing is expensive and a faff and even if you get it right and don't scorch the bottom third of your dinner through inattention, there's no particular taste benefit to the food compared to using your ordinary pan on a hob or slow cooker so really only a camping activity for me (or a power cut emergency I guess)!

on a similar vein was trying to think if needed could we cook on our (small) open fire in the livingroom... in NI here. We have oil fired central heating but it needs electric supply also to light. Electric hob. We have small camping stove, gas bbq and a round open fire pit which we used to throw the grill from the grill pan over when we were students many years ago and bbq away at things lol. Those could be used at a push but outdoors in the rain doesnt appeal... Ideally Id like some sort of stand that could hold a cast iron pot over our open fire when it was allowed to die down a bit (we have a few well used cast iron casserole size pots which would do the job I'm sure)

@TinkysWinky that’s a good idea, if we had our old house there was a large Victorian fireplace we could have used. I saw this www.tamarackoutdoors.co.uk/PBSCProduct.asp?ItmID=14441630 and I think other places have it in different sizes. Might do the job?

My DH works for a massive electricity supplier. Brexit won't cause any problems re power in the UK according to him. But I like the sound of a Wonderbag and a fireplace grill just in case...even if it's just a power cut it's good to be covered.

I like the look of that @Coughsyrupsucks!

@Speminalium that’s so good to know! We tend not to have a lot of power cuts where we live thankfully, so never worried about it before, Water goes down all the time though, so always have some extra on hand :)

We got a cheap-ish camping stove of amazon for the first Brexit deadline. This reminded me that I should check whether the gas cartridges are still good to use

I'm still eyeing a wonderbag - I rarely cook anything that needs prolonged cooking so it wouldn't get used much in normal times.

With dutch ovens, remember that the non-enamelled ones usually used for camping cannot boil water. There is also some issues with some beans (but not all) that I can't remember - some acidity problem? The enameled ones are great but take forever to heat up, which might not be ideal with a camping stove. Stainless steel would be a better choice in that context and also works in the wonderbag, if I remember right.

We use our Cobb when camping so have that and plenty of charcoal. It’s very fuel efficient. We can cook a whole chicken with just 7 charcoal pieces. Also brilliant for one pot dishes, curry, stir fry. Apparently you can also cook cakes and bread in it but we have never tried. It’s my favourite piece of camping equipment and very well made. We also have a camping stove with gas cylinder and a biofuel burner if needed. But for anyone looking for a versatile cooking unit I would recommend checking out the Cobb.

@EzzieLove never heard of the Cobb before, but it looks amazing. Straight on the wish list!