need help converting this to an outdoor recipe

[Lisabob]

My son is happily working on a "killer" menu for an upcoming Iron Chef patrol cooking competition. He's found a couple of recipes he likes and wants to make, but these recipes are designed to be made at home in an oven. They're mainly simple things (skillet corn bread, baked in an oven, or sweet potato pie is another). How do you convert these kinds of things to outdoor cooking, for those of us with little experience? Also he only has one dutch oven at his disposal, so if there's an alternate way to cook these kinds of things outside, that would be helpful to know too. If you have advice, I'll print it out and pass on to him (at his request).

[CA_Scouter]

I've done cornbread in a heavy cast iron fry pan covered with foil. Simulates an oven as long as you don't let the coals get too hot.

[dancinfox]

You could make a reflector oven out of a cardboard box. Line it with Alum. foil, put coals in a pie tin at the bottom. will get up to 450 degrees.

David Harrison

[Gold Winger]

You can cook/bake just about anything in a dutch oven that you can cook/bake in a regular oven.

 

 

[anarchist]

Lisabob,

If he can not use a D.O. for the corn bread...(and BTW D.O. corn bread can be heavenly...)

 

the corn bread can be cooked in a heavy Iron skillet just as you would a bannock (portage trail bread)and without a reflector oven with some before hand practice...

 

I am sure if he checked the net for "bannock" he would get "the picture" -But basically, you cook the bottom of bread over low heat (coals) and after a while you build a dare I say "roaring" fire wall"- a "wall of fire" made of large-kindling sized wood (splits)'standing nearly straight up' (leaned on a spit of wood or metal)at the edge of your baking area...The "nearly" formed- half cooked loaf (in the frying pan) is tilted and "propted-up" toward the fire to "catch the reflected heat of the "wall of fire". The pan is turned after a five/ten minutes and rotated over the balance of the cooking time so that the top is heated more or less uniformly. This is a cool- "no extra equipment" type of baking but it usually takes a few loaves to get it right.

 

He could also just "flip" the cornbread after it sets (like a pancake) "frying" both sides.

 

In all cases, have him use a real recipe (eggs- milk- shortening etc) for corn bread and not a "jiffy mix". (not that I have a problem with mixes). He will find if he cuts in the shortening to his dry mix and "heavies up" on the sugar (say 25% more than most recipes call for)and lards his pan real well the bread will be great and clean-up so much easier.

 

good eating

Anarchist

[epalmer84]

Another technique is to used a pie pan in the dutch oven supported by a trivet or three small rocks. You could bake cornbread in a pie pan and then fix a batch of chili in the oven.

 

[campdirector]

Lisabob,

He can always try a twiggy fire. It's a great skill to have once you master it. Use a pot or deep skillit with a top, build a small twig fire on top of the lid and feed the fire as you go. It takes a stove that he can have good flame control over and some patience. He'll probably mess up on the first try, no worries every one does. Afterwards he'll be able to bake anything on a camping trip without have to carry a huge dutch oven.

 

Other options

The Bakepacker : a small device you put in the bottom of the pot and use water as a source of the oven style heat and.

Backpacking ovens: they look like big frying pans but are light weigh and more conductive to heat.

 

Good luck!

[LongHaul]

The old style mess kit employed a cover held on by the handle for the "skillet/plate" This can be used to cook the corn bread in just support it using empty soda cans and place 4 or five coals under it flip the kit half way thru baking. Box ovens work best is you can't get enough dutch ovens which are designed for the purpose. Reflector methods almost demand a wood fire as the ash on charcoal limits the radiant effects of the coals. In a real pinch we have used the large pot and frying pan cover from a standard trail kit as a dutch oven. Use an old one as it stains the pot and lid. Make two long strips of tin foil to cross under the plate or whatever you use inside the pot to hold your food while cooking so you can easily reach in grab the tinfoil handles and lift the food out. The plates fit rather snug in the pot.

LongHaul

http://www.lovetheoutdoors.com/camping/Cooking_Methods.htm

 

http://www.netwoods.com/d-cooking.html#methods

 

http://www.three-peaks.net/cooking.htm#Equipment

 

http://www.outdoorcook.com/article1026.php

 

http://www.dutchovencookware.com/dutch-oven-recipes.html

 

[LongHaul]

Sorry folks, don;t know why "it" did that but trying to edit just made it worse.

LH

[Beavah]

Campdirector, yeh must be an old NOLS guy. Buddy of mine does the same twig fire thing.

 

Here's a review of the Outback Oven, which I've seen work great on backpack trips.

 

http://www.backpacker.com/article/1970

 

Here's an alternate lightweight dutch oven pot, which yeh can use for the twig fire or da flip technique. Also works with da Outback oven stuff I think:

 

http://www.frybake.com/

 

Done the reflector oven a bunch of times with a large pizza box. Yeh can get by without a full shelf:

 

http://usscouts.org/cooking/reflector.asp

 

Yeh can get a free manual on a variety of outdoor breadbaking techniques here, includin' using a propane grill, boiling, and frying:

 

http://www.preparedpantry.com/emergencybreadinfopage.htm

 

Beavah

 

[frank10]

Box oven...

 

http://www.buckskin.org/Resources/Outdoor/Files/boxoven.pdf

[insanescouter]

I would say use a dutch oven and google for the "avg" temp of a charcoal briquette to esitmate the right temperature and time to cook it...

 

Hope my wacky 2 cents helps ..

 

Scott Robertson

http://insanescouter.org

Helping leaders on resource at a time

[scottteng]

More than you ever need to know about dutch oven cooking is available here:

http://www.idos.com/

If you want to know how to cook a particular dish ask a question in their recipes forum. Lots of expertise for the sharing just like scouting. There is probably a chapter somewhere close to you. They put on a show at our Univ of Scouting every year and had a cookoff at the scout camp a couple of years ago the members are also drafted as judges for the camporee cookoffs quite often.

[Ohio_Scouter]

Hi Lisabob,

 

Here's a temperature conversion chart from Lodge that might help:

 

http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/LodgeBakingTempChart.doc

[Lisabob]

Thanks for all of your suggestions, which I am passing on to my son as they come in. I suspect he may have a couple of specific questions about specific recipes once he reads through everything here, we'll see.