The Proper Tools (Part II)

We talked previously about the idea of always having the proper tools. I can’t stress enough how important this is. Without the proper tools we cannot reach the full potential of our outdoor kitchen. Last time I talked about the importance of dutch ovens to the outdoor chef. Dutch ovens are the duct tape of outdoor cooking, they can do just about anything. They can bake, broil, simmer, or fry anything…. But without the proper supporting cast, they are nothing.

There are several crucial supporting actors in outdoor cooking, but none moreso has to be the charcoal chimney. To cook (almost anything) you need fire. Now sure, you could purchase matchlight charcoal or lighter fluid but then your food might have a little bit of that sweet lighter fluid taste. Now, in order to avoid this you can use generic charcoal (my favorite is kingsford). The “problem” that most people complain about is that it takes a bit more effort to get going. The chimney fixes that. All you need is one chimney, newspaper (your choice liberal or conservative… but Personally I prefer to burn the Houston Comical), charcoal, and a match. It reduces all the work that cavemen did years ago to nothing more than a few really easy steps.

The next crucial member of the cast is a pair of Vice-Grips or a dutch oven lid lifter. These allow you to get that hot hot hot lid  off of the dutch oven. These will help to save most of the hair on your knuckles… but if you want to save all of your hair you should invest in a pair of these… Boss Welding Gloves. I mean lets be honest… who doesn’t want to be the boss… Gloves and something with which you can lift the lid will be your two best friends when it comes to not totally burning your hands in the process of cooking your food.

The final member of the cast for Top Chef: Outdoor Edition is the mack daddy of them all… aluminum foil. Now I don’t know about you, but I absolutely hate doing dishes. I think that it is the worst part of cooking, but then again I don’t think anyone likes dishes. So I line my dutch oven with aluminum foil every time that I cook in it. Don’t just buy the cheap dingy aluminum foil though, spring for the Reynold’s Super Strength Aluminum Foil. It’s worth it. I promise. Some people will argue with you and say that the whole reason you season (or buy a pre-seasoned dutch oven) your dutch oven is to help get more flavor into your food. This can go either way, clean a dutch oven can be a tricky process and I prefer to just avoid it all together by lining the dutch oven.

The charcoal chimney, dutch oven lid lifter and a pair of heat resistant gloves will round out the proper tools necessary for a successful outdoor culinary experience. Check out these great tools to be completely prepared to cook in the great outdoors.

A quality Chimney, they always seem to paint them and the paint then peels off because of the heat... but oh well!

A cool trick! Once you get a few coals going you don't need anymore matches, just stack the two chimneys and they will feed off of each other.

Gloves = Great Idea ... Sandals... not so much....

My boss gloves and a homemade dutch oven hook

The Proper Tools (First and Foremost)

One of the things that gets drilled into Scouts during every leadership training and level is this idea that we are learning how to use new tools and once we have that knowledge, putting those tools in a toolbox. It’s an idea that I have sort of latched onto and used during the numerous trainings and other activities I have led, both inside and outside of Scouting.

That’s kind of out there though, but what is real is that you should always approach every job with the appropriate tools to do the job quickly and effectively. So that’s our topic for the day, the first tool (cue the music from “Tool Time”) of outdoor cooking. Now this is just the beginning of the tools, and I will expand upon it in the future.

The first and most important tool in the outdoor chefs arsenal is the Dutch Oven. The Dutch Oven that I use in known as a Camping or Chuckwagon Dutch Oven. It has three legs to allow the oven to sit stably on even rocky surfaces. Furthermore it has a wire handle that can be used (CAREFUL: It can get hot!) to quickly and easily move the oven on and off the fire. Lastly, the lid has a lip on it that allows you to place coals on the top to provide a more even heat and better mimic a traditional oven.

A Dutch Oven Cooking Away

Now, where exactly can you get a quality Dutch Oven? There are a lot of different ones out there, but from my experience at camp there can be only one winner. Lodge Cast Iron Cookware has no rival, none at all. Lodge makes a lot of different cookware and is a great resource for your kitchen. Some will baulk when they see the price of a medium sized Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven. However, purchasing a Dutch Oven is an investment. Many of the ovens we have at camp (all Lodge) are more than 30 years old. These ovens will last forever. Moreover, one of the old problems with cast iron was that you had to season it. That meant you had to cook all sorts of things in it before it was truly “ready.” Of course, however, Lodge has you covered. They developed and patented a system and are proud to offer a pre-seasoned Dutch Oven of the highest quality.

The other really, really cool thing about these camping Dutch Ovens is that you can take that cast iron lid, flip it over and use it as a griddle. While cooking the other day, we had a bit of bacon (mmmmm bacon) left over (quite possibly intentionally). Jimmy decided to cook that bacon using the above described method. I can tell you that it was really, really good.

A very cool alternate use of the Dutch Oven Lid

The Dutch Oven then my friends, is the first and most important tool in any outdoor chef’s toolbox. Look forward to more on the tools necessary to be successful as a chef in the great outdoors. See some great shots below to see the Lodge Logic Camp 10 inch Dutch Oven in action!

Checking out the Bacon-Wrapped Chicken (check out the hook and read about it in my next post)

MMMMMM.... Bacon....

A Jalapeño Poppin' Good Time!

So I am really excited to bring to you the first round of food selected for trial! I thought we would begin our journey through the outdoor culinary world with the best of jumping off points... Appetizers! Before getting too far ahead of myself, I need to thank two people who rocked out with me on this culinary expedition this week! Chase and Jimmy, two friends who also happen to be Eagle Scouts, helped me on every step of the process this week (and will hopefully continue to do so)!

In thinking about what exactly I should cook, I looked back to a camping trip I had taken with one of my best friends a few years ago. While there we cooked up some true delicacies, but two recipes, for similar dishes, really stood out in my mind... Jalapeño Poppers!

Now I know what everyone is thinking... "How could you possibly make good poppers without a fryer?!" But frying anything over charcoal would be difficult (and dangerous) for even the most experienced of outdoor chefs! For recipes I turned to the Food Network! They had all sorts of recipes for Jalapeño Poppers and two quickly rose to the top of my list! One was for Baked Jalapeño Poppers, while the other was a Roasted Jalapeño Popper Recipe.

On a quick side note, a great place to look for recipes that translate well to dutch ovens or flash/reflector ovens is in a cookbook like Cooking Light or other health conscious cookbooks. The reason for this is that they often go out of their way to bake dishes that are traditionally fried or similarly cooked!

One of the important things about cooking over real fires is learning how to control your temperature within your "ovens." Jimmy has a good rule of thumb each briquette will give you about 15 degrees of heat in a dutch oven. For longer cooking it is necessary to keep an eye on your oven temperature and have extra coals handy!

Anyway, these recipes really translated well into the outdoor setting. I cooked the Baked Jalapeño Poppers in a reflective/flash oven that was made out of sheet aluminum, some skewers and a few paper clips. It was super easy to build and pretty easy to work with. The trick was adding charcoal as was necessary to keep the temperature up around 350 degrees, like the recipe dictates. Because heat loss can be a bit of an issue with this type of oven it is important to have plenty of coals ready to go as others die down. These poppers came out picture perfect!

The Roasted Jalapeño Popper's were cooked in a 12 inch dutch oven and were absolutely delicious... but I messed the slicing of the peppers up a little bit... and well... the cheese ooozed everywhere. Nonetheless, these were pretty low maintenance because the dutch oven just distributes heat really well. They came out nice, tender and full of flavor.

Overall, this week's recipes were a hit with everyone who tried them... with one minor exception. Libby felt that there was too much cheese... but who cares?

Check out the pictures below!

A Cast Iron Dutch Oven and an Aluminun Reflective Oven

Roasted Peppers (pre-cooking)

A Charcoal Chimney, the best way to light charcoal.

First Things First

Welcome to the Outdoor Bite! A blog devoted entirely to the world of cooking in the outdoors. Now I'm not talking about cooking hotdogs over an open fire or cooking smores; No, no that is for amateurs. Instead, here at the Outdoor Bite, we will talk about taking those real life, honest to goodness, oh my god this is so good recipes and how to translate those into delicious meals without the use of modern kitchen facilities.

Now I know what you're thinking.... "What is this guy going on about, I am perfectly happy staying inside with my cappuccino maker and convection oven." Well, then you're missing out because taking that amazing pizza dough recipe and making outside in a brick oven (or dutch oven) is so satisfying. Plus, who knows, one of these days another hurricane might hit and you could use these skills to eat like a king while the rest of your friends eat like savages.

Anyway, this first week we will be looking at cooking some incredible appetizers! I look forward to sharing the successes of a delicious meal with you!